Monday, September 19, 2022

Twin tower memories

 My summer 2000 lunches were taken sitting under the twin towers in New York. I was there for the recently opened Actant's NY office, and would either have lunch at Battery Park or looking up at the towers.

I have sometimes described my work as "if I were an architect, I would design skyscrapers", to then add "it is a pride thing, but also life is short, so let's push things forward". To eat my lunch below the towers, was in part to bask in the marvel of engineering tall buildings, but also to feel the ego that drives us to surpass ourself, and often others too. 

These are some pictures of the towers I took:


When the towers went down, I truly could not believe it. My old black and white TV had been switched on in the office (in Zug, Switzerland), my colleagues were huddled in front of it, I walked over, to hear someone say "one of the towers is down", to which I answered: "that is not possible, it must be hidden by the other". It was a sad day. 

Recently, I was asked "how does it look now?". And to note, I had chosen not to remember, even though I've been there a few times since then. I can visualise the inner mall, elevators, and escalators, yet my core memories have them standing tall, and I enjoying a sandwich below.

All original content copyright James Litsios, 2022.

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