The Church of St. Nicholas, owned by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, was located on Liberty Street in Manhattan, opposite the South Tower of the World Trade Center. It became the only building, apart from the twin towers themselves, which was destroyed during the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001: a small church was completely buried under the rubble of the South Tower. They began to talk about the restoration of the temple almost immediately after the tragedy, but in 2008 part of the Ground Zero site, on which it stood, was sold to the New York Port Authority. In return, the parish received a long-term lease of land at 155 Cedar Street, on which the new church was to be built. It is very close to the September 11 Memorial and the WTC site: in fact, the church and the park laid out near it will be their closest neighbors.
The park, which is being designed by the bureau Aecom, will be located at a height of just over 7 m above ground level. Its total area will be about 0.4 hectares. It will become both the plaza in front of the church, and the transit square that will link the Financial District and the Battery Park City complex, and the green roof of the shopping center's security center. In the park, worth about $ 50 million, it is planned to plant about 40 trees and shrubs, install benches and other small forms, as well as make a 90-meter hedge. However, all these details can still be revised, but one thing remains unchanged - next year, work on the creation of the park should begin.
As for the church, its appearance will in no way resemble the modest building on Liberty Street that has disappeared forever. In the appearance of the new temple, Santiago Calatrava uses features of two world famous monuments of Byzantine architecture - the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the Church of Christ the Savior in the Fields (Kakhriye Jami) in Constantinople. From the first, the architect borrowed a dome, consisting of forty "ribs" of radial arches, from the second - ornamental belts made of natural stone, which will decorate the interior of the new church. The architect's decision to pay tribute to the great buildings is dictated not only by aesthetic considerations - the monuments, which during their long history served not only Orthodoxy, but also Islam, can be considered as the embodiment of religious tolerance. For New York, this is more than relevant: when they decided to create an Islamic community center near the 9/11 Memorial for several years, a wave of protests arose in the city.
The construction of the church, designed by Calatrava, is scheduled to be completed in 2016. Its budget is still estimated at $ 20 million.
