New Freedom Tower Design Unveiled.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

New Design Unveiled for Freedom Tower

DAVID W. DUNLAP and GLENN COLLINS, The New York Times

 

(June 29) -- With one eye on terrorism and another on what has already been lost to terrorists, New York officials unveiled a redesigned Freedom Tower today whose height and proportion, centered antenna and cut-away corners, tall lobbies and pinstripe facade evoke - both deliberately and coincidentally - the sky-piercing twins it is meant to replace.

 

 

 

Getty Images

 

Architects reworked the Freedom Tower's old design, left, and replaced it with a more fortified version, right.

 

 

 

 

The new design for the 82-story signature building at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan calls for an almost impermeable and impregnable 200-foot concrete and steel pedestal, clad in ornamental metalwork and set at least 65 feet away from Route 9A, the heavily trafficked state highway that runs along the west edge of ground zero.

 

This enormous pedestal would overlook the Sept. 11 memorial. Above it would be a tapering tower of glass - some panes laminated and several layers thick - with 69 office floors topped by a restaurant, indoor and outdoor observation decks and an antenna within a trellis-like sculpture that would bring the structure's total height to 1,776 feet.

 

That symbolic height is one of the few elements left intact from the building first envisioned in 2002 by the architect Daniel Libeskind, the site's master planner, and designed in 2003 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Gone are the asymmetrical spire, torqued form, parallelogram floor plan, energy-producing windmills, suspension cables, lacy facade and open-air arcade.

 

The hurried redesign has pushed the completion date of the Freedom Tower back by one or two years, to 2010. It is unclear what effect it will have on the budget, which has been estimated at $1.5 billion, since the extra security measures will add to costs, while the overall simplification of the structure may cut down on time and money.

 

 

 

 

The latest transformation was driven by the New York Police Department's insistence that the building be more resistant to attack, particularly from car and truck bombs. It was also intended to preserve as much as possible of the foundation design that had already consumed months of work. This includes threading the tower's underground columns among the looping outbound tracks of the World Trade Center PATH station.

 

Given those requirements, and the goal of maintaining the building's overall 2.6 million square foot floor area, the redesigned Freedom Tower almost naturally assumed some dimensions of the original twin towers, said David M. Childs of Skidmore, the building's chief architect.

 

Though uncanny, it was not an unwelcome turn, he said. In fact, adjustments and refinements have been made to underscore the similarities. For example, the altitude of the floor of the rooftop observation deck would be set at 1,362 feet, the height of 2 World Trade Center. The rooftop parapet would reach 1,368 feet, the height of No. 1.

 

Setting aside his publicly expressed enthusiasm for the first Freedom Tower, Mr. Childs said of the new one, "It is a rare moment when new is better." He added: "I feel better about this than the original. The building is simpler, architecturally. It is unique, yet it subtly recalls, in the sky, the tragedy that has happened here."

 

The new design for Freedom Tower was presented formally today at a news conference attended by Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, as well as Mr. Childs, Mr. Libeskind and Larry A. Silverstein, the building's developer.

 

At its base, the Freedom Tower would be 200 feet square, like the twin towers and the two voids that are to be created in their place as part of the Sept. 11 memorial. Mr. Childs said the new building's "most important role is being a marker in the sky of the memorial."

 

But he did not back away from the notion that it is still intended to be a statement of defiance, strength and resolve in the face of terrorism. Mr. Childs referred to the Freedom Tower several times as a "victory column" and invoked Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park and Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square in London as precedents.

 

Like 7 World Trade Center, now under construction across Vesey Street, the Freedom Tower would essentially be two buildings in one: a utility-filled concrete pedestal topped by an office tower with a glass curtain wall.

 

The first 30 feet of the 200-foot-tall pedestal would be completely solid, with no windows. The next 50 feet would have some openings, allowing light to be brought into the lobby from above. The rest of the base would be occupied by mechanical equipment.

 

  

By the Numbers 

  

  

  

  82

Stories

 

1,776

Height in feet

 

2.6 million

Square feet

 

1,362

Height in feet of rooftop observation deck, same as height of 2 World Trade Center

 

1,368

Height in feet of rooftop parapet, same as height of 1 World Trade Center

 

200

Square feet of base, matching the twin towers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stainless steel, titanium or aluminum panels would mask the concrete wall at the Freedom Tower, Mr. Childs said, much as a stainless-steel screen by James Carpenter Design Associates covers the base of 7 World Trade Center.

 

Office tenants would enter the building from the north or south, through lobbies on Fulton and Vesey Streets. Visitors headed to the observation decks would arrive across a plaza on the west side of the building. Diners would approach from a plaza on the east.

 

Almost four acres of open space would surround the Freedom Tower. It would share the block with the performing arts center being designed by Frank Gehry.

 

The main shaft of the Freedom Tower would begin as a 200-by-200-foot square. As it rose, the corners would be cut away, creating an octagonal floor plan through the middle of the building. ("And eight corner offices," Mr. Childs noted.) Toward the top, the plan would assume a square shape again, 140 by 140 feet.

 

Depending on the viewer's perspective, the structure might appear to be as rectangular as the original twin towers. Seen from an oblique angle, however, it would appear to slope like an obelisk. Each of the eight planes in its main facade would be an elongated isosceles triangle that would catch and reflect the light from a different angle.

 

The only externally visible separation between the window bays would be vertical stainless-steel elements known as mullions. The horizontal floor separations would not be expressed on the facade. This pinstripe effect might also recall the trade center to some.

 

The unusual shape will "confuse the wind," Mr. Childs said, making the building more structurally sound than if it had been a "large square sail" catching the wind at the top. The tapering corners yield ultimately to a narrower square at the top, 140 feet on each side, which will be the base for the spire and the antenna system.

 

Mr. Childs emphasized that the 408-foot spire and its setting have yet to be fully designed. But it has been decided that the spire will bring the tower's over-all height to 1,776 feet, the symbolically patriotic height proposed by Mr. Libeskind and insisted upon by Governor Pataki. The spire and its cabled supports will be designed to be "a functional piece of sculpture, a piece of civic art of an unusual scale," Mr. Childs said.

 

The architects are working on a distinctive, silver-or-white structural wrap for the spire, that would enclose the television antenna elements with fiberglass or carbon, substances that would not interfere with emanating radio waves. Currently, a tusk-shaped spire is being envisioned.

 

 

 

 

The spire is to be braced with guy wires - also woven from fiberglass or carbon - that would be anchored to a circular crown atop the observatory. The entire structure will be lit from within and programmed with shifting patterns of lights, or even a single heavenward beam.

 

To Mr. Libeskind, the circular new cable-anchor structure bears similarity to the base of the flame of the Statue of Liberty; others have likened its shape to that of the summit of the Empire State Building.

 

The architects struggled to unveil the redesigned building only seven weeks after Governor Pataki announced - during a luncheon speech to the Association for a Better New York on May 12 - that the tower would have to be reconfigured, and fortified, to respond to security concerns raised by the New York Police Department.

 

Mr. Childs said that the tower would meet or exceed the recent building-safety design recommendations announced by a federal panel, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, earlier this month, after an analysis of the factors that caused the collapse of the twin towers in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Elevators, sprinkler systems and electrical conduits in the new structure will all be protected in a central core of 2-foot-thick concrete. And an extra stairway will be provided for rescue workers to enter the building even while tenants are leaving.

 

But the chief Freedom Tower design change, driving other architectural considerations, was to harden the base of the tower against vehicle-borne explosives, since cars and trucks have proven to be an effective way of delivering large explosive charges. The new building is to have a solid concrete core with walls more than 2 feet thick, and a robustly redundant braced steel frame.

 

The original standoff, or setback from West Street, was 25 feet, which the police said was inadequate to protect the building from a large truck bomb. The new tower has been moved 65 feet back from West Street at its Fulton Street side, and 125 feet from the highway at Vesey Street.

 

The 80-foot-high lobby of the new Freedom Tower will be comparable to the World Trade Center lobbies' 79-foot height. The south lobby, facing Fulton Street, will be the main office entrance, since it faces the memorial. It will present a glass, cable-tensioned wall to visitors - similar to the lobby facade of Mr. Childs's Time Warner Center - but confront them with a solid concrete security wall (covered with art) that would have to be circumnavigated by pedestrians to obtain access to the building.

 

The tower's base would be clad with an intricate pattern of interlocking reflective sheets of titanium, steel or aluminum, "designed to catch and reflect the light," Mr. Childs said. "As the sun moves about it, each facade will be illuminated."

 

"I hope this can answer those who were worried that this would be a foreboding building," Mr. Childs said of the new security constraints.

 

Above the base, the glass sheathing of the building will be hardened against explosive overpressures with tempered, multilaminated sheets of blast-resistant plastic, especially on the west facade facing West Street-Route 9A. Thanks to the use of low-iron, water-white glass - panes that minimize the conventional greenish hue - the sections of laminate will be just as transparent as glass on the other facades, "so the building will look the same on all four sides - a continuous glass top," Mr. Childs said.

 

In the end, Mr. Childs said, the new building represents "the positive element of what was lost," he said. "It takes on its most important role as being the pylon marker for the memorial."

Edited June 29, 2005 by Madame Butterfly

[Tina 0]

It still looks Ugly and its a waste of money

 

I prefer the NY skyline with the Towers. I say rebuild them. (And a memorial ofcourse)

 

Screw the terrorists

 

 

They Changed my home..

 

They Changed my view

 

They Changed us as a Country

 

They win..

 

We will not give in

Edited June 29, 2005 by Ambassador tinadoll

[HRH The KING 0]

It looks magnificent. <_< :unsure:

[Matt 0]

I saw the design on Sky News earlier and wasn't particularly impressed but it doesn't look too bad in the photo you provided. Not my taste though.

[Gary Phaserman 0]

I thought we aught to build a new one that resembled a hand giving a specific, single fingered gesture...

[M_5 0]

It still looks Ugly and its a waste of money

 

I prefer the NY skyline with the Towers. I say rebuild them. (And a memorial ofcourse)

 

Screw the terrorists

 

 

They Changed my home..

 

They Changed my view

 

They Changed us as a Country

 

They win..

 

We will not give in

335830[/snapback]

 

I agree.Rebuild the TT and ADD 5 more floors!

[Spike The Trill 0]

I, too, think that the towers should be rebuilt, and a mermorial built too. This "Freedom Tower" just seems too showy.

[Odie 0]

I agree that the towers should have been rebuilt.

[Data 0]

It still looks Ugly and its a waste of money

 

I prefer the NY skyline with the Towers. I say rebuild them. (And a memorial ofcourse)

 

Screw the terrorists

 

 

They Changed my home..

 

They Changed my view

 

They Changed us as a Country

 

They win..

 

We will not give in

335830[/snapback]

 

 

Yah know, I always found the Towers boring. The new building has more style.

[sea trooper 0]

Twisty. But I agree with Ambassador tinadoll.

[Itchygomba69 0]

It still looks Ugly and its a waste of money

 

I prefer the NY skyline with the Towers. I say rebuild them. (And a memorial ofcourse)

 

Screw the terrorists

 

 

They Changed my home..

 

They Changed my view

 

They Changed us as a Country

 

They win..

 

We will not give in

335830[/snapback]

 

 

Yah know, I always found the Towers boring. The new building has more style.

335903[/snapback]

 

i agree, the only thing that mad the towers beautiful was the tragedy, rebuilding them I think would be a way to try and forget the attacks, we need something different to remind us of what happened there, and this is great I love the design has a modern art form to it, and a beautiful memorial which can still be use productively

[Odo 0]

I think the new version is better.

But not being from NY.I know its a symbol

for the whole country. Let them pick they have to see it.

Every day.

[Ace 0]

I personally don't mind the new design.

 

My only small gripe when I first heard of the project was that it seemed to have more emphasis on defiance towards terrorists rather than as a memorial for those who died.

 

As long as a respectable memorial is created, I'm all for the new tower. (Though I would've preferred modernized twin towers, not just like the old ones).

[Tina 0]

I know its a symbol

for the whole country

 

Its not a symbol..Its two buildings .where people worked,And wehre they died.

 

Want Symbolic..Lady Liberty is over there in the Harbor..

Let them choose it

 

<_< Since when do NYers agree on anything?

ah know, I always found the Towers boring. The new building has more style

 

Are you a New Yorker? Fi you are not: Its iconic with the NY skyline/ Besided i looked out on them everyday.It was jaw dropping. I like my city on how it was

Edited June 30, 2005 by Ambassador tinadoll

[Odo 0]

nope no way. runs

aint getting into that

[Tina 0]

I'm Serious about my city ..sorry

[Data 0]

OK, so I do not live in NY. But I have been there several times. You NYers and your out of towners talk. POOO. NY is majestic on it's own. I remember what it looked like before the towers were built. I just found them boring. If you want to see them again, there are several movies that show them, particularly Working Girl. They are even in the very beginning score of Saturday Night Fever. Made shortly after they were finished.

 

I will not change my remark. I found them boring and for a while thought they were an eyesore.

[Tina 0]

will not change my remark. I found them boring and for a while thought they were an eyesore.

 

Its my city and i liked the skyline. The way it was

 

And your just getting nasty about it

[Data 0]

will not change my remark. I found them boring and for a while thought they were an eyesore.

 

Its my city and i liked the skyline. The way it was

 

And your just getting nasty about it

336058[/snapback]

 

 

<_< Your city?

 

I am not being nasty. I am just being truthful. By the way, I only live 90 miles from NYC. :unsure:

[Tina 0]

I live IN the city. And its MY city. Because i pay taxes,vote,protest,live,breathe,and take care of..My city.

 

Thats the way many Nyers feel about it. Thats why we live here. Thats why we love here.And thats why we love living here.

 

It goes hand and hand Freedom and New York. We don't judge people here. Its ok to work,be an artist,be gay,staright. rich .poor. I guess i have this idealized view of the city. I lived in Puerto Rico for years and i wanted to get back to NY so bad. I was SO bored.

 

If anyone asks "Where were you on Sept 11?".. I could say i was on the way to work..to the 93rd floor of Tower #2.I woke up late.i thank God for that. So the Trade Towers has a little meaning to me.As a life changer

 

I also think of the People of Flight 90 and the Pentagon too, Its not just about us. It was about them too.. I want to see a memorial for ALL of them.I'm not elitest

 

 

Btw Jersey. Does not count..And i want all the time i wasted on Rt ! back <_< And all those darn tolls

[Data 0]

Who said I lived in Jersey? I just said I lived 90 miles from NYC. We all pay taxes to help each part of the country. You pay an additional local tax. That does not mean that NYC is more yours. That would be like me saying that the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence are mine because I work and pay taxes in Philadephia. 9/11 effected me as much as it effected you, since the flight of two of the hijacked planes flew thru where I live and work. Fortunately, I was not at ground zero. I said a prayer of thanks that day.

 

See what I mean by the Out of Towners attitude. You believe your opinion means more just because you are a New Yorker. <_< New York is a great place but it belongs to us all. :unsure:

[Tina 0]

New York is a great place but it belongs to us all.

 

No it doesn't. I am sick of it being some people labeling NY "As Americas city"

Its not. Its a city in America,special to the people who live in it.

Something bad happened to it,Somthing bad ALWAYS happens. We just get up and move on. New Yorkers values are different than people who live in middle America. Its a melting pot,landing point for many many cultures.I don't see people from Iran moving to Springfeild Il unless they start off in a city like New York. get accoustumed to the lifestyle, become citizins. They have a homebase in NY. Its Culturaly diverese

 

.Its so hard to explain. I love my city so much. I just wished everyone can partake in the freedoms ,the dramas and the experiences i am exposed to each day

 

Thats why i say is MY NY. Because i actually live here. I don't just say that because of Sept 11 and because its cool and i live in the vicinity

.. I say it because i actually live here..

Edited June 30, 2005 by Ambassador tinadoll

[Data 0]

New York is a great place but it belongs to us all.

 

No it doesn't. I am sick of it being some people labeling NY "As Americas city"

 

336149[/snapback]

 

I would say that you are getting a little possessive. It is not going to change my opinion of the architecture of the Twin Towers. I do agree that there should be an appropriate memorial since I lost a good friend there.

[Tina 0]

I would say that you are getting a little possessive. It is not going to change my opinion of the architecture of the Twin Towers. I do agree that there should be an appropriate memorial since I lost a good friend there.

 

Didn't we all lose someone that day. Or in the subsiquent war that followed. I get possesive because i can. I defend what i love. And i love NY. Really i do.. Visit.I'll buy you a knish

 

A bagel perhaps..With a nice schmere.. Oh i could go for some creme cheese.

 

Still the the Trade Towers were iconic with NY. I never liked what the Metlife buidling looked like. And i prefer that to the Empiere state. But its the skyline. What could you do

 

(Art Deco Chrysler is my fave!)

[Data 0]

Hmm, a plain bagel with some cream chease would good. Then we could go to some art galleries near Central Park.

[Tina 0]

That would be cool. There is a Chanel exibit at the Met that i am dying to see again <_<

[Itchygomba69 0]

eh, I'm going to gettysburg I like those Memorials, and nobody fights over them <_<

[Spike The Trill 0]

I used to live in Gettysburg. I loved going to the battlefield.

[Capt_Picard 0]

I heard this, but...

Build them again, but a story higher.

[Validus 0]

I would say that you are getting a little possessive. It is not going to change my opinion of the architecture of the Twin Towers. I do agree that there should be an appropriate memorial since I lost a good friend there.

 

Didn't we all lose someone that day. Or in the subsiquent war that followed. I get possesive because i can. I defend what i love. And i love NY. Really i do.. Visit.I'll buy you a knish

 

A bagel perhaps..With a nice schmere.. Oh i could go for some creme cheese.

 

Still the the Trade Towers were iconic with NY. I never liked what the Metlife buidling looked like. And i prefer that to the Empiere state. But its the skyline. What could you do

 

(Art Deco Chrysler is my fave!)

336152[/snapback]

 

Can we set aside the sopping sentimentality for just a second and get real?

 

That 3,000 people died on September 11th is cetainly a tragedy, but lets be honest, the World Trade Centers were nothing more then generic steel and glass milk cartons. They were ugly and always were and I frankly won't miss them. The new "Freedom" Tower is nothing more then yet another building that will allow the builders to make a ton of money while at the same time they will be able to smile for the cameras and make it look as if a savy land management project is somehow synonymous with "patriotism"....which is just ridiculous.

 

New York is certainly not lacking for icons:

 

The Empire State Building

The Chrystler Buidling

Madison Square Garden

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Statue of Liberty

Yankee Stadium

 

I think New York is doing fine as far as icons go.

 

Lastly, I am really tired of Americans whining about 9/11. OK, so we lost 3,000 people. So what? Iraq has lost more then seven times that number since we arrived under false pretences (no WMD's anywhere) and no one seems to give a damn about them...and Americans wonder why they are so hated around the world. :(

Edited July 18, 2005 by Validus