How I fell in love w the Twin Towers as buildings (before 9-11 fades for this year)
I was in the Art & Architectural division of a College as an Art student. I also loved Architecture from a young age, so I often hung out with those students as well. I watched them being built from not so far away less than about 2 miles at the edge of The East Village.
They were slagged! I wasn't totally fond of them, but I didn't hate them either.
The best joke was "they were the Boxes that the real buildings came in!" Still a pretty funny joke.
So how did this come to pass? It started by me working there in the South Tower (#2) for 49 weeks from Sept '80 through mid-late Aug '81. They were soooo tall! On the Monday I started through that Thurs I got out of my subway train car, and walked southward underground toward the WTC's massive hustling, bustling, and pretty cool Concourse. I went in there, found my building, and took two elevators to the 73rd flr to the Northeast Corner's big office.
I had no trouble going right to the north windows first time on mid-morning break to look outward (what a view!) then down (what a drop!). Still, it took me till that same week's Friday to actually go outside of the subway station on to the street by one of the complex's smaller buildings (#'s 3, 4, 5, 6 + hotel), march halfway across the Plaza to look up - take a deep breath, and then go inside.
It was that unnerving to me at first! In fact the smaller buildings were actually 10 stories high. I had no idea since The Towers we're almost 10x's taller. I thought they were about 4-5 stories.
What made me fall in love over time was how they became canvases for the sky, light, and clouds. They were clad in white marble which would take on the color s of the sky at different times of the day, evening, white, yellow's, orange, light and vivid pinks, blues changing from light to dark, to black silouettes. And greys on the cloudy . The narrow uninterrupted strips of window glass would reflect sky, and clouds. The fact that there were
two of them made then extra special.
Everyday a changing canvas of light, color, and spaciousness!
The fact that there were two them increased this sense of space they "enclosed", and yet it also to me sent that special space beyond it's you boundaries.
Finally one of the most glorious views was looking up at them in just the right way, and time. While I took a bunch of photos over time out the north and east windows from our high perch this other circumstance was amazing.
From a certain area on the ground (in the Plaza) on a very sunny day (?Spring - Summer) facing west, and bit south you would have the the South Tower (#2) to your left, the North Tower (#1) to your right, and you'd be standing at a centered angle between them.
When you gazed upwards like you might do when seeing a big, puffy cloud fairly high in the sky with the sun behind but near an upper edge. How the rays of light would burst out in beams from behind it?!
Well The Towers did something similar. You'd be seeing the cast of shadowed light fron each building from above, and at each side of you. Those parts of the sky were a mid sky blue. While from where you stood and above in between the towers a lighter blue perhaps tinging towards a lighter green because of the sunlight - it could have even "felt" palish yellow the sunlit sky burst between the buildings eastwards to Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island.
It was majestic! My wonderful, beautiful Twin 💖 Towers!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Let's talk the ESB - now THAT is a gorgeous building. 
Welcome to DU 
like I did/do. 🙂
"Those two towers stood out like sentinels. They would catch the setting sun's rays and glow, sheathed in gold. Stunning. I had heard how bland and unexceptional they were, but I did not see them that way. They were so hugely overwhelming. By day they often changed colors by the hour, and at night they were towers of diamonds."
Lovely paragraph! 💖
So true.
Oh I could look but for years I imagined an invisible hand would peel the sky back from East to West and Our Towers would be re-revealed alive and well with all the people returned.
Glad you made it Mahattan.
I will forever love the classic, beautiful design of my beloved Twin Towers. 
{hug}
I like it, ok, but I don't love it.
The angles do remind me of quartz crystals which is kind of cool. But the windows are I guess are darkened even as they are reflective - maybe energy saving hopefully.
But the lightness of The Twins is gone. 
Which I loved.
This wasn't even the originally decided on building. I'm going to have to find it the story again because I've forgotten.
