Larry Silverstein, the real-estate mogul who holds the lease on the World Trade Center site, has told architects working on a rebuilding plan to set aside the land where the Twin Towers stood for a memorial to the victims of the terror attacks.

With controversy brewing over the future of the site, Silverstein has moved quickly to try and shape the debate by hiring a team of architects to come up with a master plan.

“Larry knows there will be a memorial, and they set aside the space so they can plan around it,” a source familiar with the plans told The Post.

Some relatives of WTC victims and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani have called for the entire 16-acre site to be turned into a memorial to the nearly 3,000 people who died there Sept. 11.

Silverstein’s proposal would set aside five to seven acres for the memorial, including the “footprint” of the now-destroyed Twin Towers, the source said.

Architects David Childs, of Skidmore Ownings Merrill, and Alex Cooper, of Cooper Robertson & Partners, have drawn in the memorial section with its own access to surrounding streets, so it can be created and operated independently from whatever else later rises at Ground Zero.

Silverstein, who holds a 99-year lease on the WTC site, has indicated he wants to build as many as five new buildings, rising to as high as 70 stories. They would include office space, retail stores and a cultural center.

A spokesperson for Silverstein declined comment.

The developer is expected to share his plans when he meets this week with Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff.

Monica Iken, a trade center widow who considers all of Ground Zero “sacred ground,” said the Silverstein proposal doesn’t go far enough.

“The way the buildings imploded, everything went everywhere. We don’t know where our souls went to rest,” Iken told The Post. “In essence, that whole 16 acres is a burial ground now.”

Iken’s group, September’s Mission, will hold a meeting with designers and architects tomorrow to come up with their own proposals for a memorial covering the entire WTC area.

“This is not a race,” she said. “We’ve got to stop that. All these people are coming up with ideas. We’re going to come up with something that’s for the future. We’ve got to take time to do it.”