Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:35:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Louis Epstein Subject: WTC Rebuilding #458:FT Re-re-redesigned,cornerstone removed Only July 4th 2004,as we demonstrated above at street level, Governor Pataki presided over a symbolic cornerstone-laying ceremony and claimed "today we build the Freedom Tower". A few days ago,for all the fuss about inevitable progress and momentum,that stone was removed,as per this NY Times article forwarded to me just as I was composing list-email #457: -=-=-=-=-=-=- With Tower Yet to Rise, Cornerstone Leaves Town By DAVID W. DUNLAP Published: June 24, 2006 The 20-ton cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was carted off from the World Trade Center site early yesterday, nearly two years after it was ceremoniously set in place on July 4, with its silvered, chiseled letters proclaiming it a "tribute to the enduring spirit of freedom." No one made a speech yesterday morning. No one sang "God Bless America." No one read from the Declaration of Independence. Instead, the cornerstone was placed on a truck and returned to Innovative Stone in Hauppauge, N.Y., where it will remain for as long as two years until it returns to ground zero. About 6:30 a.m., the five-and-a-half-foot-high block of Adirondack granite was hoisted by crane from its place near the temporary PATH terminal, said Mel Ruffini, a senior vice president of the Tishman Construction Corporation, which is building the Freedom Tower for Silverstein Properties on behalf of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Then it was lowered onto a flatbed truck and covered in a tarp. By 7:15, it was rolling up the long ramp out of the ground zero pit, headed for Innovative Stone on Long Island, where it had been cut, honed, polished and inscribed in 2004. It arrived safely three hours later, said Karen Pearse, the chief executive at Innovative. The cornerstone will be kept there in a plexiglass case, viewable by appointment. "It needs to be repositioned to make sense in the new building," said David Worsley, a senior vice president and the director of construction at Silverstein Properties. When the Freedom Tower was redesigned last year because of security concerns, the cornerstone's location was rendered obsolete. The architects shifted the building's edge about 40 feet to the west, leaving the cornerstone standing outside the bounds of the reconfigured tower. But stand it did, protected under a blue plywood enclosure, while the tower project faced delay after delay. Its absence carries a couple of meanings. Obviously, it is an acknowledgment that much of what passed for progress at ground zero to date has been longer on symbolism than on substance. On the other hand, with the cornerstone gone, the foundation subcontractor, Laquila Construction, can begin excavating the east side of the tower site to prepare it for the underground infrastructure. When he presided over the cornerstone-laying two years ago, Gov. George E. Pataki declared, "Today, we build the Freedom Tower." As it turned out, the building could not start until the cornerstone was removed. -=-=-=-=-=-=- As for the FT itself, ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:25:32 -0400 From: Cecil Shepherd Architects Unveil New Design for Freedom Tower By DAVID W. DUNLAP and GLENN COLLINS Eager to avoid creating a fortress that overshadows the World Trade Center memorial, the architects of the Freedom Tower unveiled a new approach today. They would clad its 187- foot-high, bomb-resistant concrete base in a screen of glass prisms rather than metal panels. This and other notable refinements were described by the building's lead architect, David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He spoke at an awards ceremony held by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 7 World Trade Center, overlooking the Freedom Tower site, which is under excavation. Even after the revisions, the building would still evoke the twin towers in its height and proportions. Its rooftop parapet would be 1,368 feet above the street, as was that of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower. It turns out that in another important respect, the Freedom Tower would echo the twin towers: it would have a sky lobby. Tenants headed to the upper floors of the 102-story building would take express elevators to the 64th floor and then transfer to local elevators. If all goes according to plan -- almost nothing has at ground zero -- completion of the $2 billion, 2.6 million-square-foot Freedom Tower is expected in 2011. In the first redesign last year, the base was to rise 200 feet and perhaps be clad in stainless steel, aluminum or titanium. Though Mr. Childs envisioned these panels as enlivening the almost windowless facade, others despaired about its monolithic quality. The phrase "concrete bunker" was tossed around. "There were a lot of concerns that this was going to look like a fortress," said Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for which Silverstein Properties is developing the Freedom Tower. "I think David's artistic skills should alleviate many of those fears." Gov. George E. Pataki allowed that he had been worried himself. "I shared the fears that the security issues would lead the base to be something more intimidating than inviting," he said, "but the building is light and very luminescent and very inviting, and at the same time meets the highest security standards in the world." The timing of the unveiling, Mr. Childs said in an advance briefing, was prompted by the completion of what are known as design development drawings for the tower; far more refined and detailed than the schematic plans shown last year. "There is still work to do, but the official design phase is over," he said. It does not hurt public-relations efforts by Larry A. Silverstein, the president and chief executive of Silverstein Properties, since it offers evidence that construction is proceeding, despite questions about whether his insurers will withhold more than $1.5 billion in payments and whether tenants can be found for the building. The basic form of the building has not changed. It is an obelisk on which the corners are both tapered and chamfered, or cut away diagonally. The tip of its spire would still mark the symbolic pinnacle of 1,776 feet. It would be illuminated at night in an echo, however abstract, of the Statue of Liberty's torch. And, barring new competitors, it would be the tallest building in the United States. In the redesign last year, the tower was given a smaller floor area, or footprint, increasing its distance from West Street-Route 9A and any bomb-laden vehicle that might approach along that highway. With smaller floors, Mr. Childs said, it was no longer practical or desirable to have as many elevator shafts running the full height of the building, dictating a transfer floor, an unexceptional feature of high-rise buildings. Although the idea summons memories of the 78th-floor sky lobby in 2 World Trade Center, where many people died on Sept. 11, 2001, as they waited for express elevators, Governor Pataki said he was not concerned about the reintroduction of a transfer floor. There would be five service elevators that can reach every floor, including one water-resistant car, housed in a protected shaft, for use by firefighters and other rescue workers in an emergency. There would also be a dedicated, protected staircase for first responders, to avoid the jam of rescuers coming up while tenants are heading down. The biggest changes have been made to the base; in essence, a security pedestal that is meant to lift the glass-clad office tower out of harm's way in the event of a bombing. Though it looks fairly small in an overall view of the building, the base would dominate almost any view north from the World Trade Center memorial, across Fulton Street. From a pedestrian's perspective, it would be the face of the Freedom Tower. The only occupied space within the base would be the lobby, with 50-foot ceilings. The rest of this lower structure would be used for mechanical equipment. Mr. Childs now proposes to cover the base in panels of laminated glass with a saw-tooth face made of prisms in a vertical array. "You know this from high-school physics class," Mr. Childs said. "The sun hits the prism and breaks into color." He said that full-scale mock-ups of this wall will be built in Kearney, N.J., to ensure that the fractured, reflected sunlight will not blind pedestrians or drivers. Behind the glass would be concrete for the first 60 feet, then an open space known as a plenum, through which air is drawn to cool the equipment inside. At this point, there would be one- or two-foot spaces between the glass panels, backed by a protective aluminum screen. Mr. Childs said that the base, made of high-density concrete (he would not specify the thickness of the walls, for security reasons), "does the job that the New York City police want it to do, in every respect." A spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that City Hall and the Police Department had been consulted and had raised no concerns. Their review of the project is continuing. In case of an explosion, Mr. Childs said, the glass will crumble into little fragments because it is laminated, much like automobile safety glass or the panels on bus shelters. Another noticeable change to the base is that its corners would be chamfered and tapered like the tower above. But the corners on the base would taper outward as they rise, creating four triangular spaces at ground level where small reflecting pools would go. The main office entrance would be on Vesey Street. Visitors to the observation deck would enter from a triangular plaza off West Street and go down to the concourse level, where they would be screened. From there, they can make their ascent. Restaurant patrons would enter from a small plaza on the east side of the building. Peter Walker & Partners are the landscape architects, as they are for the trade center memorial. Both the memorial and the area around the tower would be planted with sweetgum trees, known for their star-shaped leaves and brilliant autumnal color. Daniel Libeskind, the official master planner of the trade center site, who tangled with Mr. Childs in 2003 over the first design of the Freedom Tower, said the latest refinements by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were a tremendous improvement. "They have brought luminosity and a prismatic quality to the base," he said, "and made the tower more crystalline." The office tower, 1,182 feet in height, would be clad in 13- foot-high glass panels that cover not only the window openings but the horizontal spaces between them, called spandrels. That is meant to create a seamless, transparent expanse. This long shaft has eight faces: elongated, interlocking isosceles triangles. The floor plan begins as a 200-by-200- foot square. As the corners taper, the plan turns into an octagon and then reverts to a square again, but one that is only 145-by-145 feet. Because the base would be so tall, the first office floor atop the base is counted as Floor 20. There would be 69 office floors, ending at Floor 88. Above that would be broadcasting space on the 89th and 90th floors, followed by three mechanical floors so high they are counted as nine stories. In the upper reaches, a restaurant would occupy the 100th and 101st floors. The enclosed observation deck, which would almost undoubtedly include a gift shop, would be at 102. Above that would be three floors of mechanical equipment. The last 408 feet of the tower's height would be a structure, clad in fiberglass composite panels, with a gentle convex curve in the middle. Designed in collaboration with the sculptor Kenneth Snelson, it would hide a bristling forest of antennas. More equipment would be hidden within a halo-like circular structure, 145 feet in diameter, close to the base of the spire. The entire ensemble will be illuminated, Mr. Childs said, with light-emitting diodes and floodlights. As a champion of the idea that the Freedom Tower should pay architectural homage to the Statue of Liberty, Mr. Libeskind offered one criticism. "I think they should work to make the figure of the torch more apparent," he said. "Even if you illuminate the flame, it is very abstract right now." "With further refinement," he said of the latest Freedom Tower redesign, "it can become an icon for the city. But that will depend on how the top of the building looks." _______________________________________________________________________ ---------- End forwarded message ---------- The "barring new competitors" is disingenuous,since the Fordham Spire planned for Chicago is to be hundreds of feet taller. The thoroughgoing dishonesty in floor counts is certainly worth noting. Also dodged in this article is the parapet (a protruding structure on top of the roof) being 1,368 feet (the height of the taller Twin Tower) but the roof itself is only 1,362 (the height of the shorter Twin Tower).The observation decks and restaurant will apparently all be some feet lower than their Twin Tower counterparts,besides the issue of the Twin Towers EACH having about 50% more square footage than the FT. STILL NOT BIG ENOUGH,GUYS!! Meanwhile,Silverstein and the PA have actually gone to court to make the insurers continue paying to cover the construction: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/larry__pa_sue_insurers_regionalnews_tom_topousis.htm http://www.nydailynews.com/06-27-2006/news/local/story/430203p-362693c.html The Daily News has backed this in an editorial: http://www.nydailynews.com/06-27-2006/news/ideas_opinions/story/430131p-362631c.html So what happens if the insurers finally win in court after they have already paid more than they claim they have to? The Fulton Street transit project (which could have been the site of a 90-story building had the MTA not condemned the property) is over budget but being pushed through: http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/full_steam_ahead_for_fulton_hub_regionalnews_jeremy_olshan.htm The Post's Steve Cuozzo is unimpressed? http://nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/fouling_up_fulton_opedcolumnists_steve_cuozzo.htm "WTC Families for Proper Burial" is now alleging victims' body parts are or were at Fresh Kills,as they continue to seek to delay the park there in order to get part of the WTC site illegallywasted on a "cemetery": http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/430717p-363005c.html The Daily News today has a lead letter complaining that the WTC memorial costs too much: http://www.nydailynews.com/06-28-2006/news/story/430482p-362928c.html Good to see such voices continuing. There's been another surge of signatures at Twintowersalliance.com and I hope you've told your friends about it. KEEP FIGHTING TO SEE IT DONE RIGHT,people... see you on the 111th floor on 9-11-11! -=-=- The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again, at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.