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

[theWatusi]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

damn that base is huge.

that's what she said

[37TimPPG]

This is just so incredibly awesome to watch. I have always enjoyed watching skyscrapers being constructed. The historical significance of this building just makes it all the more enjoyable.

[Dac150]

I love how the mood of this thread has changed from ‘what’s taking so long?’ to ‘Wow, look at all the progress’. As I’ve said all along, you just have to be patient.

It’s coming along excellent.

[37TimPPG]

Originally Posted by Dac150

I love how the mood of this thread has changed from ‘what’s taking so long?’ to ‘Wow, look at all the progress’. As I’ve said all along, you just have to be patient.

It’s coming along excellent.

Well said

[uakoops]

Originally Posted by NYguy

I think the concept of the Freedom Tower lobby is very similar to that of 7 WTC...


wtc.com

Except that WTC1 has the reception desk and security behind the blast wall, not out in the open like WTC7.

[Wheelingman04]

I just don't understand why they won't build two of them just to make up for the old WTC and just cancel WTC 3?

That would make up a lot of the difference. Of course 2 and 3 will probably be built many years down the road unless the banks start lending more money soon. The economy should recover well in 2010, but will banks start lending large sums yet? Who knows. Screw it and build WTC 1 twice and let the work on 4 continue and that's it. Ohter towers are going up in the area anyway. Downtown is so hot nowadays! It's my favorite part of town. Less tourists and just more chilled out, except for WTC with all of those tourists. Damn I miss the old WTC plaza. Hardly any tourists just a nice place to sit and look up at those beauties. Now it just has to be a friggin icon. I wish we could just go back to Sept.10th and stop time and the terrorists. Being in those towers just 2 months before the collapse really has had a huge impact on me. I think about it everyday. I really wished they would have just built the towers the same way again (obviously with structural changes and up to the new code requirements).

Rub it in those psycho terrorist's face. It would have been much easier and cheaper to build than just a whole new design etc.

[RockMont]

Originally Posted by Wheelingman04

I just don't understand why they won't build two of them just to make up for the old WTC and just cancel WTC 3?

Now that would just make too much sense.



Rub it in those psycho terrorist's face. It would have been much easier and cheaper to build than just a whole new design etc.

That has been my point all along. Take it and slam it right back into their face!

[Zensteeldude]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

How tall are each of the perimeter columns? I'm going to guess that another level of the perimeter needs to go up before the base is considered complete, that it has reached its 200 ft height. Then the transistion to the floor a week mode can go into effect.

The wise 🞵🞵🞵 answer to your first question is 1,368 feet.

Let's see, ground floor to 20th floor is 186 feet 8 inches, minus the 10 feet of the previous lift above the ground floor slab and the 70 feet of the current lift = 106 feet 8 inches. Looks like two more lifts to the 20th floor where things get more normal and therefore faster.

This is all based on the fact that so far at least one and in some cases two lifts have been eliminated from the columns because of the fact that a 400 ton crawler crane was brought in to do the erecting.
Had the original plan been followed and the tower cranes done all the erecting the column sections would have been limited to about 45 tons each, roughly the capacity of both tower cranes combined at a 100 foot radius.

[Acer1]

Originally Posted by Dac150

I love how the mood of this thread has changed from ‘what’s taking so long?’ to ‘Wow, look at all the progress’. As I’ve said all along, you just have to be patient.

It’s coming along excellent.

I disagree a little. Some progress has been made but it's going to grind to a halt soon because of the west plaza still uncompleted by a large amount. If only the area with green rebar was poured with concrete than I don't think that would be enough to create a platform for the other mobile crawler crane. The street next to it might need to be done as well. If so, one more corner of beams and the inner north core steel will be it for quite a while. Not sure how they would get all the outer beams done by October without that plaza done.

It is refreshing after what seemed like an entire year of concrete & rebar that some more steel is going up. It seems the only thing we see as progress is steel installed on the building and not all the great work creating the crazy reinforced base of this building. Folks, no other building in the world is built like this. It's a modern age fortress.

[Dac150]

For the most part people here seem to respond better to vertical progress, yet disregard infrastructure and ground level work a real progress. Now that vertical progress is being made the tide of opinions for the most part is transforming into a more positive one. That’s what I am pointing out.

I on the other hand, along with others, have pointed out the importance and criticality of infrastructure and ground level work in relation to the complex as a whole. However the general population here insisted that that was not considered ‘real’ progress.

All in all patience is key, and rush isn’t necessary.

[Zensteeldude]

Ya really can't blame them, they want to see a tower. Never mind that that tower sits on top of several key elements of lower Manhattan's infrastructure.

As for being a modern age fortress, no, not really. Yes there are some very visible parts that make it seem to be a fortress but much of what has been built so far is due to 2 major changes in the NYC building code. Force 5 hurricanes and 5.0 or greater earthquakes.

I'm not daft, that concrete core is due to 9/11 as are the blast walls and slabs. First drawings I ever saw for an office building with blast ratings on the prints.

[Dirty Sandpit]

I think it's more that the groundwork and infrastructure is harder to see and realize than the vertical construction. It's not that we don't appreciate the groundwork... etc, it's more that because we're not phyiscally there we cannot appreciate as much.

[Dac150]

I’ve been face to face with the inner workings of this complex that are underway and I will say that it’ll change anyone’s perspective on the amount of progress that has been made. The amount of complexity and execution of building such an infrastructure makes for an amazing site. It’ll make you appreciate and respect what goes into building such a complex to a whole new level. That is why I get tired of hearing those who criticize the amount of work that has been done. The reality is more than you’ll ever know if you haven’t experienced it up close.

[Zensteeldude]

You tell em Dac150 !

[QuarterMileSidewalk]

^Hear, hear!

The infrastructure / foundations work at the WTC site is nothing short of astonishing, considering everything going in there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, beneath the old towers and plaza, weren't there about seven floors of mall, parking, supertall tower foundations, PATH and MTA lines and stations, spread across sixteen city blocks, held together by the slurry wall?

Now, not only did they first have to dig out all of that, plus 220 floors worth of steel and furniture and pulverized concrete, but they're going to rebuild it, with a memorial museum instead of a mall, and four supertall towers instead of two!

No more whining about the timeline? Cool by me. [/rant]

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Dac150

I love how the mood of this thread has changed from ‘what’s taking so long?’ to ‘Wow, look at all the progress’. As I’ve said all along, you just have to be patient.

It’s coming along excellent.

Skyscrapers always take a long time to get out of the ground. Excavation and foundation work takes forever, but once that's done, watch out! I'd say about a third of the construction time is spent on that aspect. Because nothing is rising during that time, it seems to take forever and it doesn't appear that much is getting done, when infact, of course, it is.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by theWatusi

Maybe by next week we'll see some more columns going up.

We should. All of the columns should be up within a month or so, in keeping with the Port Authority schedule.


Mondmann

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

^Oh, two more then..... damn that base is huge.

The Freedom Tower base will be huge, but actually pretty small when compared to the other planned WTC towers.

Originally Posted by Wheelingman04

I just don't understand why they won't build two of them just to make up for the old WTC and just cancel WTC 3?

If this is a reference to just bulding two FT's, then this is not the thread for it. But beyond that, it's not as simple as just building two, because then you would have just more than half of the WTC space rebuilt.

[Aleks]

God NYGuy! Where do you find these pictures? That's such an amazing shot! I love the way Beekman looks compared to the rest of the skyscrapers. Such a classy shape and looks like the quality is top notch.

Too bad in a couple years it won't be visible from this angle. Or good thing, depending on how you feel about the WTC.

[Dac150]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Skyscrapers always take a long time to get out of the ground. Excavation and foundation work takes forever, but once that's done, watch out! I'd say about a third of the construction time is spent on that aspect. Because nothing is rising during that time, it seems to take forever and it doesn't appear that much is getting done, when infact, of course, it is.

And that’s exactly the name of the game. You can’t have one without the other. I for one am very pleased that much time and consideration is being spent into the infrastructure and foundations.

Part of enjoying the rise of skyscrapers is embracing and taking in all aspects that come with them. So I recommend for those who haven’t to really recognize the importance of what has ‘taken so long’.