Liberty plaza reopens with new name
John Zuccotti, U.S. chairperson of Brookfield Properties, left, shared a laugh with Dep. Mayor Daniel Doctoroff and Gov. George Pataki last Thursday at the opening of Zuccotti Park, catty corner to the World Trade Center site. Brookfield, which owns the public plaza formerly known as Liberty Plaza Park, paid for the $9-million renovations which includes 54 honey locust trees, chess tables and benches. The reopening marked the return of J. Seward Johnson’s “Double Check”, a.k.a. “Man with a Briefcase,” a plaza sculpture that survived the 9/11 attack as well as the return of Mark di Suvero’s “Joie de Vivre,” the red, 70-foot sculpture that once was in the Holland Tunnel rotary. Johnson with his statue, above, and di Suvero with his at right.
