Kreider + O'Leary, Falling, Copy Press, 2015

For a sign to become a sign, it must be repeated at least once. Which is why, when they saw the second tower going up, they knew that this was no ordinary building. No, this great column of steel and glass, doubled, would mark an architectural entry into the realm of the symbolic. There it would accrue value and meaning on a representational plane as much as it would on its site here in Lower Manhattan. Years would pass, films would be made and the structure, clearly recognisable as a formal element along the syntagm of the New York City skyline, would come to signify: Capitalism, Globalisation, American Imperialism along with various combinations and permutations of these associations. At the time of their completion on 4 April 1973, the buildings at 1 World Trade Centre and 2 World Trade Centre were the tallest in the world. On 7 August 1974 a wire was stretched, illegally, between the rooftops of the two buildings and the figure of a wire walker could be seen moving back and forth, along the wire, against the sky.