Standing in the construction dust of the megasite near the roaring heart of the city, watching the massive building rising from the scaffolding, then surveying the scene in relation to the urban core, the comparison is inevitable: Beijing is getting what New York should have built: the long-awaited CCTV headquarters.

While the fate of the 16 acres in New York has received an apparent reprieve (developer Larry Silverstein has accepted a deal in which he has bowed out as the developer of the Freedom Tower, while continuing to oversee its construction and hoping to commission four other towers by prominent architects), the overall prognosis remains dour. Lower Manhattan lacks the office market to fill the intended towers, including Governor Pataki’s much-vaunted Freedom Tower. And Silverstein’s recently completed 7 World Trade Center, a LEED-qualified, simple sheath of a building designed by SOM, remains woefully, predominantly vacant. Meanwhile, the WTC Memorial, to be cast into the footprints of the former Twin Towers, is stuck in neutral, as its costs have escalated to almost $1 billion and leadership has vacillated. Despite a flurry of recent announcements, the chances for excellence are waning in a grab bag of lost hopes and compromises across the site.