There and Elsewhere There and Elsewhere: Architecture and the Poli ical Ecolog ical City reading, poli ical ecology ofers a theoreical framework for explaining the imbricaion of both human and non-human actors in disparate geographies. THERE In what New Yorker architectural critic Paul Goldberger described as “a careful balance between commemoraing the lives lost and reestablishing the life of the site itself,” Daniel Libeskind’s master plan for the World Trade Center site provided the basis for Childs’s 1WTC design. 2 Few features of this design received more criicism than the base, which underwent three redesigns in as many years. The first round of design changes to the tower base arose two years after Childs began working on the project. In 2005, New York Governor George Pataki responded to NYPD rec- ommendaions to move the tower from 25 to 90 feet away from West Street, and include a reinforced concrete blast wall measuring 200 feet high. According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, these recommendaions were guided by counterterrorism experts who ideniied vehicle-based bombs as “one of the greatest threats to such iconic structures.” 3 Governor Pataki’s orders prompted a redesign by Childs, who atempted to soten these counterter- rorism measures by enlivening the standoff distance and cladding the blast wall in steel, aluminum, and itanium panels. At the ime, Childs insisted the “bold and simple” design would remain a “marker in the sky.” 4 As a marker on the ground, however, the design sufered in its recepion with architectural criics. Despite Childs’s apparent confidence, the first round of design changes was met with resounding dissaisfacion. Kenneth J. Ringler, Jr., execuive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, relayed these seniments, saying, “There were a lot of concerns that this was going to look like a fortress.” 5 Atemping to assuage these concerns, Childs proposed a second redesign of the tower base. Expressing an unbridled conidence, Ringler trusted in Childs whose “arisic skills should alleviate many of those fears.” 6 While the stand- of distance from West Street would remain unchanged, the concrete blast wall would be BRENT STURLAUGSON University of Kentucky In 2012, Aaron Betsky criiqued not only the newly redesigned One World Trade Center (1WTC), but also the architectural aspiraions in contemporary culture at large. His review ofered a tepid “meh” in reacion to David Childs’s design, call- ing it “Not bad, not good, but just there.” 1 But upon closer inspecion, 1WTC is more than “just there.” In fact, it is very much there—and, perhaps equally as important, elsewhere. The network of actors mobilized by 1WTC ofers a glimpse into a more nuanced understanding of both architecture and the city. In this