Reconstructing the World Trade Center: An Argument for the Applicability of Personhood Theory to Commercial Property Ownership and Use

This essay highlights two critical understandings gained from examining the rise, fall, and subsequent reconstruction of the World Trade Center through the lens of personhood theory: (1) that proponents of personhood theory have failed to appreciate the significant potential for self-constitution and self-expression contained within commercial property ownership and use; and (2) that the post-9/J1 decision to leave undeveloped the 'footprinted" land underlying the original World Trade Center towers represents a decommodification (withdrawal from market) of some of the most valuable real estate in the world in explicit recognition of the personhood attachments of those who died there that day.