1 World Trade Center

This is the new name for what we once knew as the "Freedom Tower" which was renamed in an attempt to try and remove some of the negative emotions many residents of New York and the families of the 9/11 victims feel with the new building which was designed to replace the WTC Twin Towers.

The SOM designed $3.1 billion project was initially set to topout by the end of 2010 but was pushed back to be completed by 2013 instead and use about 46,000 tons of steel.

Outside of the triangular undulated mass everyone seems to despise, I think the 1 World Trade Center Tower is a well designed building with a lot of innovative designs. The 2.6 million square foot building will consist of office spaces, as well as an observation deck, restaurants with tenant parking and access to subway trains below grade. What is most impressive are the new safety features: three foot thick walls for all stairwells, elevator shafts, risers, and sprinkler systems; extremely wide "emergency stairs"; a dedicated set of stairwells exclusively for the use of firefighters; and biological and chemical filters throughout its ventilation system. Also, "Its structure is designed around a strong, redundant steel moment frame consisting of beams and columns connected by a combination of welding and bolting. Paired with a concrete-core shear wall, the moment frame lends substantial rigidity and redundancy to the overall building structure while providing column-free interior spans for maximum flexibility."

In my post of 3/25, I talked about deceased architect, Herbert Belton and Ken Gardner plans to do away with the Freedom Tower, or should I say the 1 Trade Center, and replace it with the Twin Towers II which have exterior elevations identical to the original towers but completely redesigned interiors and structural system. I got a bit of feed back from that post which seemed to underscore the sentiment of New Yorkers who really do not want to see the 1 Trade Center built. But what is being done about all this other than having a few petitions floating around online? I mean, just on February 11th, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey posted images showing that construction on the 1 World Trade Center Tower has risen above grade to a height of 105 feet. So did that signal the end of the Twin Towers II proposal?

I know the sentiment among all the supporters of the Twin Towers II feel that it is not too late to change the design and that the current foundation pylons of the 1 World Trade Center can be used as is for the Twin Towers II without having to be modified but after looking over them, I really don't see how that would work. I do think that it would be nice to see the old Twin Tower masses standing in the New York skyline but until some kind of official announcement is made to abandon the 1 World Trade Center, I don't think this will ever become a reality.





Image obtained from: SOM.com