Quote:
Originally Posted by chris08876
With 1 WTC, the spire was modified for the purpose of making it easier to put COMM equipment.
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The covering was left off more for the purposes of cost cutting (value engineering). That's why Durst was bought in, and that's exactly what they did. The maintenance issue was just the excuse they would use, conveniently forgetting (or more likely ignoring) the fact that the original plan for the spire wasn't radome at all, but an open air design that would enclose the antenna. There were a number of changes, mostly forgotten about here and everywhere else.
But the interesting fact is that tower 2 was initially the first tower that was supposed to be constructed. Silverstein got it changed so the tallest (largest) tower would be built first.
Quote:
https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2...a-changed-one/
The rooftop mast will no longer be enclosed in a sculptural sheath of interlocking fiberglass panels but will instead be an exposed latticework structure.
If the result of all these changes is to lower the construction budget — something the Durst Organization has a strong financial incentive to do — that was not their purpose, said Douglas Durst, the chairman.
“We didn’t make the changes to save money,” he said. “The changes were made in order to construct the building.”
Durst originally sought what would have been, in essence, a construction management fee of $35 million for what it envisioned as five years of work. The authority was unwilling to pay that amount. Instead, a deal was negotiated under which Durst would receive a $15 million fee and be entitled to a percentage of any “base building changes that result in net economic benefit to the project” — cost savings, in other words — that Durst had initiated and recommended.
The biggest revision that has received the least public attention is to the large triangular plaza on the west side of 1 World Trade Center. Because of a grade change on the site, the plaza is up to 5 feet 8 inches higher than the surrounding sidewalks. The original plan called for broad stainless-steel steps to address that height difference.
“We wanted to create as much plaza as possible,” Mr. Durst said. “We didn’t see that the steps added anything, because most people don’t come in from the west.” Durst executives also questioned the wisdom of using stainless steel as a walking surface.
Mr. Childs publicly expressed disappointment with the decision by his clients not to build a radome, as such structures are known, to enclose the mast. “Eliminating this integral part of the building’s design and leaving an exposed antenna and equipment is unfortunate,” he said in a statement.
Though radomes are common on tall buildings and towers, Mr. Foye said Mr. Childs’s design “would have been very difficult to build and impossible to maintain.”
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Towers 3 and 4 turned out pretty well, value engineered or not. We can only hope that Silverstein is able to build a tower 2 that is compatible with the architect's vision.
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