By Regi Taylor
I have a very personal history with the World Trade Center towers that have motivated my efforts to commemorate the site and the loss of life that occurred there 23 years ago.
I received a telephone call from my eldest son late in the evening of September 10th, 2001, to share that he would be commencing work-study with the World Trade Language Institute at One World Trade Center’s 41 Park Row location across the street from the towers tomorrow, September 11.
He’d been invited by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, managers of the World Trade Center complex, due to his qualification as a Languages, Cultures and World Trade major from nearby Pace University, 3 blocks from the towers, next to the Brooklyn Bridge, opposite New York City Hall.
Eight days earlier, over that Labor Day weekend, I had returned my son to Pace to register for his sophomore year. While we were waiting for him to complete the registration process, my two younger sons and myself decided to do some sight-seeing from nearby Windows On The World, on the 110th floor of One World Trade Center.
After the dizzying ride to the top on the nonstop express elevator to the dining room, which had not yet opened for business that Sunday afternoon, the concierge was kind enough to allow us a few minutes to enjoy the breathtaking views from the doomed iconic restaurant, where I pointed out landmarks in the Boroughs and New Jersey to my 8- and 4-year-olds.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, my eldest son was due for his first class that morning by 9 am. Serendipity intervened and he was not present when the planes attacked the towers at 8:46 and 9:03 am due to setting his alarm for 7 pm instead of 7 am, oversleeping.
Although he never left home we were not able to confirm his whereabouts for more than six hours due to loss of communications in the region when the antenna atop One World Trade Center was destroyed along with the tower.
Ten years earlier, I was inspired by a design I’d created one afternoon in Central Park , GOLDEN OpportUNITY FOR UNITY, that I contracted the services of the World Trade Language Institute at One World Trade Center, 55th floor, to translate the term into a dozen languages for a $100 fee to imprint on some of my similarly-themed graphic merchandise.
I encouraged members of congress to support our campaign for stronger diversity and inclusiveness in New York City. One congressman compared GOLDEN OpportUNITY FOR UNITY to the PEACE SIGN.
Eight years before the World Trade Center was destroyed, 1993, I was making a weekly commute from Baltimore to New York City to work as Artist-In-Residence at the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding in midtown Manhattan.
My daily commute from New Jersey took the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) train from Newark to the World Trade Center. From the WTC, I would take the E train to Herald Square, then walk one block east to my office at 34th & 5th, opposite the Empire State Building.
Despite my pregnant wife experiencing false labor earlier in the week of February 21st, I decided I should still leave later that week for New York to catch up on work that was getting behind schedule. My wife vetoed that idea and went into labor for real that Thursday, February 25th. As the sun rose that next morning, February 26th, my wife was delivering our 2nd son.
Returning home just before 9 am that morning, in no time I was out. When I awakened around 1:30 pm I was shocked to discover that the World Trade Center had been bombed. I would typically arrive most days at my office around noon, the approximate time of the explosion, to avoid the morning rush, then work as late as 9 pm to avoid the evening rush.
I had a close call on February 26, 1993, when the WTC was first attacked. My son had a close call on September 11, 2001,when the WTC was again attacked. Many years prior to these events, New York City’s World Trade Center had loomed large in my life. It was a favorite venue for me and my wife during our courtship and early marriage.
In those days, the late 1980’s, we regularly enjoyed free, live lunchtime and Friday evening jazz mini-concerts during the Spring and Summer months, whenever possible, in the plaza at the base of the Twin Towers.
On other occasions we passed through the WTC, arriving from our New Jersey home via PATH en route to free, world-class, live jazz concerts presented Friday evenings during warm weather on the pier at the nearby South Street Seaport, in lower Manhattan.
In still earlier times, 1981, my recent acquaintance with One World Trade Center evolved into my weekly happy hour spot on Fridays. A quick 15-minute hop-skip from my downtown-Newark public relations gig via PATH, the 44th floor sky lobby, the Skydive, featured jazz, ambience, views, hot wings, and drink specials, for most of the early 1980’s.
During this period as well, the World Trade Center, by default, became the rendezvous point for me and my very best friend at that time, a minister and scholar residing in Rego Park, Queens – while I lived in the Newark area – to meet for adventurous hangouts in Manhattan.
In those days, Cable News Network, CNN, broadcasted live on-air from studios on the ground floor of One World Trade Center, where passersby could observe anchors delivering the headlines in real-time through floor-to-ceiling glass walls as they traversed the building lobby.
A high point of my ‘relationship’ with the Twin Towers came when I sold my first custom-designed jewelry to a retailer located on the mezzanine of Tower One. When I presented my EYE LUV THE BIG APPLE design to the owner of W. Kodak Jewelers, located in Union, New Jersey, he was adamant that my design was worthy of his World Trade Center store, where it was on full view in the display window visible to anyone passing through the corridor.
The towers were a living part of New York City. I will forever mourn the loss.
