BaaBird - Hello John, what are your plans for Ground Zero, will it be a memorial or a purposeful building?

John Belle: The plans for ground zero propose buildings and a memorial. The whole idea is to regenerate the site of lower Manhattan but also provide a suitable setting to honour those who lost their lives.

Dean - Can you identify Welsh influences in your designs/work?

John Belle: I think most people would agree that there not a identifiable school of architecture, so there is not a connection in that way, there is a connection through my own heritage where I believe it was greatly influenced by the way in which the archeitecture is routed in the place e.g the great Castles of Wales and the great tradition of bridge building which are all influenced by their sites, so the Twin tower site has influences on its own site.

ab - What is the possibility of the twin towers being replaced - and how would they be protected?

John Belle: There is very serious examination of developing buildings to protect the high rise building until the engineer's have this worked out. It is doubtful that you will see 110 floor building until they are satisfied it's safe.What is being examined for this site are serious solutions for lower buildings say 70 floor buildings where the engineers are more satisfied.

Compassionate - Do you feel alot of pressure, as there may be hundreds of people, almost relying on you to help remember the victims and the events of 9/11?

John Belle: I think it is important to stress that it is going to be eventually worldwide competition for the design of the memorial so it would be unmodest of us to say that the pressure is solely on us. The pressure on us it to make sure that the decided design can be fully intergrated into the rest of the site.

Johnlondon - Do you feel the Twin Towers are a bench mark for the design and style of buildings to replace them?

John Belle: No, the Twin Towers were built in 1973 they were already some what of a dying breed of office structure so they should not be a bench mark. Technology,design and working methods have all increased greatly since those days. We can do more appropriate buildings for our time rather than looking at ones that are behind the time.

Mandy - You seem to do alot of restoration work - What building would you most like to do next ?

John Belle: There are probably many. I always have difficulty when people ask me which ones I want to do the most or which one is my favourite it depends on the day. There are many the centre of Cardiff is a wonderful city centre - the arcades are wonderful and I would love to work on something that would make it greater.

boff - where were u on sept 11th?

John Belle: I was walking to work - my office is a mile and a half away from the Trade Centre but my house in the city is just 8 blocks away. As Iwas walking I saw the impact of the first plane as I stood on the corner of 11th street. As more of my collegues arrived we watched holding each other as the horror unfolded. It's difficult to descibe because although you all saw in on the TV it's totally different when your there. Also I had no idea of who was causing all this....

Mart - How did you get the commission for this job ?

John Belle: The 2 publications the board authority and the lower manhattan re-development agency said that they were looking to renevate so we responded. Then there was a 2nd round and then a 3rd where interviews were held - I believe 6 teams were finalised for interview and from that we were choosen. It's quite tough here and it's quite different from European pitch work were you are just asked for designs.

John london - Which would you describe as your biggest commission?

John Belle: This is undoubtably the biggest one, in one sense meaning importance and significant because of interest and influence.

Chris - How many other people will be involved in the decision making process before the go-ahead is given?

John Belle: Between three elected officials, two governors and the major. There are two governors because it serves both the state of New York and New Jersey.

Anna - When you got off the ship as ayoung man in NY did you visualise you would have touched so much of the skyline?

John Belle: No absolutely not ! I came here as a young architect as many people did as it was the cutting edge of modern architecture with influences such as Mais Van Ver Roh, Breuer etc . It just happened that my interests went off in a different direction and over the years my interests have turned to renewing and restoring the existing building rather than starting from scratch.

James West - Is the current project direction to create something commercially usable or non-commercial such as a memorial, garden, city park or some combination such as a museum capturing the essence of world culture similar to the coexistance of so many cultures in NYC?

John Belle: First it's important to remind everyone that we have not been comissioned to design particular building. Our assignment is to come up with a master plan - to show where the building should go and how they all relate to each other on a site that also has very important public open spaces and public transportation. We are not embarking on the selection of particular building designs.

pauljaffa - Should it not just be left as a monument as a sign - not to be rebuilt as an attraction as a sign ...?

John Belle: No, I think an appropriate momument should reflect the culture of this energetic city.

Anna - Why has Manhattan got so many skyscrapers?

John Belle: It has a great characteristic which is the bedrock for all sky scrappers. Those Sky Scrappers where developed when the elevator was invented and that is the basic for the design.

Doreen - I've been to Grand Central - it's fantastic. What was the budget and how long did it take?

John Belle: It took 10 years and the final cost was $200,000,000 if we built it today it would have cost 2 billion.

Anna - Fantastic work - did you visualise you could be so successful?

John Belle: I don't think about it that way ! , it's nice that people say that but I just started my career as a young man and kept going and I still am !

bradley - How do building constructions differ from those built say 50 yrs ago ?

John Belle: In several ways - the technology and scale are very different today as they are much bigger and much more sophisticated in their systems. Today importance is in the speed in which they are built.

Lee - Where did you qualify - in the UK ? and what grade did you get ?

BBC Wales Host: John laughed his head off at that last question ! :) thanks Lee

John Belle: From the architectural school in London in 1955 I wasn't graded I just passed !

dianne - Would you ever consider moving back to Wales to live ?

John Belle: I love Wales - I visit regularly as much as 3 times a year. My mother passed away recently at 96yrs old and that was my stongest tie back in Wales. It would be difficult because of my life here but I like coming back regularly.

Jane - Any opinions on the floods in Europe and in particular Prague being so badly ruined ?

John Belle: It's tragic. You wish it never happened but you just hope they get there cities back together again. My suggestion would be for them to speak to the people from Florence as they went through the same a few years ago and they have managed to get their city back on track.

visitor trumpetmangriff - Hi John, I hope to study architecture at university next year, and I was wondering whether you thought the events of September 11th will affect the way buildings are designed in the future, and if so in what ways, and am I likely to be hearing a lot about last year's events during my course?

John Belle: There is no doubt in my mind that this will effect the way that we train our architecture, fire hazards etc will play a big part in structure and building codes. It will become a major part of their studies.

bns1 - Can I ask - are they really thinking about rebuilding the twin towers in new york ?

John Belle: To my knowledge there is not a great deal of serious thought to re-building the Twin Towers as they were, as in having to Towers take up the whole building space. What is being thought of is building high rise Towers because the Sky line is a very important feature in New York and we want to honour it so what we are looking at is a 70 floor building that will do this.

bj - Could a building ever be constructed to survive such an attack again ?

John Belle: The structural engineer's are saying that if you were to build a building so strong for it to be able to withstand a jet hit then the structure of the building would be so immense that there would be little working space available. There are many things that you can do to make the building last longer so that it has more safety for the people inside.

questionman - John what are your visions for the ground that the towers stand on ?

John Belle: For a great pubic open space a great city park boarded by buildings in the high rise building style and with great transportation, cultural facilities, housing and all done in such a way that the site has a seamless connection to what Lower Manhattan is today.

BBC Wales Host: Here's John with a final word:

John Belle: I greatly appreciate the intelligence of the questions in a more relaxed and un-pressured way. It a wonderful opportunity for me to re-connect with my homeland. Nosta !