NEW YORK — Blueprints for the original World Trade Center are on sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair after a Colorado man rescued them from the trash.
The set, which includes over 500 plans, is the largest for the Twin Towers ever offered for sale, according to the New York-based James Cummins Bookseller team. Cummins wouldn’t disclose the price but said it is in the six figures.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum said it does not have a full set of blueprints, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it’s unsure if it has one. Many documents were lost in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The blueprints first left New York in the 1970s when architect Joseph Solomon took them to Denver as a keepsake of his career, the Wall Street Journal reported.
His daughter, Amy Lee Solomon, threw the plans out in May 2018 while cleaning out her father’s belongings after his death in November 2017, not realizing their potential value
Denver-area resident Jake Haas found what he thought were antique maps in the trash and stopped to collect them.
After seeing references to “Tower A” and “Tower B” Haas realized what the documents were and later sold the set to Angelo Arguello, who owns three pawnshops in the Denver area.
Arguello reached out to Cummins, which is handling the sale on a consignment basis, to ensure the blueprints get the exposure they merit.
Amy Lee Solomon said she is grateful that her father’s contribution to a New York landmark is being acknowledged.
“This was the quintessential project of his life,” she said.
The New York International Antiquarian Book Fair runs until Sunday and is held at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.
