NEW YORK | One World Trade Center | 1,776' Pinnacle / 1,373' Roof | 108 FLOORS

[Domamania]

Great news everyone. my dad is going to be sent back to work at ground zero aka world trade center and they are going to be sending him there for 2 years. My dad said he heard it from an insider that they will start to install the pumps and plumbing system in the tower by mid to late july. also he told me that they are planning to speed up the construction by late june and they might go from the floor a week to a floor and a half per week. so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that my dad is right.

[Nico54]

Hi everyone.

I'm a new user of this website, I've just descovered this forum, and all the amazing photos you put. I've been folowing the construction of the 1 WTC and the entire WTC site for 4 years, so this topic is huge to me, and yes, I've never seen this topic before...

I'm French and i've been in new york in august 2008 when the freedom tower was under the street level. It's amazing how it looks like actually.

So thanks for everyting you've shared here, I can see all the progress not only on webcams.

For sure i'll be there until 2013 !

[photoLith]

^^^
Be careful, skyscraperpage is very addicting

[David10]

I am really happy to se that construction is moving so quickly! I was looking back at different pictures and I think that 7 WTC looks great! and I think that 1 WTC is going to look great next to it also!

[37TimPPG]

Hi everyone. I'm French and i've been in new york in august 2008 when the freedom tower was under the street level. It's amazing how it looks like actually.

So thanks for everyting you've shared here, I can see all the progress not only on webcams.

For sure i'll be there until 2013 !

Bienvenue sur gratte-ciel page. c'est un temps tres passionnant de suivre la construction d'un mondre trace centre. encore une fois, bienvenue!:shrug:

(Welcome to skyscraper page. This is a very exciting time to follow the construction of One World Trace Center. Again, Welcome!):D :D :D

[evanmack]

http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2010/may/598_site-specifics-tracking-progress-at-the-world-trade-center.html

Site Specifics: Tracking Progress at the World Trade Center

By Matt Dunning and Carl Glassman
May. 03

Great news!

I was at Clinton Castle today and I noticed that you get a perfect view of 1WTC, its incredible and it is so huge!

[Dac150]

The progress is coming along great, and not only for Tower 1 but for the site in all. Soon the rest of the Eastern Tub will begin to fill up. It’s a process, but it’s perhaps the most exciting construction site right now in the world. Really appreciate what you’re witnessing, as I’ve said in the past.

[NYC2ATX]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4570209218_5a8e82e513_b.jpg


What is so amazing to me about this picture and what it says about New York...is that, in this city, even a massive construction site like this feels as though it is human in scale. Like, I feel as if I could just walk across the site in this picture and touch the building with hardly any effort. New York such a properly scaled city to human proportions that it's hard to find an area that is overwhelming and uninviting. This is what the business districts of China should hope to someday achieve.

[NYC4Life]

The next few years will be some of the best years in this city's history.

[NYguy]

I was at Clinton Castle today and I noticed that you get a perfect view of 1WTC, its incredible and it is so huge!

You get surprising views of the tower from many vantage points. The higher it gets, the more that will play out.


http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/clash-titans

Clash of the Titans at One World Trade Center

By Eliot Brown
May 4, 2010

Last week, the race to buy a stake of One World Trade Center narrowed to three old names in New York real estate.

The trio left to fight it out, down from an original six: Mort Zuckerman, Douglas Durst and Stephen Ross-the chairmen of Boston Properties, the Durst Organization and the Related Companies, respectively. Each has amassed a giant war chest intended to buy up new properties, and each proclaims they covet the idea of being the public face for what will be the city's tallest building.

The contest is less about the financials - each has offered around $100 million in a deal that could bring a greater return than a standard equity stake - and more about bringing in a big name with the ability to score tenants and help guide construction for the government-developed building still largely known as the Freedom Tower.

According to multiple people familiar with discussions between the Port Authority, the tower's developer, and the bidders, their respective pitches have highlighted the following:

• Mr. Ross, the builder of the Time Warner Center and owner of the Miami Dolphins, has positioned himself as a seasoned builder who works well with government and has an international presence (Related has noted that it has offices in China and the Middle East). He is partnered on the deal with David Levinson, chairman of L&L Properties and a former office broker, and people involved say Mr. Ross has been an aggressive salesman.

• Mr. Zuckerman has pushed his experience as a national office developer and landlord, one who works extensively with government tenants-One World Trade is slated to be more than one-third filled with federal and state offices. He nearly put up a tower on Eighth Avenue this past cycle before one of the two anchor tenants dropped out, and he has a significant presence in Boston and Washington.

• Mr. Durst has advertised his company's recent successes. He built and fully rented out two giant midtown office towers, most recently the highly successful Bank of America tower in midtown. Mr. Durst tends not to do layoffs at his company, and thus the leasing and construction team that worked on Bank of America is still in place.

In effect, the Port Authority is looking for a building manager with a small stake-a household name in the real estate world who will be able to draw both international and local tenants.

"We really do want a private spokesperson for this project, and we want to know that there's going to be very significant allocation of time from these developers," said Tara Stacom, vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, the firm handling leasing for the tower and advising on the developer sale. "This is a global icon, and we intend to brand it as such."

For Messrs. Durst and Zuckerman, the recent history of bidding on major public projects may be troubling: Mr. Ross tends to win.

Related, which seems to bid on most every large development going on in the city, edged out Mr. Durst to win control of the 26-acre West Side rail yards in 2008, and then tried to woo the tenant Mr. Durst had signed to his losing bid: Condé Nast. In 2005, Mr. Ross bested a bid by Mr. Zuckerman to expand Penn Station into the Farley Post Office, a project that also envisioned a new office tower.

The three also once courted a single tenant in a contest a decade back, according to a New York Times article then: All three offered plans to build a tower for Random House. Again, Mr. Ross won.

Here, however, he has less experience than the other two in building office towers-although his partner, Mr. Levinson, owns significant office space-and he also has far more going on elsewhere, which could prove a distraction.

The next stop for the developers: the Port Authority board. The authority, which expects to take a loss on the tower given its tremendous $3.2 billion cost, expects that the teams will each present to board members before its June meeting, when it hopes to make a selection.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

Did they already start with the floors 25 and 26?

[canadate]

Update from May 1st on my photobucket profile. >> http://s973.photobucket.com/albums/ae212/canadate/May%201st%202010/

[Nico54]

http://s973.photobucket.com/albums/ae212/canadate/May%201st%202010/?action=view&current=DSCF5001.jpg

But what is for this huge peace of steal on the ground?!

[theWatusi]

The tower for a peace of that steal is!!!

[Nico54]

The tower for a peace of that steal is!!!


Tall like this? and Red? I'm not sure, all pieces of steel are brown up to now.

[NYguy]

Update from morrongiello (http://www.flickr.com/photos/morrongiello/4582112788/sizes/l/) (May 5)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4582112788_c2044135a6_b.jpg

[NYC4Life]

Morrongiello's view of 7WTC will soon be gone, but will show the tremendous progress taking place at 1WTC.

[Ziroc]

Wow, things are really moving along there! BTW, what is that area going to be where the green rebar is sticking out near the top middle of the two old WTC Footprints?

And another question -- When they plant these trees, are they going to cut into the concrete, or install large concrete 'boxes' to hold the trees/root system? Just wondering..

Can't wait till we start seeing the curtain wall go up!

[Domamania]

Morrongiello's view of 7WTC will soon be gone, but will show the tremendous progress taking place at 1WTC.
you know i cant agree with you more. i mean your absolutly right. i would say in 3 months of time from morangellos point of view of tower 7 is going to be gone and coverd by the new Tower 1V2.

[BStyles]

Wow, things are really moving along there! BTW, what is that area going to be where the green rebar is sticking out near the top middle of the two old WTC Footprints?
Ventilation for the PATH tunnels below.
And another question -- When they plant these trees, are they going to cut into the concrete, or install large concrete 'boxes' to hold the trees/root system? Just wondering..
The Memorial Plaza is already near ten feet below grade(street level). So all they have to do is bring the trees, when ready, to the Memorial Plaza, take them out of their boxes and place them on the plaza, and then surround them with near 10 feet of dirt(or place the dirt first and then plant them) to bring the site up to grade.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

some updates from today


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4585754422_b77d16c7ed_b.jp

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4585111103_a3175979fb_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/4585110051_64f4104aa8_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4035/4585108941_d27d2531b6_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4585105963_3f7106507e_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4585730864_53088787c6_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4585729752_b19e1c0d6d_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4585102655_098e119255_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4585100435_77da978685_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4585725196_d2f0daa1a9_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4585098333_a2ccef76bd_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4585721962_4c1b8b1562_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4585094971_25f08f8db0_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3321/4585089139_5906deda01_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4585712802_c34eaea34c_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4585085919_032674f6f2_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3307/4585710572_f16aa5d17f_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/4585083757_33fcf7a502_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4585683834_e06b4e0ce1_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4585683834_e06b4e0ce1_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4585680456_11c864d629_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4585053743_ae2a599293_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4585678072_1938909c13_b.jpg

[NYguy]

^ Thanks.


http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/newly_apointed_port_authority.html

Port Authority director Bill Baroni says new Trade Center tower to be completed in 2013

http://media.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/photo/port-authorityjpg-f01b9e38f1484401_large.jpg

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger
May 06, 2010

In his first speech since being tapped by the governor to "get the World Trade Center project moving," former state Senator Bill Baroni said today the first 1,776-foot tower at ground zero would be finished in 2013, followed by a spectacular new PATH and subway station the next year.

Baroni was appointed in March by Gov. Chris Christie as deputy executive director of the Port Authority, making him New Jersey’s highest ranking bureaucrat at the bi-state agency, and the Garden State’s second most powerful man there after Chairman Anthony Coscia.

Baroni was back in his old 14th Legislative District to brief the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce on the Port Authority’s progress in rebuilding the World Trade Center site.

"We understand the world’s looking at us, and we will fulfill our responsibility," he told 150 chamber members at the Princeton Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Plainsboro.

"We’re 7 stories into the ground, complete, We’re 24 stories above the ground, complete, and two more stories above the ground as of this morning where the steel is complete," he said. By the end of the year, I believe, we will be 60 stories above the earth, You go down there and it is a symphony of construction.

"Because of the very real security concerns of this entire site, this entire building is being built with reinforced everything. Even the Subway sandwiches at the Subway shop there are reinforced," he said.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

I hope he his right!

I can't wait to see it rising taller

[metroXpress]

By the end of the year, I believe, we will be 60 stories above the earth, You go down there and it is a symphony of construction.

This sounds promising, we can already see the the first 24 floors taking shape!

[winlinmac001]

I agree! I visit this forum more than once a day during my break hours, lol. =p

^^^
Be careful, skyscraperpage is very addicting

[winlinmac001]

Hey, I know the pictures posted below are "way" too old. But these are shots I took in December, 2008 from Burger King (not far from Century 21 Department Store, :) )

You can definitely see the how much progress has been made since then. We have already come a long way. As long as owners of the site stick to the plan, the new WTC will be the most intricate site in the world! :banana:

Pictures taken with my Samsung Blackjack Phone (Lol, primitive) :tup:

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/6834/pic0238.jpg

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/4227/pic0239y.jpg

[NYguy]

This sounds promising, we can already see the the first 24 floors taking shape!

Twenty-six now...:tup:

[TheCity]

Hopefully nobody will question the tower's progress after that photo.

I have not walked past One World Trade Center in about 4-6 weeks until today. I can easily notice the progression over this time frame.

Great news everyone. my dad is going to be sent back to work at ground zero aka world trade center and they are going to be sending him there for 2 years. My dad said he heard it from an insider that they will start to install the pumps and plumbing system in the tower by mid to late july. also he told me that they are planning to speed up the construction by late june and they might go from the floor a week to a floor and a half per week. so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that my dad is right.

Good info!

The pictures in this thread are great!

[Innsertnamehere]

:previous: welcome to the forum! (jeez, there's been lot of you recently! All for the better of course!)

[Bucktown718]

http://images.nymag.com/images/2/homedesign/10/05/ny-panoramic-900.jpg

[nycdagreatest]

:previous: nice but 1 wtc should be closer to 7 wtc or unless I miss the news where they decided to build 1wtc where the memorial is:D

[winlinmac001]

Wow, I've been looking for a such a picture for days. Thanks for making my day. =)

Also, what about the cranes that will still be there in 2013? Wouldn't Tower's 2, 3, and 4 begin to shine the skyline as well (whether they are completed or near-completed)?

http://images.nymag.com/images/2/homedesign/10/05/ny-panoramic-900.jpg

[winlinmac001]

Is it just me or do we all notice a resemblance here. The lower part of Tower 1v2 seems to be a zoomed-in version of Tower 1v1:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2369/4585683834e06b4e0ce1b.jpg http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6779/wtctuningfork.jpg

[philvia]

that's kind of a stretch.

[kenratboy]

When did they start ripping out all the piers around Manhattan? When containerized shipping began to occur?

[uaarkson]

Wow, I've been looking for a such a picture for days. Thanks for making my day. =)

Also, what about the cranes that will still be there in 2013? Wouldn't Tower's 2, 3, and 4 begin to shine the skyline as well (whether they are completed or near-completed)?

Cranes on 1WTC will be down long before it's finished, and since it's scheduled for completion in 2013, there's no reason there would be a crane visible in that pic.

[winlinmac001]

Lol, probably when UPS Air service was put into place. Kinda off-topic though.

I don't think any of the elements on Tower 1v1 were forgotten when designs of v2 were unveiled. The trident-like shape (as shown in my previous post) does resemble a lot.

When did they start ripping out all the piers around Manhattan? When containerized shipping began to occur?

[meh_cd]

There are tridents all over the base, and the recent pieces they installed for the office floors look like tridents as well.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

from yesterday

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4590334843_6302a55972_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4590336001_eae3d14328_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4590336001_eae3d14328_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4590338421_f2948be7fb_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4590340989_c4889694d3_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4590342337_9be29e79c5_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4590343845_a6721c64ea_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4590345101_b540de4c6f_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4590348519_964ff1e717_b.jpg

[NYguy]

Is it just me or do we all notice a resemblance here. The lower part of Tower 1v2 seems to be a zoomed-in version of Tower 1v1:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2369/4585683834e06b4e0ce1b.jpg http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6779/wtctuningfork.jpg


I think you're seeing something that's not really there. That design seems more an element left over from Childs previous version of the Freedom Tower. The design characteristics taken from the old WTC are the obvious, such as the 1368 ft parapet height, and the slightly off dimensions of the tower.

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124380672/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124380670/large.jpg

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

^
^
^

that base still looks awesome

[winlinmac001]

I think I should zoom-out a little bit be specific,

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2369/4585683834e06b4e0ce1b.jpg

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/6083/94054561.jpg

It resembles a triangle at top w/o the base extending down on two vertical lines like the Washington Monument.

Is this still not convincing? =p

[uaarkson]

Not at all, sorry.

[JSsocal]

Its the same shape but on a totally different scale and context. There is certainly no intentional correlation between the shapes.

[winlinmac001]

I guess it is all in my head then. Sorry. :(

[NYCLuver]

Winlinmac, I can kinda see what you are saying. It's almost as if the new tower in an abstract way is in relation to the tridents in the old tower. :) It's just abstract, I am not even sure the meant to do it that way but its there. :)

Don't feel sorry! :cheers:

[NYguy]

LOL, you guys are reaching. It's clearly something Childs held over from his last design, or maybe not at all. With all of the current nods to the original tower in the design, if they were going to give a nod to the tridents at the base of the original, they would have done a much better and much more obvious job of it.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

Guys we havn't seen that image here. I created it by my own. The original image is from Wikipedia.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4973/44888494.jpg

[NYguy]

^ Looks a little lonely there, which reminds me. I posted this over in the visionary (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=4831892#post4831892) forum. The Freedom Tower always looks better with company...check the thread for more pics.

cs&sf (http://www.flickr.com/photos/isar/sets/72157624014509192/)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4588089746_a53328bea2_o.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4587467249_b6be9cb6aa_o.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4588088536_0a88d46213_o.jpg

[Onn]

^^
I like the idea, Lower Manhattan could use a supertall or two in that area...of course they need to finish the WTC first.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

Which buildings is that one. It appears very tall. :koko:

[nycdagreatest]

apologize if this has been discussed before but at the top of 1 wtc are they going with the ufo like top or the open rings?

[NYguy]

apologize if this has been discussed before but at the top of 1 wtc are they going with the ufo like top or the open rings?

The ring.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

^ Looks a little lonely there, which reminds me.


Yes of course. But that makes it very dominance.

[BStyles]

That skyscraper is horrible. Plus it would block the view of 1WTC from Battery Park. Not only that, it would throw off the entire ascending skyline that Lower Manhattan has adopted(in other words, another 1973 World Trade Center).

[NYC4Life]

Which buildings is that one. It appears very tall. :koko:

Greenwich Supertall proposal

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=181550

[NYguy]

^ Yeah, I posted the link above the photos.

That skyscraper is horrible. Plus it would block the view of 1WTC from Battery Park. Not only that, it would throw off the entire ascending skyline that Lower Manhattan has adopted(in other words, another 1973 World Trade Center).

You can love or hate the design, but blocking the view of the Freedom Tower from Battery Park? That's a little like saying tower 2 will block the Freedom Tower from the Brooklyn Bridge (not that people will go down to Battery Park to view it). The Freedom Tower is prominent enough. It will be taller than everything around it, including its supertall neighbors. In addition to a tower in that location, Downtown could use another supertall on the east river side of the skyline. Not that the tower in the rendering wouldn't add another peak, but towers of equal prominence on the lower Manhattan skyline, towering above everything else, that was the lower Manhattan skyline at it's finest, before the boxes came and everything blended into one, hulking mass of canyons.

Yes, give us peaks, and more peaks...:yes:

Of course, this is all just a dream of what could happen.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4587467249_b6be9cb6aa_o.jpg

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

plz tell me the skyvoid has a chance at getting built!

[Innsertnamehere]

is it just me or are getting a little off topic? (sorry to be the one who had to say this)

[nycdagreatest]

isn't skyvoid were 50 west street is?

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

isn't skyvoid were 50 west street is?

no itt lies where the battery tunnel lets out which is behind 50 west street,50 west street directly on west street

[nycdagreatest]

no itt lies where the battery tunnel lets out which is behind 50 west street,50 west street directly on west street
thanks for clearing that up for me

[kznyc2k]

2010.05.06

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/4592853726_9039f308e8_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3306/4592258851_70b8f6bd80_b.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1142/4592238067_49d93d54cd_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3469/4592262453_50bd4ce37e_b.jpg

[philvia]

dont know if i've ever seen pics during sunrise... looks great, thanks a lot!

[JSsocal]

isn't it sunset?

[winlinmac001]

It has to be a sunset. The sun's reflection on the buildings is from the west. The sun sets in the west and rises from the east. =p

One question about the new 1 WTC. Don't you think they are using fewer columns on the exterior wall (outer perimeter) than the former WTC Tower 1? Is this suppose to be a good thing? The building looks too light weight at the top and those columns appear very thin.

[NYguy]

One question about the new 1 WTC. Don't you think they are using fewer columns on the exterior wall (outer perimeter) than the former WTC Tower 1? Is this suppose to be a good thing? The building looks too light weight at the top and those columns appear very thin.

You don't really think they would make the mistake of building a skyscraper not as strong as the towers that fell before it do you? This is one of the most rigorous and robust skyscrapers ever built. So much so that some say the design suffers for it.

[JACKinBeantown]

You don't really think they would make the mistake of building a skyscraper not as strong as the towers that fell before it do you? This is one of the most rigorous and robust skyscrapers ever built. So much so that some say the design suffers for it.

Plus, if you visit and look up close, those base columns are about 4 feet thick. So the upper ones must be around 2 feet across. The outer columns of the original WTC were much thinner (part of its problem). And keep in mind that One World Trade Center as you see it under construction is approaching 300 feet tall. It looks smaller in photos than it really is, so the columns appear smaller too.

[winlinmac001]

I was referring to spacing between each column. If there is less spacing between columns doesn't the building have lessen the chances of collapse. It would redistribute weight load if something was ever to happen. Time for me to revisit Physics 101, lol. Thanks for clarifying my doubts. =)

[meh_cd]

I was referring to spacing between each column. If there is less spacing between columns doesn't the building have lessen the chances of collapse. It would redistribute weight load if something was ever to happen. Time for me to revisit Physics 101, lol. Thanks for clarifying my doubts. =)

It isn't the same kind of building design as the originals, so it wouldn't redistribute the weight in the same way regardless. You're looking at the columns and forgetting about the super thick concrete core + embedded steel that was completely absent in the twin towers.

[dchan]

The problem with the original WTC towers wasn't their structure - it was actually plenty strong enough to survive the airplane impacts and subsequent opening within the structure. Their downfall was their weak fireproofing and insulation, which got blasted off during the impact.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of steel is that it loses its strength at a certain temperature, one at which burning jet fuel will easily reach. In this sense, even a obsolete material like cast iron is superior to steel because it doesn't lose strength like steel does during fires (on the other hand, it's extremely brittle, has no tensile strength capacity, and expands unacceptably when exposed to heat, which actually leads to structural collapse).

[NYguy]

Photos from earlier today..

MAY 11, 2010

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124439708/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124439715/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124439717/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124439717/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/124439725/large.jpg

[Zensteeldude]

Nice shots NYGuy.

The CMU structure in the second and third shots is the temporary PATH vent.

CMU=concrete masonry unit, aka "cinder block" though they contain no cinders.

[Zensteeldude]

It has to be a sunset. The sun's reflection on the buildings is from the west. The sun sets in the west and rises from the east. =p

One question about the new 1 WTC. Don't you think they are using fewer columns on the exterior wall (outer perimeter) than the former WTC Tower 1? Is this suppose to be a good thing? The building looks too light weight at the top and those columns appear very thin.

The columns in Tower One do appear to be rather thin but looks are deceiving.

Each column contains over 4 times the amout of steel and the steel is over 3 times stronger than those used in the Twins. (The jumbo colums contain more than 6 times)

The "little" green one on top still weighs over 500 pounds per foot.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2762/4039289733_b96f723396_o.jpg

Each face of the building is a "wind frame" acting like a solid steel plate. Redundancy is an understatment. The core acts like the trunk of a tree taking much of the gravity load. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. As NYGuy said, "This is one of the most rigorous and robust skyscrapers ever built."

[MercurySky]

What great progress the site is making. They were putting up the original eighty foot high beams of Tower one when I visited NYC last September. I am looking forwards to another visit around the same time this year. I really love the design of Tower four and want to check the construction in person.

[BiggieSmalls]

Nice shots NYGuy.

The CMU structure in the second and third shots is the temporary PATH vent.

CMU=concrete masonry unit, aka "cinder block" though they contain no cinders.


temporary? PATH Vent

is that why it doesnt show in the renders?
http://www.wtc.com/media/images/s/wtc-renderings-1-world-trade-center-renderings?

[philvia]

isn't it sunset?

why yes :P

[Bucktown718]

What great progress the site is making. They were putting up the original eighty foot high beams of Tower one when I visited NYC last September. I am looking forwards to another visit around the same time this year. I really love the design of Tower four and want to check the construction in person.
trust me once you get to see this thing in person you will be suprised how huge and amazing this tower is coming along. When i first visited the site a month ago i was literally shocked.
BTW: Picture's can't really describe this thing, you HAVE to see it with your own eye's.

[JZeig1]

Hay guys, I am almost certain that this has been posted before, but I had to ask.
You know it's funny how people can take ideas from one place and used them elsewhere when they find them convenient. I know this building http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?buildingID=8199 had to be the inspiration for the tower and I agree with other post. 1WTC (Freedom Tower) needs a sister. They still should build the other one. Probably not in my lifetime. I could be wrong but...

[Zensteeldude]

temporary? PATH Vent

is that why it doesnt show in the renders?
http://www.wtc.com/media/images/s/wtc-renderings-1-world-trade-center-renderings?

Yep. The permanent one can be seen in the forth shot, far left (inside the tower). It's just a wall of re bar, so far.

[NYguy]

morrongiello (http://www.flickr.com/photos/morrongiello/4595863789/sizes/l/) (May 10)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1236/4595863789_3c9439c8b4_b.jpg

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

On which floors are they currently working? 25 and 26?:koko:

[Zensteeldude]

Yep, 25 & 26.

Now that the wind has died down and the rain has stopped I expect to see alot of steel go up in the next few days.

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

Yep, 25 & 26.

Now that the wind has died down and the rain has stopped I expect to see alot of steel go up in the next few days.

Ok, that was the reason that there was not much progress at the last days.

[CalibratedZeus]

Winter and spring are always crazy weather on the east coast, with snow and rain in the winter and just rain and wind like crazy in the spring.

For those of you worried about progress just wait until it hits summer and we have weeks straight of gorgeous weather.

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/nyregion/14wtc.html

Condé Nast Considers Move to New W.T.C. Tower

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
May 13, 2010

The publishing giant Condé Nast has been talking to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey about moving to 1 World Trade Center when it is complete, a potential coup for the signature skyscraper rising from ground zero.

According to real estate executives who requested anonymity because the talks are secret, the publisher would take up as much as one million square feet in what is planned to be the country’s tallest office tower, a symbolic 1,776 feet at its top.

So far, the only tenants are government offices and a Chinese real estate company. Condé Nast, which established Times Square as a hip and resurgent area when it moved into 4 Times Square in 1999, would be a whole different matter, bringing its particular cachet downtown.

“It’s the perfect place for them,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown Alliance New York. “The lunch crowd will be very well dressed. And where else can you go to Tiffany and Century 21 on your lunch hour?

“Lower Manhattan is increasingly a place where progressive, interesting companies want to be,” she added. “They’d do for us what Condé Nast did for Times Square when they built their current building.”

Condé Nast would not confirm any of trade center plans on Thursday. When contacted for comment, the company’s longtime spokeswoman, Maurie Perl, said, “At this time we’ve got nothing to say.”

Condé Nast, which publishes Vanity Fair, Vogue, W, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest and 13 other consumer magazines, is not the only company considering the tower. Morgan Stanley and two other financial firms have inquired about at 1 World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, according to real estate executives.

Still, nothing is certain. Condé Nast, which occupies about 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square, as well as five other buildings across Manhattan, has been looking for a new home for some time. In 2007, the company was part of a bid for the development rights over the West Side railyards by the developer Douglas Durst, whose family owns 4 Times Square.

Companies considering moves or consolidation routinely scour the entire market, visiting every place big enough to accommodate them. Sometimes they move and other times they use the alternative as a cudgel to get a better deal from their current landlord.

[Onn]

Well that is definitely unexpected...and welcome if true. They should anchor the WTC site, that would be sweet. Perhaps they're going to have to rename 1WTC the Condé Nast Tower. :haha:

[Innsertnamehere]

a MILLION square feet! thats a ton! how much of the tower would that take up?

[Zensteeldude]

One million out of 2.6 million.

With that kind of commitment they may buy the naming rights too !

[NYC4Life]

Since the tower is meant to be symbolic, I highly doubt any naming rights will be sold.

[Zensteeldude]

Yes, you are right, the PA is one of the only agencies in the area that hasn't sold naming rights to landmarks.

Could you imagine a huge Kmart banner hanging from the GWashington Bridge !

[NYguy]

Condé Nast, which occupies about 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square, as well as five other buildings across Manhattan, has been looking for a new home for some time. In 2007, the company was part of a bid for the development rights over the West Side railyards by the developer Douglas Durst, whose family owns 4 Times Square.

The Durst Organization is one of 3 finalists (along with Related and Boston Properties) trying to manage the Freedom Tower. Conde Naste was willing to jump to the west side with Durst, maybe they're considering the move should Durst in fact gain control of the tower.


http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/13/anna_wintour_graydon_carter_and_the_cond_gang_coming_to_fidi.php
Graydon Carter and the Condé Gang Coming to FiDi?

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_wintour.jpg

Thursday, May 13, 2010, by Joey

Imagine, if you will, the high-fashion priestesses of Vogue lining up in the queue at the Fulton Street Chipotle like a regular FiDi working stiff. Not likely, sure, but we can at least consider it within the realm of possibility! That's because the NYT's Charles Bagli drops the bombshell news that magazine giant Condé Nast is considering a move to 1 World Trade Center. The artist formerly known as the Freedom Tower—the steel is now beyond the 20th floor!—only has government agencies and a Chinese real estate firm signed up for space, which means that tearing a company like Condé Nast away from the grips of Midtown would be quite the coup.

[NYguy]

jdsmith1021 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdsmith1021/4597759918/sizes/l/in/set-72157624037217782/)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4597759918_74670894d9_b.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3406/4597126915_01460b8656_b.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/4597750508_0a9c70e824_b.jpg


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4597726480_eb91b9da4d_b.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1016/4597739204_6b3da82555_b.jpg

[Big Sky]

It's so great to see this tower going up. For a while there it seemed liked it would never get above grade.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Wow, it seems like just yesteday that Conde Nast moved into Times Square. Hope it goes through!

However, given that Conde Nast has little to do with "World Trade," maybe they'd have to re-name it "1 Miscellaneous Tenants Center." ;)

BTW, it's hard to tell from the photo - what floor are they building now?

[GertElim]

However, given that Conde Nast has little to do with "World Trade," maybe they'd have to re-name it "1 Miscellaneous Tenants Center."

If you look at the tenants that occupied the original WTC 1 and 2, that was not much different.
All kinds of businesses that have nothing to do with "World Trade" http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/tenants1.html ;)

[NYguy]

GcUeIfWa1JQ

[westmc9th]

looks like there is a reason for no new steel lately. cat235d over on wired new york has said.

"Collavino needs to pick up the pace here bigtime.... DCM cannot proceed until the slacking concrete gang catches up"

Meaning that no new steel can go up untill the concrete for the core goes up some, also Zensteeldude said

"I expected the protection walls to be up long before now. Collavino really is lagging behind."

Hopefully it wont be to major of a delay.

[Onn]

Oh, now it comes out there are people slacking on the job. What do you know? I think it was the concrete guys when we were below ground too, somebody needs to go have a word with these people (aka Chris Ward, who's been a jerk the entire time). :no:

[NYguy]

http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/66021/

The Complex
The politics at ground zero have been painfully difficult. But its construction demands may be even worse.

http://images.nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/groundzero-b100524_250.jpg


http://images.nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/groundzero100524_560.jpg

By Christopher Bonanos
May 16, 2010

Nine years into the rebuilding of ground zero, and we’re just now getting unstuck. The stakeholders are wrapping up their arguments over who controls which slices of the site, having finally settled on a schematic plan, memorial design, timetable, and financing arrangement that everyone can more or less live with. The public spent a decade being worn down by politics and arguments: Larry Silverstein versus the Port Authority. Pataki versus the NYPD. Libeskind versus David Childs. Bloomberg versus Paterson. Memorial designer Michael Arad versus the victims’ families. All around those debates swirled the question of whether, economically, this project makes any sense at all, dumping as it does 12 million square feet of office space onto a now-deflated commercial market. Even if you did believe the whole thing should happen, it has been excruciating to watch the site get caught in the old New York snarl of permit agencies and sluggish bureaucracies and every possible variety of red tape.

Those issues, at least, are not physical realities; they’re obstacles based on human nature. Yet, for a long time, they obscured the perhaps even greater problem of building on what is probably the most difficult construction site in history.

The architects and engineers involved have known this all along, of course, and now that construction is roaring forward, the rest of us can see what they’ve been up against. Every bit of land at ground zero is crowded with supplies, workers, and rising steel and concrete. One World Trade Center (the skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower) is 26 stories high and beginning to poke its head into the downtown skyline. Even at quarter-height, its density and bulk are evident, and you can start to grasp how jammed up against the path tracks it is. Its neighbor at Four World Trade is up to about five floors, hard by the 1 train that continually rattles through the center of the site.

The two memorial pools are framed out, and underground construction is moving forward on Santiago Calatrava’s swoopy transportation hub.

Foundation work for Towers 2 and 3 starts next month, and the contaminated Deutsche Bank building, looming over the southern end of the site, will come down later this year to make way for Tower 5. Libeskind’s abiding idea—five towers standing guard around a sunken memorial—is inching toward reality.

Actually, “five towers” is a misnomer. It’s really all one giant sixteen-acre mega-building, with many zones held by many stakeholders, their structures intermingled “like metastasized synapses in the brain,” says T. J. Gottesdiener, the partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who’s going to end up spending at least a decade of his life directing his firm’s chunk of the job.

The buildings’ foundations and underpinnings are seven levels deep, all knitted together, and in the future, as you walk around the concourse levels, you will constantly be changing jurisdictions, sometimes every few feet: in Port Authority territory here, on MTA turf there, entering privately developed space around the corner.

That’s a major reason the construction has appeared even slower than it has been: A lot of significant work has taken place out of sight. One World Trade alone has 350,000 square feet of space beneath the surface. (For comparison, that’s the entire size of its 25-story neighbor at 44 Wall Street.) Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, puts it this way: “What people don’t realize is, setting the foundations, doing the preliminary work below grade before the tower could even be visible to the public, was three years in the making.”

Two tunnels run through the sixteen-acre World Trade Center site: the 1 subway line, north to south, and the path tubes, looping through and going directly under One World Trade. This is not an abnormal obstacle on its own; New York architects and engineers deal with subway tunnels under their buildings all the time.

Consider, though, what they have to do here, since the underground memorial is bisected by the subway: prop up the “box”—the tube containing the subway tunnel, now exposed on its top and sides—and pour a new foundation under it, piecemeal. It can’t move an inch during all this, of course, lest the tracks misalign or the walls crack. The MTA has movement gauges all over the site, and the limits are given in millimeters. One staffer involved with the project said flat out, and very much not for attribution: “They should’ve shut that train down for three years, and demolished the whole thing and started over.” Why didn’t they? It’s the only train running to South Ferry and thus serving Staten Island’s ferry commuters.

You can pile up superlatives about the new towers from here to the 102nd floor. Two large cranes sit atop One World Trade right now, either of which can pick up 70,000 pounds in one yank. “Did you see the counterweight on the back of that thing?” Ward asks me. “It’s the size of a fucking house.”

The immense girders at the base of the building (“Those big pieces of steel are psycho to think about,” he adds) weigh 70 tons apiece, and every one came over the George Washington Bridge and down the West Side Highway, at dawn. Altogether, 45,000 tons of structural steel will go into the first tower and 22,000 tons into the transportation hub.

Much of the plaza structure is (counterintuitively) being built from the top down instead of the bottom up, because the memorial is scheduled to open before the lower concourse does. Right now, there are about 1,400 construction workers on the site, and by next year, that number will swell to 2,100. If everyone working in One World Trade were to make his way downstairs at lunch, it would take half a day, which is why there’s a structure hanging inside called “the hotel”: a stack of shipping containers two stories high, containing bathrooms, offices, and a Subway sandwich outlet. Every time the center of construction activity shifts, the hotel is jacked up a couple of stories.

The Port Authority is projecting an opening date of late 2013 for One World Trade and is in the process of negotiating a partial sale of the tower to a private developer. (Last week, the Times reported that Condé Nast is considering leasing up to a million square feet.) These days, a lot of what’s coming into the site is concrete—up to 2,000 trucks per month, precisely timed so their contents don’t start to harden before they’re poured. As the job shifts from basic structure to fitting-out, deliveries become an even larger part of the logistics, because there are so many: glass, plumbing, air-conditioning ducts, all by the ton, daily.

There is no vacant lot (or landfill, as was the case when the Twin Towers went up, 40-odd years ago) to stash materials, only a tiny sliver of a staging area, slotted in next to Greenwich Street. Supplies, therefore, have to arrive in small batches, just before they go into place, and over at 115 Broadway, there’s an entire office devoted to coordinating trucks and deliveries. Every building site works with some kind of coordinator, but Ken Lewis, another SOM architect, explained the difference this way: “Usually, it’s four guys who go over this once a week. Here it’s twenty,” all full-timers. (Consider all this good practice for managing the tour buses that will start streaming in after the memorial opens on the tenth anniversary of the attacks—two years before the parking garage is finished. The Port Authority is projecting that the site will be the single biggest tourist destination in America, outdrawing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.)

...The sparkling finial that will top off One World Trade may eventually come to define it on the skyline, but extra-dense concrete is far more suggestive of what this building really is. Every inch of the tower, from subbasements on up, is braced against an imagined future attack. Its chunky base, twenty stories tall, is dramatically armored—or “hardened,” the builders say. Heavy reinforced walls at street level extend outward and underground, making even the plaza explosion-resistant. The glass outer skin of One World Trade—blast-tested, successfully, out in the New Mexico desert—will hang on extra-heavy steel. That structure surrounds an inner, slightly less hefty frame that holds up floors and the rest of the interior. That, in turn, houses an elevator core, its walls up to eight feet thick, made of that super-dense concrete and packed with steel rebar as thick as your wrist. In its current raw state, it looks like the containment dome over a nuclear reactor, except with slots for turnstiles. “If we hadn’t had to do that,” says the Port Authority’s Steve Coleman, “we’d be past 50 stories by now.”

In the past, the difficulty of building in New York—even on sites as challenging as downtown Manhattan—was of local origin: the density of our urban grid, the egos of our power players, the grind of our bureaucracy. But the architecture and infrastructure of fear brings a new layer of complexity, one that stems from global forces and is largely beyond our ability to resolve. While ground zero may be an especially alluring terrorist target, we have moved into an age where every part of a major building is shaped by security plans, from truck inspections at the parking garage to airport-style screening at observation-deck gates. In this sense, One World Trade is the city’s future. Asked whether he went through a background check, Gottesdiener says, “Oh, yes. Everyone does.” There’s a lot of stuff in that building that he can’t discuss, and elements of the design that even his team of architects isn’t privy to. Ask him about it, and he tightens up: “When it comes to security, we take confidentiality very seriously” is all he’ll say.