A COMPLEX of angular buildings and a 1,776ft spire designed by architect and Essex University graduate Daniel Libeskind has been chosen as the plan for the World Trade Centre site in New York.

A COMPLEX of angular buildings and a 1,776ft spire designed by architect and Essex University graduate Daniel Libeskind has been chosen as the plan for the World Trade Centre site in New York.

Libeskind's design beat eight other entrants to replace the original twin towers destroyed in the September 11 2001 terror attacks.

The "vertical garden" design by Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind, will be the globe's tallest building and maintain a 7-acre section of the gaping hole where the twin towers once stood for a memorial to the victims.

The £210 million blueprint for lower Manhattan defeated the rival proposal of two 1,665 foot lattice worked buildings in the final of an international competition.

Mr Libeskind, 57, who was born in Poland but grew up in the Bronx before moving to Germany, called his selection "a tremendously proud and moving moment'.

The choice was made by a committee with representatives of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the governor and the mayor.

Professor Libeskind studied at Essex University under Joseph Rykwert and was awarded the degree of Master of Arts in the history and theory of architecture in 1972. In 1999 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the university.

Jules Lubbock, professor of art history at Essex University, said: "Daniel Liebeskind is the outstanding modern architect of his generation and the department of art history is immensely proud of this extraordinary achievement.

"His buildings communicate powerful feelings about the terrible events of the last century such as the holocaust and this new monument will undoubtedly match that achievement."

As well as heading his own architectural studio in Berlin, Libeskind is also a professor at the University of California and the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlusche. He has held posts too, in numerous other institutions, including the John Paul Getty Centre, at Harvard, the Royal Danish Academy of Art, the University of London and at Yale.

His recent designs include the Northern Imperial War Museum in Manchester and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Community groups, politicians, victims' families and the site's owners are still expected to have further discussions - and disputes - about what actually gets built.

The building easily surpasses Malaysia's 1,483 foot Petronas twin towers, which are currently the world's tallest structure.

A museum will extend out over the north-eastern corner of the pit at Ground Zero and serve as the entrance to the memorial.