New York City and state officials announced this week the plans for the site of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, in hiring the Berlin-based firm Studio Daniel Libeskind. The subterranean design centers around the open, excavated pit where most of the bodies of the dead were found and is ringed by glass towers swirling up to 1,776 foot spire.

The decision marks the culmination of nine months of emotionally charged discussion over the fate of the site and weeks of competition between Libeskind and the other finalist, a team called Think whose vision proposed a World Cultural Center.

Libeskind's design had garnered support from politicians, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki, as well as family members of victims who appreciate the preservation of so much of the site that the design allows.

Ultimate control of the site still lies somewhere between the design firm, the city and the Port Authority, and adherence to the original design is far from certain.

The original plans include two ground-level parks, one of which is positioned so that it will capture a piece of sunlight on the anniversary of the attacks, from the time of the first plane's impact to the second tower's fall.

The memorial, which will take up much of the seven acres bound by the concrete walls of the design, will be on the bedrock floor of the pit, about 30 feet below ground level.