Project AVATAR
Stand And Deliver!! Links and Resources

Here's a list I hope you'll be able to get lost in soon. All have been approved by Project AVATAR as supporters for rebuilding bigger and better. More links will be posted as soon as I can review all the sites. Let's put it this way, New Yorkers, the Pentagon has already been rebuilt better than ever.

The Twin Towers Alliance : A new initiative founded by the leaders of all the local pro-rebuilding groups. Sign the petition and show how broad support for the Towers is, and how depressing and defeatist the alternative..

Team Twin Towers : We are the Spirit of America. We survived the Civil War. We survived the Great Chicago Fire. We survived the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. We survived Pearl Harbor. We survived the Apollo 1 Fire. We survived the Challenger Disaster. We survived the 1993 WTC Bombing. We survived the Murrah Building Bombing. We survived the attack on the USS Cole. We survived September 11th. We have come to ensure our country goes forward, not back, tapping the vast will and technical prowess of this great nation to give American children and grandchildren the opportunities to work high among the clouds that their forebearers, both living and dead, loved so dearly, and to teach those children the meaning of the Spirit of America by shining example. Only then can we continue to derive sustenance. We are TEAM TWIN TOWERS, a registered non-profit advocacy organization.

Twin Towers II : This is the far better alternative plan to the officially-selected ugly mess...created by architects and engineers that, unlike Daniel Libeskind, have actually worked on tall buildings. Americans don't replace something they've lost with something that's less...Any culture that does is on its way out. Don't let it end this way. That sorry Fraid'of'em Tower has over 40 stories less space than a single Twin..80% of people polled said they prefer these new, improved Twins to the shattered-looking Fraud'em Tower...

Guide to Rebuilding Resources : From The World Trade Center Restoration Movement, led by the amazingly inspiring Louis Epstein, one of the few people with the courage, and the permission, to kick yours truly in the rear when necessary. Chock full of ideas and plans for audience participation. The more voices speak up to cowardly politicians, the harder they are to ignore. Join our chorus!

Rebuild the Towers! : Take no prisoners! We need our perches in the clouds. Contains commentary from varied pro-rebuilders and more links. Print your own stickers to say "I Want Them Back!" and speak out for skyscrapers. The rest of the world has not stopped moving forward, so why should we? Stagnant water starts to go foul quickly.

The Phoenix Project : A multifaceted site that first and foremost seeks to puncture the myth that any sort of open competition resulted in the pathetic and unpopular Libeskind design. We know we can do better than that. That forms the crux of the Phoenix Project's advocacy mission. The site's prime mover is New York archtect Eli Attia, a preacher of the truth that "any 100 story building is safer than any 50 story building". It may be counterintuitive to the average knee-jerk hysteric, but there are other benefits besides safety to taking a place in the heights. He then offers his own plan, pure, simple, and deeply uplifting, trouncing Libeskind on whatever metric you may choose from cost to pedestrian circulation to...gasp...looks and meaning conveyed. There is no contest...and there was no contest. Here's the proof.

Bobby Shred's Rebuild the Towers : Grassroots demands to take the site back from cowardly politicians..Also supports the "Take Back the Memorial" movement, opposed to NY Gov. George Pataki's inexplicable choices for "cultural components" on the site...The Drawing Center, for which "offensive" is a kind word to describe some of their recent exhibits, and the ill-defined International Freedom Center, which may think it appropriate to discuss the sins of our past on the site of our most undeserved human-caused tragedy.

Rebuild-the-Towers : A simple but powerfully straightforward advocacy site. The citizens of NYC deserve nothing less.

NewYorkCitySkyline.Org : A hybrid site with a bulletin board heavily populated with Twins-missers pledged to the fight for their restoration. However, this is not the sole raison d'etre for this board, which contains discussion of other NYC building and skyline issues as well as 9/11 recovery topics. You'll be surprised what you can learn from the give-and-take.

Resource Center

The Best Memorial is a Living Memorial

A handy selection of links chosen by Project AVATAR supporters to inform and educate about the art of the skyscraper. Knowledge is power, and a strong mind can turn a faint heart. Technology is our tool to solve pressing safety and security issues, and don't doubt for a second those problems will be solved. Don't be limited by fear. Don't cower. Learn and strive for a better future.

The first three are member-supported non-profit organizations actually engaged in the educational and research efforts necessary for that brighter future. If you make the committment to sign up as yours truly, Rayden Tron, did, you won't be sorry.

The Skyscraper Museum of New York : A new New York institution that deserves your support. Its first permanent gallery in Battery Park City is now open, complete with a gift shop devoted to things concrete, steel, and tall..Sleek and scholarly, exhilarating and educational..Members admitted free...

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat : Based in Chicago, this organization brings together academics in engineering, archtecture, history, and sociology with real-world practicioners in every field from the art of the skyscraper to urban planning to environmental science. While not devoted to advocacy, its holism and facilitation of interdisciplinary sharing of experience and research is most impressive, an example of the very best of the university impulse and culture. Holds conferences, publishes monographs and books, has an extensive database supported by members...sign me up..Autodidacts like myself are welcome.

The Continental Automated Buildings Association : A professional organization affiliated with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Consists mainly of practicioners in the field of home automation and intelligent building systems. Likely to play a pivotal role in the implementation of Project AVATAR. We do the work to bring the latest technologies from the drawing board to the public.

Great Buildings Online : an architectual site featuring history, images, and models of significant buildings, jam packed with info.

Skyscrapers.com : Delectable, exquisite, downright fulfilling database that can reach all from the building-ogler in the street to the serious professional. International in scope, you can search by city, and catch sneak previews of what's under construction, planned, or proposed. For history buffs, you can look up some former buildings as well. This particular site is a bit flexible as to what it terms a "skyscraper": anything over 10 stories seems to qualify, but that just means a bigger database to wade through.

The Skyscraper Page : A gathering for big building fans worldwide, especially those into architectural art, especially drawing and photography. A bigger draw is the forums where all sorts of design and urban planning issues can be hashed out in public discussion.

Automated Buildings : An online magazine and clearinghouse for building automation info. Why should Bill Gates have all the fun?

The Empire State Building : The official website of the Tall Quiet Guy, the great grandfather of the modern skyscrapers...features everything a tourist or prospective tenant would need to know, plus some nifty stuff like a live Tower Cam, online postcards, and a newsletter...not just for New Yorkers.

Sears Tower : The official website of that awsome edifice of the midwest...and indeed, of the Western Hemisphere...110 stories of majesty and glory. Also interesting for exhibiting an early stage of building automation..allowing tenants to submit online work orders..Take a virtual trip to the Skydeck..then show your support for American engineering and do it for real!

Rebuild the Twin Towers : Now test your engineering skills with this amazing, to scale, printable paper model. Load your printer with three sheets of thick stock. It should take you all of 20 minutes..Enjoy!

Rayden Tron's Homepage | Project AVATAR Homepage
Project AVATAR: Dare to Dream | Project AVATAR: A Wish for my Country
Project AVATAR: System Overview
Project AVATAR: Skyscraper Spirit | Project AVATAR: Technology Overview
Tarrason Central Homepage : A glimpse into how things could be, illustrated through science fiction.