)
Rebuilding Ground Zero
Release Date2011
Seasons1
"To the future, never forgetting the past"
-Stephen Speilberg
Pause
Fullscreen
STORIES
“Rising” tells the big story of the rebuilding of Ground Zero:DF&A worked with DBOX, experts in architectural visualization, not TV, to create CGI that clearly explains architectural ideas and beautifully imagines the spaces those ideas would become. The result? An Emmy Award—and great television. the design competition, the master plan, the memorial pools, the transportation hub. But it’s the smaller stories that linger in the mind: the pear tree that survived the attacks and was replanted at the memorial, the plumber whose mother died on 9/11 who helped bring water to the Memorial Pools, the way the victims’ names are arranged not alphabetically but in “meaningful adjacency” to fellow coworkers, family, friends, and loved ones.
Episode 2
Mike O'Reilly
Pause
Fullscreen
ANIMATIONS
Pause
Fullscreen
INTERVIEWS
Pause
Fullscreen
EPISODES
Episode 1: Reclaiming the Skyline Part 1
Pause
Fullscreen
Related Projects
Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero
Ten years after 9/11, no one was telling the remarkable story of what happened after the attacks on the World Trade Center and their immediate aftermath. How does a city respond when a hole is torn in its fabric? How can architecture answer the historical, emotional, political, and practical needs of a city in mourning–but still in motion? DF&A teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce a six-part series documenting the rebuilding of Ground Zero, from the perspective of architects, city planners, construction workers, activists, first responders, and survivors.
Build It Bigger
How can we bring architecture to life for the general public without oversimplifying the ideas behind it? In 45 episodes across 5 seasons, “Build It Bigger” took the typical amazement-TV format and turned it into an engaging and rich investigation into the role that pioneering building projects play in the lives of citizens, cities, and countries. Audiences traveled with host and producer Danny Forster around the world to explore groundbreaking architectural and engineering projects—which Danny put not just on screen but in context. “Build It Bigger” ultimately became the highest rated show on the Science Channel (where it moved after its first season) and won a 2010 Directors Guild of America award.
432 Park Avenue
More celebration than sales pitch, this film nimbly links 432 Park Avenue, the world’s tallest residential building, to other achievements in art and elevation, while creating an irresistible vision of luxury. Our goal was to make a film that expressed the allure of living here without resorting to the typical reel of real estate superlatives. Instead, using a four-minute dreamlike sequence of images, we revealed an entire world within and around these apartments, a world rich in culture and history—not just amenities.
