Yeah, but I wasn't just asking about the number of actual floors: I meant, will there be an "official" count that (for example) counts the lobby as 3 floors, to give an "official" count of 81 or something - sort of the same way the FT will have an "official" 105 floors or whatever it is. No big deal, just curious...

It's not my info, it's Foster's...:yes:

If they're going with 78, Im sure there's a reason.

Nice shot. Too bad the FT is going to be getting in the way of this beauty.

From the best angle, it won't be blocked by the Freedom Tower...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66462361/large.jpg

From this rendering, Freedom Tower's base looks suited for Tower 2...

Added the heights...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/78608344/original.jpg

New York's 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 9th Tallest (By roof) in one group! :banana:

I also love how the NWTC has a circular spiral of buildings. :)

It's impressive. Those rankings will be shifted around a bit when the Midtown developments reveal actual height figures.

I love the design of this building! In my opinion, this building should be the Freedom Tower.

pathrestoration.com

http://www.pathrestoration.com/drp/i...4/HMdemo01.jpg

Yikes. I didn't realize this site had so much cleanup and demo left to do. The closeup picture really helps. Thanks.

That's the northern portion of what was the original PATH station. Those "survivor stairs" have to be removed also. It's why that section of the "tub" will be completed last. If you look hard (in the upper lefthand corner) you can see the Goldman Sachs rising.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_209/lookoutbelow.html
May 18 - 24, 2007

Look out below! Billions worth of building down at the W.T.C.

By Josh Rogers

Stairway surrounded

When Downtown Express last visited the site in August, the 175-ton “Survivors’ Stairway” sat alone in open space. Last week, it was surrounded by equipment. Plate said there are three or four different construction projects within 10 feet of the stairs. He didn’t say it was slowing down the work but did say “we need to get it out of the way.”

The stairs once led from the W.T.C. plaza to Vesey St. and some survivors ran down them to escape the trade center complex on Sept. 11. The L.M.D.C. had proposed breaking up the stairs to save a remnant for the memorial museum and incorporate a piece in the Tower 2 entrance. Gov. Spitzer objected to the L.M.D.C. plan and his Empire State Development Corp. has been searching for a site to store the stairs intact.

Stairway proponents argue that since it is the only public W.T.C. remnant that is still on the site and was the last leg of survivors’ run to safety, it should be preserved entirely. Opponents counter that just the cost of moving it intact from and then back to the site would be over $2 million and that displaying it on the memorial plaza would create the mistaken impression that it was damaged by the collapsing towers. The stairs were damaged during the cleanup of the site.

Errol Cockfield, a spokesperson for Empire State, said the agency is moving quickly toward a decision but he did not know if it would be made in a matter of weeks. He did not comment on whether Battery Park City’s Site 2B, which residents hope will be the site of a new school, is under consideration to store the stairs.

Sayar Lonial, a senior aide to Councilmember Alan Gerson, told C.B. 1 members Tuesday that “it sounds like they will be putting the stairs on Site 2B.” He said E.S.D.C. has given assurances the stairway won’t remain on the site long enough to interfere with school construction. Lonial said he’s inclined to believe the promise because unlike the Pataki administration, Spitzer’s aides “don’t just say things to make us happy.”

Gerson and Spitzer are Democrats and Pataki is a Republican.

Train station

The temporary PATH commuter station will remain open at the W.T.C. while contractors continue to build the $2 billion commuter-subway station designed by the “poet of train stations,” Santiago Calatrava. Keeping it open during construction will require two more temporary entrances before the station opens at the end of 2009.

Next month, the Port’s contractors will demolish the station’s overhang awning entrance and recycle the valuable materials, which will help defray the project’s costs. The new entrance will move about 50 feet to the south and will stay there until December when the third temporary entrance will be built on Vesey St., on a site that is slated to get an arts center.

Is the June move the big thing Plate’s focused on now?

“There are a gazillion ‘big things,’” he said. “That’s the technical name.”

http://downtownexpress.com/de_210/editorial.html

Steps to folly


While some aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer dither like Hamlet over the fate of the “Survivors’ Stairway,” the governor’s people at the Port Authority are making great progress at the World Trade Center site. Two things were clear from our visit to the site last week — construction is proceeding rapidly and the stairway is in the way. If it’s not yet slowing down the work, that will happen very soon.

Spitzer is still considering spending $2 million to move this misleading W.T.C. remnant back and forth. Although survivors escaping the W.T.C. in 2001 did in fact run down the stairway, the damage to the stairs was done in the months that followed the attack. As we pointed out before, keeping this humongous, 175-ton piece intact would be deception, not preservation, because too many W.T.C. visitors would believe the stairs were damaged by falling Twin Tower debris. Pieces of the stairs should be on display in the memorial museum and incorporated in the site’s Tower 2.

This week we hear the state agency that is supposed to promote economic development is not backing down from its idea to dump the stairs on Battery Park City’s Site 2B, where a school is needed to sustain the residential growth and economy of Lower Manhattan. The Empire State Development Corp. claims this will not interfere with school plans. Even if that hard-to-swallow pill were true, the plan would still be a waste of money.

It's becoming clear to me too...

MAY 20, 2007

While all of "ground zero" buzzes with activity, the stair case stands out, surrounded by everything...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/79139583/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/79139585/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/79139589/large.jpg


Visible accross the FT site...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/79139578/large.jpg


I don't know what the holdup is. The governor needs to make a move as promised,
and get this resolved. Anyone who doubts Silverstein will build only has to
look up for all the proof necessary. It was done there, it can be done with the
rest of the site as well. Just get the government out of the way.

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/79139601/large.jpg

It is nice to see the two large cranes at the Freedom Tower site. When will there be visible evidence of the steel skeleton of the FT? It seems like they have been doing site prep forever. I was just wondering when floor construction will be at street level?

Time to get really moving on this. The Governor and Government should get out of the way and let Mr. Silverstein do his thing? 7 WTC is up and running, time for the other magnificent towers to follow suit as well!

:whip:

More stairway follies...
http://www.amny.com/news/local/groun...m-topheadlines

The PA wants to clear and prepare the site as soon as possible, so they can meet the stated deadline and not have to pay Silverstein $300,000 a day for delays. Of course, the state can't get out of its own way...

This has to be the stupidest waste of time at the Trade Center yet. Cannot someone just "accidentally" knock it over with a tractor? Say, they were backing up and it happened?

Of course, the ridiculous people who call for its preservation would probably want it rebuilt stone by stone.

I wish the "preservationists" would remember that ALREADY teenagers yawn about 9/11 - they actually can't even remember it. Who the HELL will care about a decrepit old staircase 3 or 4 or 5 decades down the line? This is just so silly.

How much money will spent moving this stupid thing no one cares about, that could be spent fighting disease or something and actually saving lives?

Meanwhile, some poor homeless and hungry soul is down in the subway panhandling for change...