Austin J. Tobin Plaza

Austin J. Tobin Plaza served as a five-acre elevated pedestrian expanse that functioned as the literal and social heart of the original World Trade Center complex. Before its destruction, this massive open space provided a crucial horizontal contrast to the soaring verticality of the Twin Towers. It was renamed in 1982 to honor the man who steered the Port Authority for three decades and drove the complex into existence, Austin J. Tobin. As executive director, Tobin managed an agency that grew from a few hundred employees to thousands, overseeing massive regional projects from airports to tunnels before focusing his ambitions on this specific site in Lower Manhattan.