World renowned and elusive street artist Banksy has openly criticized the One World Trade Center, which has been built on ground zero and set to be opened next year.
Banksy, who has been in New York for a one month long residency, slammed the design of One World Trade Center in an op-ed article he wrote last Sunday.Banksy says in his op-ed that the One World Trade Center, which is consisted of 104 floors and is said to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, is a complete disaster.
"As a visitor staying New York for the past few weeks one thing has become very clear to me," Banksy wrote, "You've got to do something about the new World Trade Center. That building is a disaster. Well no, disasters are interesting. One World Trade centre [sic] is a non-event. It's vanilla. It looks like something they would build in Canada."
Bansky, an artist specializing in graffiti and a British national, submitted the article bashing the One World Trade Center to the New York Times, but it was rejected. Banksy then put up the article up on his website instead.
"The attacks of September 11th were an attack on all of us and we will live out our lives in their shadow," Banksy's article continues, "But it's also how we react to adversity that defines us. And the response? 104 floors of compromise?"
One World Trade Center measures at 1,776 feeeet in height and was co-developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Durst Organization. It was finished last May.
It isn't the first time that Banksy got in trouble with New York officials. Banksy has also previously revealed graffiti in memory of the September 11 terror attacks, which outraged the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, "Running up to somebody's property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art...It may be art, but it should not be permitted. And I think that's exactly what the law says."
But Banksy immediately fired back: ""The biggest eyesore in New York is not the graffiti. It's under construction at ground zero."
