One World Trade Center in NYC

The new, One World Trade Center in New York has become the world’s third-tallest building after topping a height of 541 meters. A 124-metre steel spire was installed, pushing the skyscraper’s height to 1776 feet – a number commemorating the year of America’s independence. Previously known as the Freedom Tower, the building is located in the northwest corner of the site where the former World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the 11 September 2001 attacks.

There have been several visions for the new World Trade Center, as it is formally known, beginning with Daniel Libeskind’s master plan in 2003, followed by a controversial redesign by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—a redesign that for the most part survived two years. The next redesign took place in 2005 after the New York Police Department weighed in and suggested the glass tower be further modified for safety. Since 2008, New Yorkers have seen an erector set–like spectacle when they look to the bottom of Manhattan Island: concrete follows the ascension of steel, at the pace of a floor a week.

One World Trade Center is something like a large sloping block with the corners carved off, so it appears that the entire building twists as it gets higher. The building’s faces will be huge triangles that taper toward the top and the bottom. At the center of the building, they will form an octagon. The skyscraper is symmetrical.

That square base is a safety measure, not just an engineering method. Though it will be clad in glass prisms, the 186-foot-tall base will be a windowless concrete wall, intended to absorb and deflect the blast from car or truck bombs. The glass prisms will be coated with plastic like automobile safety glass to help absorb the impact. It is hoped that the prisms will refract light into color and make the monolithic security measure an eye-pleasing curiosity.

One World Trade Center will be one of the world’s ‘greenest’ because much of the materials used in its construction come from postindustrial recycled materials. More than three-quarters of its waste will be recycled! Typically, glass walls are designed with iron in them, for structural stability, but the iron has been reduced to increase visibility and allow as much daylight in as possible, thus reducing the need for electric illumination.

Several memorials will be installed in the 16-acre complex. One of those memorials is the slurry wall, more commonly known as “the bathtub.” This structure was the basement of the World Trade Center and served to hold back the Hudson River to keep it from flooding the complex. It was here that the remains of thousands of dead were found and hundreds more who were never found. People will be able to walk down a ramp from ground level all the way down to bedrock along the edge of this wall, the last original remaining piece of the twin towers.

Already now people in and around New York are at last getting a glimpse of what will be of the One World Trade Center by 2014. When finally completed, it will offer 241,000 square meters of commercial office space as well as observation decks, TV broadcasting facilities and restaurants.