How do you see downtown Manhattan now?

An interesting change has taken place. Up until Sept. 11, the World Trade Center towers completely dominated the composition. Now that they're gone, you realize that this is still a composition of very large buildings. They just don't seem so tiny anymore. In some ways, all of those other buildings have gained a great deal by being restored to their previous relationship to each other and the city. So I have real mixed emotions. Of course it was a terrible act that caused their disappearance. But beyond that, I have to say I believe downtown Manhattan looks handsomer and more humane than it did before.

How will it change the street-level urban setting?

The World Trade Center was for me not only out of scale vertically, but it was also out of scale in plan. It occupied several blocks that were all massed together. I hope they will not re-create that huge isolated parcel that was the World Trade Center. I hope that the streets will be reopened. Downtown is being transformed not just into a place for finance, but a much more complex working and living place. Look at the extraordinary success of a place like Tribeca. Those kinds of transformations I think are very good in a city. Something terrible has happened but you cannot go back. It's impossible.

You also designed the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, the tallest in the world. Is the era of the skyscraper over?

No, not at all. I think once the current threat is gone and we all feel comfortable again, the desire to build tall buildings will reassert itself. I believe that it's part of the nature of human beings. Very tall buildings have appeared in different forms and different guises throughout the world: pagodas, minarets, steeples, campanulas, solar symbols. I believe these styles will return, although unquestionably there will be a hiatus. Even aside from the fears we have at the moment, that's an appropriate act of deference to the terrible catastrophe that happened and the people who were involved.

What should be built at ground zero?

There is not a simple answer. I believe the only successful solution will be one that incorporates the feelings and thoughts of a variety of people, not only the key players like Silverstein and the Port Authority, but everybody in Manhattan who for any reason feels affected by what happened. I know that there are people who would like to build nothing at the site, to leave it as a memorial. Other people would like to build exactly what was there before. Between that I've heard almost every other option. From my point of view, I think a significant memorial is highly desirable. The footprints of the two towers have become hallowed ground. It would be very strange to propose buildings there.

Do you believe Sept. 11 was a watershed moment in architectural design?

No, I believe that while it made a terrible impact and we're greatly moved, I don't expect any particular effect in how architects approach design. There may be some changes in building codes, but I don't see any stylistic departure that you'll be able to attribute to Sept. 11.

What about the trend in architecture that was already happening, the end of postmodernism in favor of a renewed taste for the modernist tradition of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Louis Kahn?

I would not describe it in the terms you have. Clearly the kind of postmodernism that was at heart a caricature of historic styles had a short life, and it's wonderful that it is gone. But what we're seeing now is only superficially related to traditional modernism. There are a number of architects doing very idiosyncratic, individual forms. That's something that modernism was definitely against. Modernism called for architecture at the service of society, not of the people who design them.

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