​It has been twenty-five years since the terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, killing more than 2,700 people and rending the landscape of Lower Manhattan. The rebuilding effort that followed began with an outpouring of proposals from the world’s most prominent architects—some mournful or pragmatic, others wildly speculative—before running aground in political acrimony. Over time the process righted itself, at least to a degree, with a memorial and museum, office towers, a transit hub, and a performing-arts center filling the site.

​Now that the rebuilding process is essentially complete, what lessons can New York City draw from this twenty-five-year saga? What does the site as it stands today suggest about the trajectory of Lower Manhattan, governance in New York City and Albany, and architecture culture?…