Buildings in the 1920's were not as large, complex, nor built as stringently (in the "we don't want to use more materials than we have to" sense of the term) as this building is. Entire systems (such as air/climate control) did not exist in earlier buildings. As such, it took 2WTC one year (2006-2007) to be fully fleshed out by Foster+Partners and their engineering partners. It would therefore be a safe assumption that a major redesign would take a similar amount of time, though likely somewhat less than the original work, because at least some of it (such as the horizontal floor framing) would still apply. Some structures, such as the foundation, would probably be fine. You still have to go back and rerun the simulations. However, the upper part of the building would need a lot of rework as you'd need to add another elevator bank, structural reinforcements, retooled mechanicals, and all the other things I've pointed out twice already.
Could it be done? Absolutely. It's been done. Silverstein properties built the original 7WTC on a foundation meant for a building 1/3 of what was built. The hotel at 3WTC was bigger than what Yamasaki planned for as well. However, given the WTC as it is now, would adding floors cause delays? Yes, and that is the critical issue. A 4-6 month delay would be huge at this point in time. Huge, as in, somebody would have to come out and make a press statement and explain why they interrupted work in the NE corner of the site.
As for wtc.com, it does not say the building will be 1349 to the roof. It says "2 WTC will rise to 1,349 feet". It then says it will "be topped by an 80-foot antenna." If you take those statements separately, they are correct. However, it is ambiguous, and it is ambiguous because they literally removed the roof height (as it was stated in the original page) and replaced it with the total height, leaving the overall sentence structure intact and therefore making the suggestion that NYGuy jumped on. However, nothing has changed beyond that single sentence. The building has 79 floor slabs and the pinnacle will rise to 1,350, give or take a few inches.
And just on a side note, and pointing in another way how ridiculous this is, is that you would need a lot more than 80 feet to fit 9 more floors in this building. The floors in 2WTC are all at least 13'6" and range up to almost 40 feet. That means you'd need at a minimum of 120 feet to fit 9 floors in.
Last edited by STR; Mar 22, 2011 at 2:10 AM.
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