Keighley man's mission to rebuild Twin Towers

Former head boy at Greenhead High School Raymond Crane, 56, (pictured) is the principal engineer appointed by a team which has unveiled 'daring' plans to replace the Twin Towers with a colossal new building.

At a conference earlier this week in New York, Raymond, who grew up in Haworth but now lives in the metropolis, presented a vision to replace the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of September 11 last year to the world's press.

This week, in an exclusive interview with the Keighley News, it was revealed that Raymond is also part of a task force established in the wake of September 11 to analyse the collapse of the twin towers to find out what went wrong.

Managing director and principal engineer at consulting engineering practice Meinhardt USA, Mr Crane explained: "We want to push the boundaries and create something daring in the spirit of the original building of the towers. These new plans blow everything out of the water, they break all the rules.

"The symbolic last piece of rubble will be cleared from the site next Thursday. The tragedy of September 11 will never be forgotten, but perhaps now there is the opportunity to bring some closure and move on.

"But people are preoccupied with what used to be down there and how it was destroyed. Their imaginations are stifled by the reality.

"They are scared at the moment, wanting something flatter and less imposing maybe, but we can built a safe building here which is spectacular."

The $5.5 billion concept, conceived by index trader Derek Turner, is for four cylindrical towers topped by an 11-storey pyramid, arising from an enclosed, transparent biosphere. A fifth, central core would house high speed lifts.

The landscaped biosphere would be a memorial to the people who lost their lives last September, with plans to plant a tree there for every person killed.

Commercial, residential and entertainment facilities would also be housed in the biosphere and subway lines would extend under the entire site. At the top of the tower there would be two revolving restaurants and a hotel.

The Twin Towers were 1,320 feet high and the proposed replacement is 1,449 feet, which with the communications mast will create the world's tallest building at 1,750 feet.

Mr Crane went on: "The building is impressive and challenging, but it is nothing that can't be overcome. It is taller than the towers but it is a stockier building, almost like a cluster. You can't build for every eventuality and people have to be bold enough to embrace it."

"We can learn from before. Yes it was a horrific tragedy but a lot of people got out of there alive and our ideas are focused on getting people out," he explained.

Mr Crane continued: "But there are all kinds of vested interests and political factions involved now. As far as other visions and ideas go, I would think in the spirit of America everyone will be encouraged to submit their designs. We have basically unveiled these plans to see what kind of support they receive.

"The people who have seen it have generally given it the thumbs up. The next step is to get a ground swell of public opinion.

"We want the American people to get behind the project, which is what sways the politicians.

"It's going to be suck it and see for the next two weeks as we finalise the proposals officially to look into their feasibility.

"This project is very exciting and the next stage is to give it some solid validity. It can be engineered, we have the backing. We can build this thing."

Mr Crane was born in Haworth and went to the village primary school, before attending Hartington Middle School.

When he left Greenhead High School in 1974 he went on to study Structural Engineering at Sheffield University.

He has worked in the Middle East, Hong Kong, and 12 years ago moved to America, where he lives with his wife and three children.

His mother Grace still lives in Haworth and his brother and sister and their families live in Oakworth.