Columbia Professor MICHAEL BELL discusses plans to rebuild Ground Zero at a Graduate School of Design panel yesterday.

Several prominent architects squared off over projected plans for the rebuilding of Ground Zero yesterday at a panel held at the Graduate School of Design.

The discussion occurred two days after the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced its selection of two finalists for a redesigned World Trade Center site.

Yesterday’s panel included Toshiko Mori, the chair of the Design School’s architecture program and a member of the LMDC’s selection committee, which sifted through the hundreds of designs that were submitted.

Mori, who lives just blocks above ground zero in TriBeCa, began by reminding the audience that the redesign process is both a personal and communal experience.

“It was my neighborhood,” she said. “The media was at my doorstep, and as an individual I lived this tragedy.”

Mori summarized the finalists’ proposals and outlined the basic criteria that the LMDC committee used to choose designs—including the creation of a distinctive skyline and the consideration of space for commercial, residential and cultural purposes.

She noted that many architects responded personally to the emotional aspects of the tragedy.

“September 11 was an attack on civilization and architecture,” Mori said. “Whatever we can do, we will contribute to make this city come alive.”

Sarah W. Goldhagen, a lecturer in architectural history at the Design School, said that the redesign process was particularly difficult given the conflicting claims to the land at Ground Zero.

As a result, the approach has been too bureaucratic, she said.

“The process has been so opaque,” she said. “We need to raise the level of public discourse.”

Panelists disagreed over what form the new design should take.

Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology Antoine Picon, said that physical damage of buildings seems less unusual for Europeans like himself.

“We are used to cities having scars,” he said.

Picon cited the beams of light that illuminated ground zero for a month after the incident and asked, “Why think only in terms of concrete and steel?”