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WTC Tower To Be Tallest Building
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 10, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 10, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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The Times reveals that the main building of the redesigned WTC will vastly different from Daniel Libeskind's design. The new design, from tower architect David Childs and engineer Guy Nordensen, will be revealed next week by Governor George Pataki. Times reporter David Dunlap's description:
Those who have seen the design of the Freedom Tower, as Mr. Pataki calls it, describe a torqued and tapering form culminating in an unoccupied, open-air structure filled with cables, trusses, antennas and recalling the energy source that helped settle Lower Manhattan 350 years ago windmills that may generate 20 percent of the electrical power needed by the building.
The 70-story occupied part of the Freedom Tower would rise 1,000 to 1,100 feet, more than 200 feet shorter than the twin towers. But the open-air structure would reach 1,776 feet, exceeding Taipei 101, which is being built on Taiwan, and would take the world's tallest title from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which took it from the Sears Tower in Chicago, which took it from the trade center. The Freedom Tower's antenna would reach 2,000 feet.
This unusual hybrid would allow New York to "reclaim our skyline," the governor said in October, while acknowledging that most New Yorkers 62 percent, according to a recent New York Times Poll would not be willing to work in one of the higher floors of a new building at the trade center site.
Naturally, the NRDC is excited about the prospect of a wind farm atop the tower. But considering the sticky relationship between master planner Libeskind and tower architect Childs, all bets are off as to what will actually be the final design. Dunlap also points out that Libeskind's skinny, assymetrical design is still on WTC developer Larry Silverstein's website.
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Governor George Pataki
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News: NYC
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The Freedom Tower
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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