Wak? Apparently a Gaudi design was in the competition for the WTC block on lower Manhattan. It didn’t get too far. But how interesting that would have been!

Gaudi is the architect of the Sagrada Familia cathedreal in Barcelona (which is still being constructed today, over a hundred years later), and is one of the central figures of the Spanish art noveau movement.

The Spanish barb of the art noveau style is distinctly different from what one might find elsewhere. It’s darker, drippier, pointier, more macabre. The Sagrada Familia is typical, if a little exaggerated, in its alien submarinalosity.

If any huge building is gonna’ have to be constructed there, then it might as well add something interesting to the city.

Manhattan already has (if I remember) the largest Gothic cathedreal in the world. (This is also still under construction.) But it’s farther uptown, in the Central Park area. I think the island could stand a little more creepiness. (It’s already got enough catacombs to bury any conceivable horror.)