On September 11, 2001, I stood on the roof of my apartment house (on New York's Lower East Side) and watched the burning of the Twin Towers at Ground Zero, a few miles away.

Days later my friend, the veteran critic Henry Reed suggested that a monumental column might be erected as a memorial of the event. The blurry image to the left is my second attempt to visualize Reed's idea. Click here see an enlarged view.

Many months have passed since the catastrophe, and there's been sufficient time for designers to study the Ground Zero site, and to make proposals for its reconstruction.. Most of the efforts thus far have been directed toward the design of the entire 16 acres of downtown Manhattan that are vacant. But these efforts, it seems to me, are useless until a memorial, the key element of the site, is determined. Yet very few serious ideas have come forth. Hence: gridlock prevails.

One serious memorial proposal was made by Alexander Stoddart, a Scottish sculptor, whose idea was set forth in the magazine City Journal. For a drawing of his plan, click here.