Malizia - First Year Seminar Program

First-year students explore the development of the World Trade Center
UNC 2002

Professor Emil Malizia's first-year seminar on "Bringing Life to Downtown" was
designed to explore the commercial redevelopment of North Carolina's cities
and towns. That was before Sept. 11, when two hi-jacked airliners forever
changed the Manhattan skyline.

Malizia's students - a dozen freshmen who had arrived in Chapel Hill only
three weeks before the World TradeCenter was destroyed - agreed that the
class should turn its attention to a case study of the once-towering complex.
After all, it was intended as a downtown revitalization effort and was one of the
most audacious construction projects of our time, said Malizia, professor of city
and regional planning and an expert on urban development.

Students shared their findings during a special publicpresentation on campus in January at the James M. Johnston
Center for Undergraduate Excellence. Presentations will included the unveiling of one student's five-foot replica of
the World Trade Center and its once soaring twin towers, and the class's comprehensive timeline of the planning,
construction and opening of the building.

"We were amazed to discover that no one had already
published a case study of the World Trade Center's impact
on lower Manhattan," said Malizia. So students analyzed
what has been written about it over time in diverse
publications. They explored a range of questions: Why
was the World Trade Center built in the first place?
What made it unique? What were the challenges to design,
fund, construct and populate this behemoth? And what
impact did it have on the environment, the business
community, and urban life in New York and elsewhere?

The First Year Seminar Program encourages Carolina's
newest students to engage actively in the pursuit of knowledge
with leading faculty in small classes of no more than 20
students each. Other First Year Seminar students have
reconstructed vertebrate fossils, curated a multi-media art
exhibit, built musical instruments, created business plans
for new companies, and more. The program, conducted by
the College of Arts and Sciences.


	RELATED LINKS: Emil Malizia		First-year students explore the development of the World Trade Center UNC 2002 Professor Emil Malizia's first-year seminar on "Bringing Life to Downtown" was designed to explore the commercial redevelopment of North Carolina's cities and towns. That was before Sept. 11, when two hi-jacked airliners forever changed the Manhattan skyline. Malizia's students - a dozen freshmen who had arrived in Chapel Hill only three weeks before the World TradeCenter was destroyed - agreed that the class should turn its attention to a case study of the once-towering complex. After all, it was intended as a downtown revitalization effort and was one of the most audacious construction projects of our time, said Malizia, professor of city and regional planning and an expert on urban development. Students shared their findings during a special publicpresentation on campus in January at the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence. Presentations will included the unveiling of one student's five-foot replica of the World Trade Center and its once soaring twin towers, and the class's comprehensive timeline of the planning, construction and opening of the building. "We were amazed to discover that no one had already published a case study of the World Trade Center's impact on lower Manhattan," said Malizia. So students analyzed what has been written about it over time in diverse publications. They explored a range of questions: Why was the World Trade Center built in the first place? What made it unique? What were the challenges to design, fund, construct and populate this behemoth? And what impact did it have on the environment, the business community, and urban life in New York and elsewhere? The First Year Seminar Program encourages Carolina's newest students to engage actively in the pursuit of knowledge with leading faculty in small classes of no more than 20 students each. Other First Year Seminar students have reconstructed vertebrate fossils, curated a multi-media art exhibit, built musical instruments, created business plans for new companies, and more. The program, conducted by the College of Arts and Sciences.