Originally, Santiago Calatrava's proposed a soaring yet delicate spike design for the transit complex at the new World Trade Center site. Those plans were changed to make the terminal more secure. The number of "ribs" increased and the wing-like forms lost some of their delicacy.
New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp wrote that the main transit hall "may now evoke a slender stegosaurus more than it does a bird." (The New York Times, January 23, 2004)
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