NEW YORK | 150 Greenwich St. | 977 FT / 297 M | 72 FLOORS

[CoolCzech]

The devil will be in the details, but I believe this tower stands the best chance of being considered an example of architectural perfection out of the different WTC structures.

[NYguy]

The devil will be in the details, but I believe this tower stands
the best chance of being considered an example of architectural perfection out of the
different WTC structures.

At 975 ft, this would be a major new tower somewhere else, but being so close to Tower 3
and the others, it looks like a baby. But I'm glad that this tower, along with the others, will
finally have the street presence the Twins lacked, making them much more a part of the
streetscape. Also, all of the buildings will have a public presence. I really like the restaurant
overlooking the memorial in this one.


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/78077888/large.jpg


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http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/85146452/original.jpg

[kpexpress]

I love the mass and simplicity of this building. Content and bold! With a tranquil appeal to it.

[Raraavis]

I think these two make a nice couple. Opposites attract...:)

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/66546859/original.jpg

It is like a short, fat, and bald rich guy standing next to his tall attractive trophy wife.

[NYguy]

Less than 3 months to go, it looks like the Port Authority will meet the deadline...
http://lowermanhattan.info/news/construction_booms_across_the_20898.aspx

Construction Booms Across the WTC's 16 Acres

http://lowermanhattan.info/images/news/100307_WTC%20Site%20Memorial%20Excav_LG.jpg

October 3, 2007

Quentin Brathwaite, the agency's assistant director of priority capital programs, began his update on the site's east side. There, slurry wall installation is complete at the southeast corner (Liberty and Church Streets), and crews continue installing the massive 70- to 110-foot-long slurry wall panels at the north end of the bathtub (Vesey at Church Streets). Excavation of the east bathtub now is underway, and in the southern half approximately 40 percent of the soil has already been removed.

"We're very pleased with the progress we've made in the past three months," Braithwaite said. He added that crews currently are working two eight-hour shifts but may increase work hours to stay on schedule. The goal is to complete the south portion of the east bathtub by December 31, 2007, when Silverstein Properties will take over for construction of WTC Towers Three and Four. Construction of Tower Two will follow later in 2008.

East bathtub excavation also allows Port Authority crews to begin building the $2.2 billion WTC Transportation Hub. For that project, a new temporary PATH station entrance opened in July on Church Street, enabling crews to dismantle the former entrance structure. In early 2008, the entrance again will be relocated to Vesey Street at West Broadway, where it will remain until architect Santiago Calatrava's WTC Transportation Hub opens in 2011.
Meanwhile, much progress has been made on the transportation hub's "east-west connector" on the west side of the WTC. Port Authority crews are pouring concrete to form the future pedestrian tunnel, which will link the WTC with the World Financial Center.

[Dac150]

It's all moving along well.

[NYguy]

Overall view of the sites of towers 2, 3, 4, and Freedom...

(from wtcrising.com)

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/site%20overviewoct207_big.jpg

[NYguy]

Great view of the new tub at the southeastern corner, site of Towers 3 and 4...
Seth Holladay

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1429342397&size=o

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1430219466&size=o

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1427994895&size=o

[RandySavage]

^ Let me say that I GREATLY appreciate all your NYC updates.

[Dac150]

1 Liberty Plaza is a monster. The building is just huge.

[NYguy]

^ Let me say that I GREATLY appreciate all your NYC updates.

No problem...


1 Liberty Plaza is a monster. The building is just huge.

It is, but it will be dwarfed by 150 (tower 4), which will in turn be dwarfed by towers 3 and 2...

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/85146481/medium.jpg

[NYguy]

Schedule from wtc.com:

Foundation Construction......................... January - July 2008
Construction Drawings............................ April 1, 2008
Superstructure to Ground Level................ July 2008 - January 2009
Structural Steel Erection......................... January 2009 - September 2010
Structural Concrete Tower Core & Slab...... March 2009 - November 2010
Core and Shell Work............................... September 2009 - December 2011
Curtain Wall.......................................... November 2009 - March 2011

[NYguy]

pathrestoration.com

new south wall...

http://www.pathrestoration.com/drp/images/gallery/wtcth/2007/09/slurrywallS01.jpg


http://www.pathrestoration.com/drp/images/gallery/wtcth/2007/09/slurrywallS04.jpg

[Stephenapolis]

Thanks for the update pics.

[NYguy]

Excavation in the newly built "tub"...

(wtcrising.com)

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/east%20bathtubexcavation%20october%202007_big.jpg

[StarScraperCity]

It is like a short, fat, and bald rich guy standing next to his tall attractive trophy wife.

I wouldn't say that. I personally think that it's beauty is found in its simplicity. :)

[NYguy]

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/85146481/medium.jpg

Silverstein should bump this one up a little just for the hell of it. What's another 25 ft between friends?

However, if a deal is somehow reached to allow for a larger tower 3 with more floors for Merrill Lynch, this one could actually be reduced. I wouldn't have a problem with it. In fact, they could move this one altogether. If not, make it officially a 1,000 ft tower.

[NYguy]

At 975 ft, this tower would dominate most skylines, and would probably sport some sort of crown.
But as WTC "filler", its that other skyscraper type New York is known for - the big box.
About 1/3 will be leased to the Port Authority. Another 1/3 to the City. I guess we'll
eventually call it the Port Authority tower, or building.

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/90034612/medium.jpg


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http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/90034612/large.jpg

[Fabb]

The only possible appeal of this building will be the cladding. It could be nice.

[NYguy]

The only possible appeal of this building will be the cladding. It could be nice.

The cladding of all of the towers will be similar, Silverstein is seeing to it.
This building will have more of a public appeal. Other than the Freedom Tower,
it offers the most public spaces.

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/85508353/large.jpg


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http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/77331757/large.jpg

[CoolCzech]

The view out across the memorial to the FT soaring into the sky will be a killer...

[Busy Bee]

I just fell asleep while scrolling.

[NYguy]

I just fell asleep while scrolling.

You can type in your sleep. Excellent talent.

[NYguy]

The view out across the memorial to the FT soaring into the sky will be a killer...

The view from the restaurant in the fall or during the winter snow will be nice. Something different for the WTC. Yet get your choice of "windows-on-the-world" at the Freedom Tower. Or just a simple "windows-on-NY" at this one. The was the possibility of opening up some sort of public space at Tower 5 as well, but we'll see how that goes.

[NYguy]

Meanwhile, the new slurry wall is (nearly) completed on the southern end...

wtcrising.com

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/DSC_0226_big.jpg

[NYC2ATX]

I wouldn't say that. I personally think that it's beauty is found in its simplicity. :)

Quite true. But hey, who says short, fat rich guys are so complicated? I thought that fat guy, tall thin wife thing so funny. :haha: Eh, they are all beautiful buildings though.

I am so amazed by the immense progress at this site now. It's so refreshing after six years of dragging feet.

[CoolCzech]

Quite true. But hey, who says short, fat rich guys are so complicated? I thought that fat guy, tall thin wife thing so funny. :haha: Eh, they are all beautiful buildings though.

I am so amazed by the immense progress at this site now. It's so refreshing after six years of dragging feet.


Well, you just know that after all this time Silverstein must be just chaffing at the bits to see everything completed.

[NYguy]

I am so amazed by the immense progress at this site now. It's so refreshing after six years of dragging feet.

Yeah, there's really nothing left to fight over now, except maybe the Deutsche Bank building demoliton.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2007/port-authority-could-owe-larry-silverstein-12m-plus-delays


Statement by Port Authority Regarding Preparation of Towers 3 and 4 Bathtub
At WTC Site to Allow Silverstein Properties to Begin Construction in January

The Port Authority announced today that it has substantially completed the excavation of the basement area for Towers 3 and 4 at the World Trade Center site, and that it would complete the entirety of the excavation of Tower 4 by mid-January, and Tower 3 two to four weeks later. In keeping with this timetable, Silverstein Properties will advance procurement and other preconstruction activities in preparation for full-scale construction.

The construction of the Towers, including below- and above-grade retail and subterranean transit concourses, is expected to be completed by Silverstein Properties in 2011.

The unprecedented 12-month excavation and construction project - which involved the removal of nearly 300,000 tons, or enough concrete, soil and rock to fill Giants Stadium - will be completed within weeks of its original schedule established in an agreement with Silverstein Properties in mid-2006. Fifty miles of trucks was required to remove the material from the “bathtub” in recent months. In addition to clearing the site, the work involved the intricate installation of approximately 400 tiebacks, which if placed end-to-end would stretch down Interstate 95 from Manhattan to Philadelphia, and the pouring of enough concrete to pave a sidewalk from Wall Street to Rockland County, N.Y.

As a whole, the project is more than 90 percent complete. The excavation for the bathtub for Towers 3 and 4 must be dug to elevation 240. To date, 80 percent of the site for Tower 4 has reached elevation 240, and the remaining portion ranges from between elevations 241 and 248. The site for Tower 3 has been excavated to as low as elevation 264.

[NYguy]

Maybe we all need to get down there with shovels....

DECEMBER 29, 2007

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91047073/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91047089/large.jpg

[NYguy]

Port Authority offers proof of progress at the site:


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91049910/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91049919/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91049922/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/91049923/large.jpg

[Dac150]

Talk about progress.

[CoolCzech]

Just wait 'til the megatowers start rocketing out of the ground... the World Trade Center will come back bigger and better than it ever was. I just hope that we don't see anymore cutbacks like the one that killed the Fulton station proposal: it would be a damned shame to lose the Calatrava station. I could easily live without the waterfalls, though: they could save a couple of hundred million just by creating a beautiful new park with a magnificent fountain in the middle, and calling it Memorial Park: an instant rival to Bryant Park. The falls will be nice if actually built, but if a budget cut has to happen somewhere, THAT would be the place... I shudder to think of the cost to operate and maintain the things decades into the future.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2008/you-re-larry-port-authority-weeks-away-ceding-tower-sites

You're Up, Larry! Port Authority Weeks Away From Ceding Tower Sites

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/Breaks-LieberSilverstein1H.jpg

by Eliot Brown
January 1, 2008

With the Port Authority’s announcement on Monday that it is facing four to six weeks of delays at Ground Zero, it seems Larry Silverstein will have to wait a few more weeks before his test begins.

Assuming the Port Authority, which owns the site, finishes excavating the bathtub for World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4 within the next few weeks, as it expects, Mr. Silverstein will indeed be in the spotlight, as for the first time in over six years the ball will be almost entirely in his court.

This test seems to be one that he relishes, as for some time he has been anxious to try to wow New York City with the speed and efficiency of the private sector (pressure is added by the fact that he’s paying some $215,000 a day in rent for the sites). His deputy for World Trade Center development, Janno Lieber, often boasts about his design team, claiming they have met every single deadline thrown at them.

Of course, that’s a bit easier to say from their 7 World Trade Center office than it is when building more than six million square feet of new space, though their time to prove themselves awaits.

[NYguy]

wtcrising.com

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/t4_big.jpg

[chex]

thats a big hole...

[Dougall5505]

thats a lot of excavators

[NYguy]

thats a lot of excavators

Yeah, the fact that they missed the deadline by a couple of weeks is mostl due to
the fact that the Port Authority started so late. In the long run, a minor delay.
By spring we will have already forgotten it.


http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/t4_big.jpg

Considering everything, I'd say a job well done.

[Lecom]

I wish they'd started slapping penalties on late jobs at Ground Zero since day one, cause then we'd have half the complex done by now. Look at how fast the PA pulled its act together when it was pressed with a penalty threat. At this stage it looks like the piles may go in within just a couple of months, while earlier the site sat as a level piece of land for years.

[NYguy]

I wish they'd started slapping penalties on late jobs at Ground Zero since day one, cause then we'd have half the complex done by now. Look at how fast the PA pulled its act together when it was pressed with a penalty threat.

But that's only after work began on the site. Most of the delays were due to site planning and design fighting and revision. Once that was taken care of, Silverstein set his own design deadlines. I'm confident that once Silverstein gets control of the site, things will move at a steady pace. With all the rent he's paying the PA for the site, I'm sure he's ready to get tenants of his own in those buildings.

[NYguy]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_243/portmissesdeadline.html

Port misses deadline and says ‘worst’ construction noise is almost over

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_243/newtrade.gif

By Julie Shapiro
Jan. 4 -10, 2008


In a move that surprised few but angered many, the Port Authority waited until Dec. 31 to announce that excavation of the eastern World Trade Center bathtub would not be complete by the end of the year. The work may last into mid-February and could cost the Port Authority $13.5 million.

As recently as Dec. 26, Steve Coleman, Port Authority’s spokesperson, said the Port would meet the year-end deadline and turn the sites for Towers 3 and 4 over to Silverstein Properties, the developer that is building them.

But on Dec. 31, Anthony Shorris, the Port’s executive director, said there was more rock on the site than expected, requiring an extra four to six weeks of work.

“Every day on this project matters and we know that,” Shorris told Downtown Express in a telephone interview. “We want to get it done as fast as we can.”

The Port Authority is paying Silverstein $300,000 for each day of the delay, but the money will not come out of the Port’s budget, Shorris said. Had the excavation finished on time, the Port Authority would have paid its contractor a bonus of up to $10 million. Now, the money from will go to Silverstein instead. If the fees to Silverstein exceed $10 million, the Port Authority will look for ways to save money on other parts of the $16 billion World Trade Center project, Coleman said. The delay fees will cross the $10 million mark several days into February.

The delay will have “no net effect” on any part of the World Trade Center construction, Shorris added.

Silverstein Properties released a similar statement. “A few extra weeks to complete everything is a minor bump in the road in the context of this entire project,” Janno Lieber, director of World Trade Center development for Silverstein, said in the statement.

The Port Authority did not begin constructing the bathtub until after the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — over a year after the Port received nearly $500 million in federal money to build it.

The Port Authority will now work on finishing up the Tower 4 excavation, which is in the southeast corner of the site. That should take one to two weeks, Shorris said. As soon as the Port finishes that portion of the site, Silverstein will start working on the foundation of Tower 4, Shorris said. Coleman added that Silverstein’s work would not get in the way of the other projects on the site, since the Port is juggling so much construction already.

After turning over the Tower 4 site, the Port Authority will focus on Tower 3, to the north, which will take another three to four weeks. Silverstein will continue to collect the full $300,000 a day until both sites are ready for construction. In all, the excavation is 90 percent complete.

Tower 4, designed by Fumihiko Maki, will include 1.2 million square feet of city and Port Authority office space. Tower 3, designed by Richard Rogers, and Tower 4 will comprise most of the World Trade Center shopping complex.

Dara McQuillan, Silverstein’s spokesperson, said in a statement that he expects the Port to deliver the sites for Towers 3 and 4 “in the very near future.” Meanwhile, “We will advance procurement and other pre-construction activities, so we can hit the ground running as soon as the site preparation work is completed.”

The Port’s next deadline is June 30, 2008, when they will turn the Tower 2 site over to Silverstein or face similar penalties. That building is being designed by Norman Foster.

Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of the Community Board 1 World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee, wished she’d been notified about the delay before Dec. 31. She also questioned the Port’s decision to rescind the contractor’s bonus.

“If there is no longer a bonus in place, what incentive is in place, then, for the contractors to get the job done as quickly as possible?” Hughes asked.

Hughes was also concerned that the penalty fees would affect the public.

“It would be a shame that people who use Port Authority’s services would have to carry the costs of this mis-estimation,” she said, citing toll increases.

Residents who live near ground zero are worried about another kind of cost: quality of life.

“I’m going absolutely crazy from the noise here,” said Pat Moore, a 125 Cedar St. resident and chairperson of the C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee. “It’s just criminal…. We were already victimized on 9/11 by terrorists, and now we’re victimized again by the Port Authority.”

Although the Port halted the noisiest construction for Christmas and New Year’s Day, all the time leading up to and following the holidays was unbearable, ruining gatherings and making vacation time worthless, Moore said. She has had a headache for days. The persistent pounding keeps her awake through the night and then drowns out her alarm in the morning. “My nerves are completely shot,” she said.

“We understand the concern in the community,” Shorris said, adding that he is looking into noise-reducing technologies.

“The other thing we want to do is get it over with,” Shorris said, “get out of the business of drilling into big rocks and get into the business of building office buildings.”

The current work of excavating and building the concrete bathtub is louder than the subsequent construction of office buildings will be. “I feel some confidence that…this is the worst part,” Shorris said.

When told of Shorris’s reassurances, Moore replied, “What does that have to do with what we’re suffering through now? We’re not talking about type of noise, we’re talking about the time they’re making noise.”

Silverstein will construct Towers 3 and 4 during the day and will not mirror the Port’s round-the-clock shifts, spokesperson McQuillan said. However, Port Authority is still doing work throughout the World Trade Center site and has made no such promises, and Larry Silverstein’s firm will face its own construction deadlines down the road.

To address the residents’ complaints, City Councilmember Alan Gerson organized a meeting Wednesday evening between residents, Silverstein Properties, the Port Authority, State Sen. Martin Connor and aides to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler.

“We encouraged these people to remain and move back after 9/11,” Gerson said after the meeting. “We cannot subject them to 24 hours of excessive noise in their living spaces.”

Gerson said the Port Authority will respond within 48 hours to the residents’ request for a regular noise embargo during late-night and early-morning hours and during one weekend afternoon. The attendees also requested money for double-pane windows and wanted the Port Authority to explore noise abatement technology. In the meantime, the Port is already planning to muffle the high-pitched beeping of truck backup alarms and in the future will blast bedrock instead of jackhammering it.

Those plans mean progress, “But we need more,” Gerson said. “There needs to be an absolute commitment for a late-night and early-morning noise embargo.”

Gerson also asked the Port Authority and Silverstein executives to meet and work out a “creative modification” to their contract, ideally reducing the penalties the Port Authority would pay if noise reduction slows work at the site. “It’s a triple-win situation,” Gerson said of the potential revision.

Meanwhile, residents waiting for a solution are still facing continual noise.

“The last couple of weeks have been hellish,” said Steve Abramson, a 114 Liberty St. resident. “The amount of noise coming out of that site is unbelievable.” Even though Abramson has sound-modifying windows that face Cedar St., not Liberty St., the pounding still penetrates his apartment.

“Why should we suffer because they didn’t make the deadline?” Abramson asked. “We know this has to get done, and we’ll deal with it, but don’t kill us late at night and on weekends.”

The respite on New Year’s Day made Abramson realize how bad the noise is the rest of the time.

“It was such a pleasure, so noticeably quiet,” Abramson said. “It reminded me of when nothing was being worked on at the site.”

Residents of 90 West St. are also suffering through the noise.

“I’ve called 311 countless times, and they couldn’t care less,” said Jane Emanuel, who lives in 90 West with her 11-year-old son. Her 20th-floor apartment faces the World Trade Center site, and while her white noise machine masks some of the noise, it isn’t always enough. On the upside, Emanuel’s rent did not go up this year, which she called a “godsend” for her as a single mother. The quality of life issues, though, make the coup bittersweet.

“If they would just stop occasionally, one day a week,” Emanuel said, her voice trailing off. “It’s obnoxious.”

[Lecom]

But that's only after work began on the site. Most of the delays were due to site planning and design fighting and revision.
True, yet in my original post I simply did not specify that I wish that such deadlines had been applied to all parts of the process - planning, revision, etc. Sure there is always the risk of losing quality in such a hurried process, but some wishful thinking once in a while can't hurt.

As of the noise issue, I understand that you can't get the job done in a noiseless manner, yet I really feel for the residents. When they were repaving the street outside of my 6th floor balcony in Philly, in my half-asleep, delirious state of mind the only thing that was coming up was obtaining a pellet gun so I could pop those fuckers from the balcony. When graphic criminal thoughts like that enter your head while you're alseep, you know it's an unpleasant situation. Sucks for them that they'll have to suck up that feeling for years to come, cause stopping construction is really not a viable option at all.

[gttx]

“I’m going absolutely crazy from the noise here,” said Pat Moore, a 125 Cedar St. resident and chairperson of the C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee. “It’s just criminal…. We were already victimized on 9/11 by terrorists, and now we’re victimized again by the Port Authority.”


puh-lease :yuck:

[NYguy]

puh-lease :yuck:

Exactly. Everyone knew there was going to be a lot of construction at and around ground zero. They've had years to move to more "peaceful" terrain. A few years of noise and inconvenience is a small price to pay for getting Downtown back up on its feet. It's still not too late for those complaining to get away. But believe me, those same people would be complaining if ground zero were just left as is.

[Dac150]

Where is it not noisy in Manhattan (construction or not)? These people make me laugh.

[vaporvr6]

Exactly. Everyone knew there was going to be a lot of construction at and around ground zero. They've had years to move to more "peaceful" terrain. A few years of noise and inconvenience is a small price to pay for getting Downtown back up on its feet. It's still not too late for those complaining to get away. But believe me, those same people would be complaining if ground zero were just left as is.

i didnt even know people lived down there. anyway, this is like living in texas and complaining that it's hot. what do you expect? Its NYC, its noisy so just deal with it.

[Apex]

puh-lease :yuck:

What do they expect them to do? Stop construction? :haha:

[CoolCzech]

“I’m going absolutely crazy from the noise here,” said Pat Moore, a 125 Cedar St. resident and chairperson of the C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee. “It’s just criminal…. We were already victimized on 9/11 by terrorists, and now we’re victimized again by the Port Authority.”


Those people need to get a grip. They feel "victimized" by 9/11 and construction noise? How do they think the people jumping off the Twin Towers felt?? It's disgusting these whiners would even attempt to draw some sort of comparison.

[Lecom]

“I’m going absolutely crazy from the noise here,” said Pat Moore, a 125 Cedar St. resident and chairperson of the C.B. 1 Quality of Life Committee. “It’s just criminal…. We were already victimized on 9/11 by terrorists, and now we’re victimized again by the Port Authority.”
You'd think that 9/11 would teach those guys about the true meaning of tragedy. Apparently not. I mean construction noise is a bitch, but comparing it to 9/11? Come on.

[NYguy]

They'll keep whining, right through the years of construction. Yet, it will never occur to them even once that they should move if its that much of a problem.

[Lecom]

^Exactly. Suck it up until your lease expires, and then get out if it's really that much of an issue. Don't pretend like you don't know how how much longer construction will last.

[NYguy]

^Exactly. Suck it up until your lease expires, and then get out if it's really that much of an issue. Don't pretend like you don't know how how much longer construction will last.

They won't go anywhere, because it could be just that much harder to get back. And for everyone that wants out, there's about a hundred more to take their place.

[JMGarcia]

I don't think its the construction in general that's the problem, its that the PA has been starting it too early and ending it way too late into the night, well past midnight. If they can't deal with normal day time construction then they really should move. But, try dealing with sleep depravation for months and its simply humanly impossible not to become cranky about it.

[NYguy]

I don't think its the construction in general that's the problem, its that the PA has been starting it too early and ending it way too late into the night, well past midnight. If they can't deal with normal day time construction then they really should move. But, try dealing with sleep depravation for months and its simply humanly impossible not to become cranky about it.

There's a reason for more working hours, and that's to get things done sooner rather than later. Because just as soon as things drag on longer than they should, these people will be at it again, whining about the "time" its taking to finish these various projects. No, they get no sympathy from me. As I've said before, everyone knew this rebuilding was coming.

[CoolCzech]

Hey, it's called ear plugs...

They should appreciate the circumstances of why the reconstruction of Ground Zero is necessary.

[NYguy]

They should appreciate the circumstances of why the reconstruction of Ground Zero is necessary.

Especially if they were there before 9/11...

[Scruffy]

TOWER 4 site is finished and is ready to be handed over to Silverstein.

Tower 4 is a 1.4 acre site vs. 1.6 for tower 3. The depth is 80 feet below street level.

http://www.observer.com/2008/make-way-maki-wtc-4-site-excavated

[NYguy]

Time to do the Silverstein shuffle....:banana: :pepper: :banaride: :awesome: :tomato: :fruit: :dancing:

[NYguy]

http://www.panynj.gov/AboutthePortAuthority/PressCenter/PressReleases/PressRelease/index.php?id=1025

Statement by Port Authority Regarding Completion of Tower 4 Bathtub at WTC

Date: January 11, 2008
Press Release Number: 5-2008

The Port Authority today announced that it has completed excavation and construction of the 1.4-acre Tower 4 site at the World Trade Center to make way for construction of 150 Greenwich, a new office tower designed by award-winning architect Fumihiko Maki. Demobilization and other final site preparation work is underway for that portion of the site.

The Port Authority is continuing to excavate the basement area for Tower 3 and expects to finish the job by mid-February consistent with the agency’s December 31 announcement. The excavation for the 1.6-acre Tower 3 parcel is as low as elevation 252 and needs to reach elevation 240.

The Tower 3 and 4 excavation and construction project involved the removal of nearly 300,000 tons of concrete, soil and rock in 12 months, and the excavation of new foundations to a depth of 80 feet below street level.

[CoolCzech]

NY Times

January 13, 2008

Between Rock and the River, the Going Is Slow, and Costly
By GLENN COLLINS

At the eastern portion of ground zero, hundreds of workers contend with a nasty subterranean nest: steel and concrete, a defunct railroad, forgotten foundations, landfill, quartz deposits and glacial remnants in a vast pit that the Hudson River ceaselessly tries to inundate with icy, brackish water.

They are behind schedule.

For such an ambitious construction project, delays are hardly unusual. But in this case, being late is very expensive.

On Jan. 1, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began paying penalties of $300,000 a day — $3.3 million as of Friday — for missing its deadline to complete the site excavation and preparation for two office towers at the World Trade Center complex.

Since it won’t finish the job until next month, the authority’s penalty phase could top $13 million, all of it paid to Silverstein Properties, owned by the developer Larry A. Silverstein, whose company is the leaseholder on the site and will build on it.

Critics of the authority say that the missed deadline should have been a surprise to no one. “It makes sense that penalties are worked into development deals with the Port Authority, since it has a history of slowing things up thanks to the bureaucratic maze that exists there,” said George J. Marlin, an investment banker who was executive director of the Port Authority from 1995 to 1997.

Mr. Marlin said he did not know the specifics at the site, but said “the bureaucracy of the Port Authority can slow down most anything,” adding, “What they define as fast track, and what a private developer defines as fast track, are two different things.”

But the authority insists that it has done everything possible to further an engineering project of stunning complexity. “Of course, we would have preferred to be on schedule,” said Anthony E. Shorris, executive director of the agency, which owns the site. “We weren’t slowed by paperwork or bureaucracy. It was the challenge of doing a project of this scale in this short a time.”

In the years since the twin towers fell, ground zero has been a magnet for dissent and dysfunction. Rebuilding efforts have been hampered by legal and political wrangling and construction delays, including the redesign and re-siting of the Freedom Tower; the off-again, on-again demolition of the black-shrouded Deutsche Bank building; and the announcement last month that the World Trade Center Memorial will be delayed two years until the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in 2011.

The authority’s contractors are completing a year-old, 6.7-acre excavation called the East Bathtub — extending from Liberty Street to Vesey and from Church Street to Greenwich — to prepare the three acres that will be the sites for the towers. Tower 3, at 175 Greenwich Street, will have 2 million square feet of office space, and Tower 4 will have 1.8 million square feet of office space at 150 Greenwich Street.

So far the East Bathtub price tag is $250 million, a chunk of the $16 billion that will be spent on the entire site to build, among other things, “what is, in essence, five Empire State Buildings,” said Steven Plate, director of trade center construction at the authority.

“We are proud to accomplish what we have so far in such a short time,” especially since 80,000 people daily “have moved through the subway and PATH stations at the site,” he said.

Engineers who have worked at the site said that the subterranean geology is ever surprising. “It’s a very complex, challenging area with a lot of unpredictable obstructions,” said Guy Nordenson, a professor of structural engineering at Princeton, whose engineering firm helped design supports that will preserve the historic ground-zero wall, a feature of the future memorial museum.

“You can do a lot of mapping there,” he added, “and you’ll still find the unexpected.” When asked whether the delays were caused by bureaucratic failings or the imponderables of the site, he said, “I’m inclined to give the Port Authority the benefit of the doubt.”

Silverstein Properties, the new leaseholder of the trade center at the time of the terrorist attacks, has paid the Port Authority nearly $658 million in ground rent — which it received in insurance proceeds — since 2001. In a 2006 renegotiation that designated Silverstein the builder of four towers there, the authority insisted on a five-year limit for the completion of construction, and in turn, Silverstein successfully negotiated for penalties in case the authority failed to complete its excavations on time. That was when the authority signed off on the 2007 completion deadline.

Mr. Silverstein’s current rent — which his company is also paying from insurance proceeds — is $78,740,000 a year, or $215,726 a day. “Our people are anxious to get their boots dirty, and build,” said Janno Lieber, the World Trade Center project director at Silverstein Properties.

The clock will start ticking for Silverstein the moment the authority turns over the tower sites, and thanks to the 2006 deal, “we will lose our equity in these buildings if we don’t finish them within five years — a risk that many developers would not take,” said Mr. Lieber, who nevertheless hopes to finish sooner.

He added, “We won’t be able to accurately assess any impacts to the schedule until we start work.”

Although the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties have often sparred in the past, “we are not interested in perpetuating an atmosphere of recrimination,” Mr. Lieber said of the missed deadline, adding, “We can’t lose sight of the fact that in the scheme of things, this delay is not huge.”

Nevertheless, construction costs “are going up something like 15 percent a year,” he said. “Literally every day’s delay costs the project a lot of money.” Therefore, despite the receipt of the daily $300,000 penalty, he said, “we won’t come out ahead.”

The impact of the construction delay on the Port Authority “will ultimately be minimal,” Mr. Shorris said, because the agency did not have to pay Phoenix Constructors, its East Bathtub contractor, a $10 million bonus it would have won for completing the job on time.

Mr. Shorris added: “To be realistic about it, if we are a few weeks late on a quarter of a billion dollar project, you might say: ‘not so bad.’ “

The greatest factor in the delay “was the rock,” Mr. Shorris said. “Our initial estimates were based on test borings, but they’re not really maps. You only find out when you’re down there.”[b]

Given the size of the planned towers, on a site to the east of the original trade center buildings, deep foundations were essential. But construction managers encountered twice the amount of bedrock they had anticipated. “We expected 2,000 cubic yards but it was double that,” Mr. Plate said. Furthermore, when the engineers reached a level 70 feet below the street, [b]“we expected schist, but we found a much harder rock — quartz,” Mr. Plate said.

And in one area at Church Street near Liberty, the workers had to excavate down to 120 feet to reach bedrock because engineers encountered an ancient gorge in a former glacial streambed.

Especially hard has been the placement of tieback tendons — gleaming new anchors similar to the rusty tiebacks that supported the trade center slurry wall bathtub when the towers fell, withstanding the equivalent of an earthquake of 2.3 magnitude.

In “an exceptionally intricate process,” as Mr. Plate described it, the tiebacks — each made of 21 strands of steel bridge cabling that can be longer than 150 feet — must be drilled down and anchored into both the wall and the bedrock. Some 400 have been installed, with more than 50 to go.

Tieback placement has been daunting because “you don’t want to land the tiebacks in somebody’s building foundation or in the subway tunnel of the No. 1 train,” said Joseph Freglette, the project manager for EE Cruz & Company, a contractor on the site.

The East Bathtub is more than 90 percent completed, a desolate expanse scored with caterpillar treads and boot marks, and reverberating with the incessant whump, whump, whump of gargantuan jackhammers.

Roving 85 feet below the street, like tyrannosaurs in a mechanical Jurassic Park, are more than 20 heavy-duty earth movers and rock removers, including 26-foot-high, 150-ton claws that manhandle ancient steel pilings, which will be recycled for scrap.

So far a mountain of material has been removed, more than 300,000 tons of soil, rock and concrete — enough to top off Giants Stadium, or to fill a line of dump trucks 45 miles long. Each day 70 to 100 trucks carry away the loads.

Everywhere, tracked vehicles wallow like rhinoceroses in a sea of gray mud that can be three feet deep. For although the water-resistant, 1,000-foot-long new concrete bathtub is in place, workers and machines are constantly sloshing in groundwater from the Hudson that pushes up through fissures in the bedrock floor. Only pumping keeps the bathtub from filling.

A dozen self-propelled jackhammers called hoe rams, monsters with $10,000 hardened-steel noses like rock chisels, each remove 50 to 100 cubic yards per day. The waste fills a line of 36-ton dump trucks.

Nearby a 160-ton rock trencher roars; it resembles a mammoth belt sander as it crops flat areas at bedrock.

Thanks to its “sharp engineering learning curve” in the bathtub, Mr. Shorris said, the authority is on schedule to turn over the site for Tower 2 to Mr. Silverstein in June, adding that “we are on our goal for making the PATH station operational in 2011.”

For the workers in the pit, constantly on the lookout for fast-moving mammoth vehicles, “you really have to attend to details,” said Brian Cichetti, a site safety manager for EE Cruz. He said the job was especially significant to him because his wife, Lisa, worked on the 97th floor of the south tower. As he saw the trade center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, he knew that she was not in danger because she had taken their son Mark to his first day of kindergarten that morning.

But the accelerated schedule has been nightmarish for neighbors like Andy Jurinko, a painter whose live-in, third-floor studio at 125 Cedar Street overlooks the future home of 4 World Trade Center.

He and his wife, Patricia, endure the din seven days a week. “They begin at 5 and keep going until nearly 2 a.m.,” said Mr. Jurinko, 68. “The Port Authority tries to be sympathetic, but the work goes on.”

*************************************

Pretty good article: all the details about the sheer scale of what is happening at the WTC site is a good reminder that, fixation on height aside, this is very probably the most mammoth skyscraper project in terms of absolute sheer size on the planet.

[NYguy]

Although the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties have often sparred in the past, “we are not interested in perpetuating an atmosphere of recrimination,” Mr. Lieber said of the missed deadline, adding, “We can’t lose sight of the fact that in the scheme of things, this delay is not huge.”

That's true. It won't really affect the completion dates.

[NYguy]

Getting ready for this 975 ft monster...

from wtcrising.com

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/Tower%204%20Site%20Jan%202008_big.jpg

[sammysonny1]

i'm shocked that I like this building.... even though it might be a little plain and isnt a pre-war style building, it has a goes well with the other WTC buildings

[NYguy]

I think this one will surprise some people in the end.

[Dac150]

I think this one will surprise some people in the end.

The sheer size will alone. When you think of how big of a building 1 Liberty Plaza is, and then compare it to this, which is bigger and taller, it'll without a doubt stun people.

[NYguy]

The sheer size will alone. When you think of how big of a building 1 Liberty Plaza is, and then compare it to this, which is bigger and taller, it'll without a doubt stun people.

Not to mention that because 3 thousand foot towers are rising just to the north, people naturally underestimate this one. But 975 ft would be dominating in a lot of places. Funny thing is, in just the space of about 5 blocks, you have two 900 footers and 3 thousand footers rising. Not to mention Gehry's nearby tower that could top 900 ft. I say we can sneak another 900 footer in there. Nobody will notice...:)

[Dac150]

But 975 ft would be dominating in a lot of places.

The Comcast Center in Philly is a perfect example.

[NYguy]

The Comcast Center in Philly is a perfect example.

Exactly. I'd even be excited about 975 ft in Midtown, though it wouldn't stand out nearly as much.

[NYguy]

http://downtownexpress.com/de_251/heresthesites.html

Here’s the sites, Larry

http://downtownexpress.com/de_251/sites.gif
Photo by Joe Woolhead/ courtesy of Silverstein Properties


After months of scooping dirt and blasting bedrock, the Port Authority finished excavating the sites for Towers 3 and 4 on Sunday and turned them over to developer Larry Silverstein.

The transfer happened 48 days after the Dec. 31 deadline, during which time the Port Authority paid Silverstein $14.4 million in late fees, at a rate of $300,000 a day. If Port contractors made the deadline the agency would have owed them a $10 million bonus.

“We will be in full construction mode in a couple of days, and within the next few weeks, we expect to have 50 workers and 30 pieces of heavy duty construction equipment working onsite,” Janno Lieber, president of Silverstein’s World Trade Center Properties, said in a statement. The cherry pickers in the background belong to the Port Authority.

[BrandonJXN]

^ Umm...YAY?!?

[NYguy]

^ Umm...YAY?!?

YAY is right...now everything is as it should be.... :bowtie:

[JDRCRASH]

So it's finally going to begin foundation-work?

[NYguy]

So it's finally going to begin foundation-work?

Yes sir...

“We will be in full construction mode in a couple of days, and within the next few weeks, we expect to have 50 workers and 30 pieces of heavy duty construction equipment working onsite,” Janno Lieber, president of Silverstein’s World Trade Center Properties, said in a statement.

Towers 3 and 4 will start, but Tower 2 won't get underway until June.

[Dac150]

Glad to hear that work is going to begin. Now just sit back, relax, and enjoy the rising.

[CoolCzech]

dailynews.com

Monday, February 25, 2008

Pros fear new towers at World Trade Center site have security gaps
by greg b. smith and douglas feiden
daily news staff writers

Sunday, February 24th 2008, 4:00 AM

Law enforcement officials have major concerns about security weaknesses in the planned World Trade Center complex, a Daily News investigation has found.

The potential problems expressed to the Port Authority and others involved in the most high-profile development project in New York City history include:

A row of three mostly glass towers positioned too closely to city streets, increasing their vulnerability to attack.

Difficulties in inspecting some 2,000 delivery trucks and sightseeing buses that will enter or leave the site daily.

A vehicle security center that hasn't been fully designed and relies on vehicle inspection technology that hasn't even been developed yet.

Asked about weaknesses uncovered by The News in the plans for rebuilding Ground Zero, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said, "The NYPD has been in talks with the Port Authority, but we don't disclose any information about possible security vulnerabilities for obvious reasons."

Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund said the agency is "very confident that the entire rebuilt WTC site - every building and every square inch - will operate with an unprecedented level of safety and security."

Michael Balboni, Gov. Spitzer's deputy secretary for public safety, emphasized, "At the end of the day, this will be one of the most secure footprints on the globe."

Law enforcement counterterrorism specialists have pinpointed serious flaws in key components of the Trade Center site, including three of the signature office towers projected to open by 2012.

Towers 2, 3 and 4 - which will rise between Greenwich and Church Sts. to 79, 71 and 64 stories, respectively - contain too much glass, sources familiar with the issues said.

They also are not set back far enough from the two streets - where uninspected trucks will whiz by - to meet the most rigorous security standards, the sources said.

"The reimposition of the street grid is an integral part of the plan to bring vibrancy to lower Manhattan," said Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

"The administration understands the need to balance that goal with legitimate security concerns."

Another concern: The buildings do not meet Department of Defense or Department of Homeland Security blast standards. That means they can withstand certain types of explosions - but not more powerful blasts.

The DOD blast standards - rarely applied to U.S. skyscrapers - are typically used in U.S. embassies and missions abroad, sensitive government facilities and military bases.

Counterterrorism officials contend that because of the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and Al Qaeda's pattern of repeatedly striking targets, DOD blast standards should be used in the Ground Zero buildings.

"The plans have been out for quite a while on these buildings, and it would have been nice to voice these concerns at the start rather than wait until now," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents lower Manhattan. "The community wants to move forward."

A spokesman for Larry Silverstein, the developer of the three towers, declined to comment on security issues.

Silverstein's buildings - including a 1,270-foot giant that will be taller than the Empire State Building - have been designed with a steel-encased concrete core and engineered with safety systems exceeding the city's building code and the requirements of the Port Authority, his company says.

The Freedom Tower's extra safety measures - including being set back farther from the street, thicker glass and upgraded blast standards - were done after the NYPD raised questions about the building's weaknesses. Similar changes were made to the trade center's transportation hub after issues arose.

Asked about the overall effort to ensure the new trade center is secure, James Kallstrom, the former director of the FBI's New York office and former Gov. George Pataki's homeland security chief, said: "It's complicated. It's a very crowded area. It's not easy ... It's going to require state-of-the-art technology and competent, trained manpower."

The need for screening every single truck entering the area and the difficulties of carefully managing inspections were key issues Kallstrom addressed in a report he completed before leaving government last year.

Kallstrom and Balboni declined to discuss the report's recommendations, though Balboni said most were being implemented.

While inspecting thousands of vehicles a day is tough enough, the problem is more complicated in lower Manhattan because of narrow streets and thick traffic.

"We can't let anything enter the underground in that acreage that could have the potential for certain size devices or bombs without proper screening," Kallstrom said.

All delivery trucks and buses will access the complex through a new Vehicular Security Center, an underground complex with an entrance and exit on Liberty St. that will function as the central security checkpoint.

The $478 million project has been on the drawing boards since 2003 and was to start last April, but all the Port Authority has done is move some utilities and sewer lines.

Delays in demolition of the toxic former Deutsche Bank tower have made it close to impossible for construction of the subterranean project to begin.

Bids for a contractor haven't gone out, and excavation of the so-called south bathtub for the center hasn't begun, the bistate agency confirmed.

"Obviously, the fact that [Deutsche Bank] is not down presents some serious challenges to the VSC," Sigmund said.

There's more: The design and engineering specifications, which the Port Authority said in 2006 were being finalized, are not ready, and the screening technology does not exist.

Nevertheless, the PA said the Vehicular Security Center is set to be finished when the other buildings come on line, by 2011 or 2012.

"We will have the appropriate technology to do the screening when the VSC is completed," Sigmund said, noting the facility will meet DOD and Homeland Security standards.

Sigmund said they would inspect vehicles "off-site or in a holding area if necessary," declining to specify where it would take place.

That's a nightmare scenario for downtown residents, who say they're worried the Sept. 11 museum and other buildings will open before the Vehicular Security Center is completed, compromising security and the quality of life.

Asked if he was troubled the center has fallen behind schedule, Balboni said: "I'm not concerned yet, but that could change. We're watching it very closely."

dfeiden@nydailynews.com
**********************************

Well... Leaping Lizards, Daddy Starbucks!!! Ya think you could'a said something like, oh, two years ago???

Actually, I was wondering why the FT and 7 WTC had to have bunkers for a base, but towers 2, 3, and 4 were good to go as conventional structures.

The thing is: fortified bases would have done nothing for the original Twins, because airplanes were flown into them. It seems to me that the best way to protect the entire complex is to be proactive in fighting terrorism, and to provide human security at the WTC site.

BTW, I hope the NYPD understands they just made it 100 fold harder for Silverstein to find clients for his new towers, and that JPMorgan can scarcely be blamed for reconsidering their commitment to build their own tower at the Center.

[Dac150]

At this point, what it is, it is. Going back to the drawing board has to be out of the question. Besides, I like these 3 towers, and what hate for them to be re-designed.

[Down_Under_the_El]

What if they didn't rebuild the streets so they would have less to watch.. that's all I can think of. Hopefully 4-5 years is enough time to develop that technology.

[Dac150]

What if they didn't rebuild the streets so they would have less to watch.. that's all I can think of. Hopefully 4-5 years is enough time to develop that technology.

I believe by going that route, it'll make the new Trade Center less street friendly as the previous one.

The whole point of creating (or expanding) the streets is to make the Trade Center more open to the public, and less isolated (as the Tobin Plaza was).

[CoolCzech]

Exactly, Down_under...

Leave the buildings alone; if anything has to be changed, make it the street layout: simply ban anything larger than a Yugo from entering the site.

I just PRAY that this doesn't result in another year's delay (the way the redesign of the FT did). I don't think Silverstein would tolerate that well, either. I really think somebody in the NYC government needs to put on a muzzle on the NYPD: they keep dropping this kind of crap way too late, when plans are already locked in place.

[Dac150]

I really think somebody in the NYC government needs to put on a muzzle on the NYPD: they keep dropping this kind of crap way too late, when plans are already locked in place.

I can't fault them because they are doing their job in the best interests of the people coming to work and visit there, but I would hate to see these buildings be re-designed. I think they have waited too long to bring up these concerns, and now it's not practical to go back to the drawing board.

[NYguy]

Asked about weaknesses uncovered by The News in the plans for rebuilding Ground Zero, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said, "The NYPD has been in talks with the Port Authority, but we don't disclose any information about possible security vulnerabilities for obvious reasons."


That's exactly right. I don't understand this obsession in the media.

[Lecom]

Yet another point for terrorists. Their very name suggests that their goal is to settle fear in people's minds. Seeing how some influential figures are still on the edge over these things to such a great extent, seems like the terrorists are still getting their job done long after the attack.

[CoolCzech]

One has to remember that any bureaucracy is primarily concerned, first and foremost, with self-protection. Just like the FDA will hold up a new drug for years and years because it is safer for it to let thousands die in the meantime than take a chance that a handful might die because of the drug, the NYPD has NO incentive to take anything OTHER than the most bleak view - and make the most extreme recommendations - possible. After all, they have NOTHING to lose by forcing the bases to all become fortresses... and EVERYTHING to lose if one day a bomber strikes again.

That's why reasonable people have to take their recommendations with a grain of salt.

[NYguy]

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3509&content_type=1&media_type=3

CITY MOVES TOWARD LOCATING AGENCIES AT NEW WTC
Deal gives Ground Zero developer Silverstein a choice to lock the city into a 15-year lease for space in one of the new World Trade Center towers.

http://www.citylimits.org/assets/images/images_assign/628WorldTradearticle1.gif


Jarrett Murphy
City Limits WEEKLY #628
February 25, 2008

It's nice to have options, and the city last week offered some details on the one it has given to Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein—a choice to lock the city into a 15-year lease for nearly 600,000 square feet in one of the new World Trade Center towers, for a total price tag of $577 million.

The city granted the option in September 2006, as part of a deal with the Port Authority, New York state and Silverstein Properties over control of the WTC site. But ahead of a contract hearing on Wednesday about the lease, the city revealed new details on the deal's scope, duration, escalating rent and total bill. The city would occupy 581,642 square feet – comprising all of the 7th through 21st floors of Tower 4 – and would pay rent beginning at $56.50 per square foot, rising each year for the next five years and then jumping again in the 10th year of the lease to $73.21 per square foot.

What the city didn't reveal is which agencies will use the space, because they don’t know yet. Indeed, while the city leases some 22.5 million square feet of space around the city each year, the Tower 4 deal is unique: It applies to a building that doesn’t exist yet, provides space that has no identified need and probably wouldn't be used until 2013.

That's if the lease ever takes effect. Silverstein has until the end of 2009 to execute his option and make the lease binding. Leases on Class A office space in Lower Manhattan went for an average of $53 at the end of last year, but the price had increased 17 percent just over the course of 2007. Since Silverstein's most recent leases at his rebuilt 7WTC are closing at a reported $70 a square foot, the developer might decide that the city's deal is too cheap. "The cost per square foot that the city is paying is well below market for Class A space and especially new space downtown," says Dara McQuillan, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties. On the other hand against a backdrop of a softening national and local economy what the city’s deal lacks in lucre it makes up for it in certainty.

But what the city's lease lacks in lucre it makes up for in certainty. It's a sure thing. It's one of several sure things that government agencies have granted the developer.

Silverstein entered into a 99-year lease with the Port Authority for the World Trade Center in the spring of 2001. After the towers were destroyed, Silverstein received insurance payments of around $5 billion, which he's using to pay for rebuilding and cover his monthly rent to the Port Authority.

Under the 2006 agreement with the city and Port Authority, Silverstein controls construction and leasing for Towers 2, 3 and 4 while the Port Authority has authority over the Freedom Tower and Tower 5. In that deal, the Port Authority agreed to occupy another 600,000 square feet of Tower 4 and move its headquarters there, meaning that the city and Port Authority would inhabit two-thirds of the office space in the 64-story building. The Port Authority finished excavation for Tower 4 – a.k.a. 150 Greenwich Street – on Feb. 17 and turned the site over to Silverstein for construction, which is expected to last through 2011.

The Port Authority has commitments from state and federal agencies for 1 million square feet of the Freedom Tower, about half the building. Brad Maione, a spokesperson for the state Office of General Services, refused to comment on whether any state agencies had actually signed leases. The federal General Services Administration says it is negotiating with the Port Authority for 650,000 feet in the Freedom Tower, most of which will be used by the Department of Homeland Security.

The feds lost a significant amount of office space on September 11: offices for the Customs Service, IRS, Secret Service, Department of Defense, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and, according to some reports, the CIA. New York state lost court and tax department offices. The city, however, had a fairly small presence before the attacks, limited to the single floor of 7WTC where Mayor Rudy Giuliani located his ill-fated emergency command center.

So, if Silverstein executes the option, the city's presence at the WTC site will increase markedly over its pre-Sept. 11 footprint.

That's not a problem for at least some downtown interests. "It's a great thing," says Catherine McVeigh Hughes, who chairs Community Board 1's committee on WTC rebuilding. "For us, whether it's public or private, it's great that people are leasing downtown." While the city's Department of Administrative Services is officially in charge of leasing city office space, the New York City Economic Development Corporation is taking the lead on the Tower 4 deal – a signal that the transaction is as much about boosting the rebuilding process as it is about securing needed space for city offices.

Critics of the original World Trade Center development faulted the towers' dependence on government tenants as evidence of a mismatch between the massive towers and the marketplace for office space. At one point in the 1970s, some 1.5 million square feet – about a fifth – of WTC 1 and WTC 2 were vacant. In the mid-1980s, state agencies occupied at least 57 floors of the two buildings.

But those critics have been absent from any discussion about the city's pending lease deal. Community Board 1 did not weigh in on it, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer offered no recommendation, and when the City Planning Commission held the land use hearing on it last April, no one testified. At Wednesday's hearing on the contract, there was but one speaker: Kay Dunham, an inveterate gadfly who is often the only attendee or commenter at the city's biweekly contract hearings. Her advice on the Tower 4 deal? "I think they should condo it and see to it that they have something as the years go by."

With rebuilding only recently seeming to gather steam, it's possible that the space won't be ready until even later than 2013. "We have milestones and provisions that protect the city in the event there is a delay in construction. However, we are confident that construction will proceed apace," says Janel Patterson, spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation. Once Silverstein is finished building, the city would probably have to do some work to make the space suit its uses – and the city would cover those costs, too. "Like any other tenant, the city will ultimately pay for its improvements. The lease is flexible as to how that cost is spread out over time," Patterson adds.

- Jarrett Murphy

[aliendroid]

Why not add 3 meters to the building. Just one floor. Make this into a real supertall also. Only 10 more feet and it would be a supertall.

[Dac150]

Only 10 more feet and it would be a supertall.

Actually 25 more feet.:rolleyes:

[NYguy]

^ Besides, I don't think they care if this tower reaches 1,000 or not. I'm sure if Silverstein could squeeze more space into the tower, he would. But it wouldn't be for the height.

[Dac150]

^ Besides, I don't think they care if this tower reaches 1,000 or not. I'm sure if Silverstein could squeeze more space into the tower, he would. But it wouldn't be for the height.

Exactly. For what he wants, the height of the building is the last thing on his mind. As long as it can generate the revenue he wants based on its size, that his number one priority.

Who knows though, he might just give it a small increase in height for the hell of it down the raod.

[NYguy]

Who knows though, he might just give it a small increase in height for the hell of it down the raod.

That's always possible. I think the tower came in at 947 ft when first revealed. And we know he's already played with the possibility of a larger, taller Tower 3 (for Merrill Lynch).

[NYguy]

http://www.nysun.com/article/72813

Towers 3 and 4 To Start Rising at Ground Zero

By PETER KIEFER
March 13, 2008


Construction is finally set to commence on towers 3 and 4 at the World Trade Center site after five years of delay. Developer Larry Silverstein described the start of construction later this month as "nothing short of historic" and added that he was confident that a 2012 completion date for the project can be met.

The $20 billion development has been plagued by a number of setbacks, but is moving forward at a time when other projects are facing budget shortfalls at the city and state level, a drying up of available credit, and uncertainty about the incoming governor, David Paterson.
"We have finally reached the day when we are able to hand the ball to you in the design and construction industry," Mr. Silverstein said yesterday in his first public remarks since the Port Authority handed the excavated sites for the two towers over to him on February 18.

In a speech to members of the New York Building Congress, Mr. Silverstein laid out a detailed construction schedule that will stretch over the next four years. According to the plan, Silverstein Properties will build towers 2, 3, and 4, with all three expected to reach street level in one year. By the middle of 2010, towers 3 and 4 will reach their maximum height, with Tower 2 following in 2011.

The three skyscrapers will offer a total of 7.6 million square feet of office space, which experts say could help alleviate a shortage of space that has plagued the Manhattan market for the last eight years.

The executive vice president of CresaPartners, Robert Stella, said the lack of office space in Manhattan is due in large part to the difficulty of constructing anything new. With vacancy rates at around 6%, demand is still strong, but the softening of the economy makes its difficult to predict Mr. Silverstein's leasing potential, he said.

"Keep in mind those properties won't become available for quite some time," Mr. Stella said. "And it won't be likely that he will be dumping a lot of space onto the market without having lined up an anchor tenant."

Mr. Silverstein has just one anchor tenant lined up, the Port Authority, which has signed a lease to occupy 600,000 square feet in Tower 4. The city also has agreed to lease 600,000 square feet in the tower if Mr. Silverstein cannot find a private tenant to occupy the space.

"There will be significant demand by global corporations for the type of 21st-century office space that Silverstein will offer, but the overall pace of space absorption will be dependent upon economic conditions at time of delivery," the managing director of Real Capital Analytics, Dan Fasulo, said.

Two large cranes are being erected at the site, and contractors will begin test blasting this week. Builders should be "knee deep" in the foundation work by the end of the month, Mr. Silverstein said.

Speaking to reporters after the luncheon, Mr. Silverstein said he was not worried about lining up tenants and speculated that the project's completion date, December 2012, may be a blessing, as he could leapfrog over an economic slowdown.

"Between now and 2011 and 2012 we could be through three more cycles, so it's impossible to tell," he said, referring to his ability to lease out the space. "At the moment we are going through a much more difficult time, and presumably by the time these buildings are done those circumstances will be well be behind us."

The instability in Albany is a concern to developers, as Governor Spitzer, the scion of a large New York real estate family, has been viewed as a friend to the industry. His resignation yesterday and the impending promotion of Mr. Paterson to governor come at a precarious time for the development and construction industries.

Mr. Silverstein said he was sad to see Mr. Spitzer "passing from the scene," but was lighthearted when asked about Mr. Paterson. "First thing I would tell Paterson is that all the agreements have been signed," he joked.

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03132008/news/regionalnews/new_wtc_towers_finally_under_way_101757.htm

NEW WTC TOWERS FINALLY UNDER WAY

By TOM TOPOUSIS
March 13, 2008

Construction of two of Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein's three World Trade Center towers will begin this week when crews start blasting away at bedrock at the recently excavated sites, the developer announced yesterday.

"There has not been this much going on at the site since the cleanup ended in 2002," Silverstein told a luncheon sponsored by the New York Building Congress yesterday.

Silverstein, joined by Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris, said the World Trade Center reconstruction is now throttling up into high gear, with construction beginning on every project within the 16-acre site.

Shorris said that in the coming months, there will be as many as 10,000 construction workers at the site, calling the project "an incredible construction machine."

So far, all the work has been going on 80 feet below street level on bedrock within the World Trade Center's twin bathtubs. But Shorris said the public will begin to see progress in a few months when the Freedom Tower's steel is expected to rise above the street.

By 2010, the Freedom Tower and Silverstein's Tower 3 and Tower 4 between Church and Greenwich streets will have reached their full height. A year later, Silverstein's Tower 2, at the northeastern corner of the site, will top out as well.

"By 2012, it'll all be over but the shouting," Shorris said.

Both Silverstein and Shorris said they expect the World Trade Center reconstruction to continue as planned, even with the departure of Gov. Spitzer and his replacement by Lt. Gov. David Paterson.

[CoolCzech]

Funny how the NYPD's security concerns were apparantly very quickly and decisively squelched this time around. I think Silverstein just wasn't going to tolerate another lost year.

[Dac150]

Funny how the NYPD's security concerns were apparantly very quickly and decisively squelched this time around. I think Silverstein just wasn't going to tolerate another lost year.

Well more lost time equals more lost in money. I can't blame him for one second though. If these security issues were serious then they should've been brought to attention a while ago.

[NYguy]

Funny how the NYPD's security concerns were apparantly very quickly and decisively squelched this time around.

That's because there really was no issue, when you consider that all of Manhattan could be vulnerable to attack. The fearmongers lost this time around.

[NYguy]

From wtc.com

setting up crane at tower 4 site

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/setting%20up%20crane_big.jpg

[BrandonJXN]

*Dances a naked jig*

Hey..kiss my ass the occasion calls for it.

:)

[NYguy]

From jaseheeley (http://flickr.com/photos/7705990@N06/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2400182639_f3982d57be_o.jpg

[NYguy]

wtcrising.com

http://www.wtcrising.com/images/FE/chain217siteType8/site187/client/photoGallery/189/sites%20for%20t3%20and%204_big.jpg

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2008/backstage-freedom-tower

http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/files/041808_wtc-4.jpg

A bit less activity at the site for Tower 3 and Tower 4. Developer Larry Silverstein received the site from the Port Authority in February 2008, and is now doing foundation work.

[America 117]

this building is really dull
BORING:slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob: :slob:
PLEASE CHANGE IT BEFORE IT GETS BUILT:hell: