HHS grad helps design plans for former WTC site
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Last August, Lance Klein and his wife, Melanie, moved to Manhattan, Kan.
Little did they know then that come May of 2003, they'd make another Manhattan move — to Lower Manhattan. In New York City.
That's because the Kleins — both Kansas natives, Lance a Hillsboro High School graduate — were invited to help design the new complex of buildings, streets, and parks that will sit where the World Trade Center once stood.
It's a rare opportunity coveted by architects around the world, and it's one that Lance Klein couldn't pass up.
"Everyone that's working on (the project) knows the importance of what they're doing," Klein said.
Klein, the son of Bob and LaDonna Klein of Durham, graduated from Kansas State University in 1996 with a degree in landscape architecture. After graduation he moved to Denver to work for Davis Partnership, an architecture firm. He met his wife, Melanie, at K-State; she is also a landscape architect.
Klein worked for that firm for eight years, and one of the projects he worked on was the design of the Denver Art Museum.
That's how he got to work with architects from Studio Daniel Libeskind, a firm based in Berlin, Germany. Libeskind was hired to design the museum.
"That relationship went well," Klein said. He was able to spend a week working with the firm in Berlin during that time.
In August of 2002, the Kleins decided to move back to Kansas to be closer to family. Lance took some time off from full-time work but continued to work with Davis Partnership while in Manhattan. The following spring, Melanie applied for — and got — a teaching position at K-State.
It was May, and the couple had just bought an older home that they planned to fix up. That's when they got the call from Studio Libeskind.
Libeskind had competed against more than 400 other firms for the job of designing the "urban master plan" that would encompass the former World Trade Center area. The master plan for the eight-block area includes all the buildings, streets, parks, transit stations, and will even decide where the Sept. 11 memorial goes — though another competition will decide who designs the memorial.
Libeskind was commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Developent Corporation in early spring. In early May, the studio asked the Kleins if they'd like to be a part of a group of about 25 people that would work on the WTC master plan. And even though they had just bought the house in Manhattan, the Kleins gave the offer some thought, then accepted.
"We knew that it was a great opportunity," Lance said. "We felt that it was something we needed to do."
By the end of May, the couple had moved into a Lower Manhattan apartment a few blocks north of Little Italy. They normally take the subway to the office, which is two blocks from the former World Trade Center towers.
Lance is a member of the team designing the "public realm" spaces — that includes streets and parks, including the "Park of Heroes" Also a part of those open spaces is the "Wedge of Light," a specifically designed space where the sun will shine freely each September 11 from 8:46 a.m. to 10:28 a.m. The first airplane hit the twin towers at 8:46, and the second tower collapsed at 10:28.
From the horizon, the most noticeable part of the project is a 1,776 foot spire that will rise above the skyline.
Lance will be in New York until the project is complete in September. Melanie will return to Kansas in August for the start of the school year.
