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This Is The New World Trade Center's New Logo
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 14, 2014
Modified Aug 15, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 14, 2014
Modified Aug 15, 2014
Share
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The World Trade Center is still a heavy construction zone, but at least now there's a logo. And it's loaded with symbolism.
Here's how the NY Times David Dunlap explains it:
Can you see a trident — an abstract trident recalling those three-fingered steel columns at the base of the twin towers, still standing after the 2001 attack, symbolizing New York City’s resilience?
... Do you discern two parallel spaces in the upper half of the logo? They are intended to evoke the memorial beacons of the Tribute in Light. And the two bars on the lower half of the logo? The deep pools of the National September 11 Memorial.
Look again, and the five bars might be taken for five towers: 7 World Trade Center, long finished and open; 1 and 4 World Trade Center, nearing completion; 3 World Trade Center, under construction; and 2 World Trade Center, still on the drawing board.
And yes, now that you mention it, the whole thing is a stylized W — for World Trade Center, of course, but also for Westfield World Trade Center, the name of the luxury shopping center that is to open there next year.
(You are excused if you missed the fact that the slope across the upper bars is at a 17.76-degree angle, reflecting the height of 1 World Trade Center.)
Apparently, there's no design equivalent of "America, Fuck Yeah" yet.
Landor Associates designed the logo, as part of its $3.57 million (PDF) contract to develop a WTC "site-wide wayfinding, signage, and operational communications program" through 2015. However, an architect who works in the area opined to the Times, "It’s so anonymous that it almost evaporates."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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