To this formula, add the unknowable matter of American patriotism. True, the World Trade Center was a commercial complex, not the White House or the Pentagon. Even so, it defined the American way. So in the end, will the job inevitably go to an American architect? In which case, it is a shame that more attention was not paid to Richard Meier and his old New York Five chums, whose design for a giant L-shaped grid building was clearly inspired by the latticework structure of the destroyed Twin Towers. New Yorkers are cool on this cerebral proposal, but it is ingenious and different.