Current rendering of the Freedom Tower Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Freedom Tower construction progress.
Construction progress: June, 2008
Construction progress: June, 2008
Construction progress: June, 2008
Current rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 27, 2006. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Current rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 27, 2006. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Current rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 27, 2006. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Current rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 27, 2006. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Current rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 27, 2006. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, SPI, and SOM.
Previous rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 29, 2005. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Previous rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 29, 2005. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Previous rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 29, 2005. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Previous rendering of the Freedom Tower released June 29, 2005. Image courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Old rendering of the Freedom Tower from the 2004 plan. Image courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Old rendering of the Freedom Tower from the 2004 plan. Image courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Old rendering of the Freedom Tower from the 2004 plan. Image courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Old rendering of the Freedom Tower from the 2004 plan. Image courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Built: 2006-2018 Cost: $3,800,000,000 Designed by: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Type: Skyscraper Stories: 82 Maximum Height: 1,776 feet / 541 meters Maximum width: 200 Maximum length: 200 Location: One World Trade Center, New York, United States
Building Rating 70% of readers like the Freedom Tower (New York).
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W hen completed, this will be one of the most important buildings of the early 21st century. It is significant in stature, in design, in its politics, its symbolism, and for the reason it was built.
The Freedom Tower, or One World Trade Center, is the replacement for what was once New York's World Trade Center. In September, 2001 terrorists destroyed several of the Center's buildings, including the massive 110 -story twin towers. The stated reason for this action was to protest the United States' support of the nation of Israel and its people. The terrorist attack only served to solidify the bond between the U.S. and Israel, and caused wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and the toppling of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Thousands died when the twin tower fell, and millions were emotionally and psychologically scarred.
The Freedom Tower is more than a real estate project. It is rehabilitation for those hurt by the terrorists and a way to heal the scar on a nation. Part of the healing process is new growth, which this tower represents. But it has been a painful process. The early designs were ridiculed. When the first cohesive plan came out of the pack it, too, found slews of detractors. New Yorkers are notoriously cranky people and they took aim at the design. Most had forgotten, or were too young to remember, that the original twin towers were also the subject of much vitriol for their design and expense. It was only after those towers were taken away that the city realized it had grown to love its pair of white albatrosses. But detractors stalled the project for more than a year, adopted celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump as their mouthpiece, and embarrassed the city and the nation by allowing the United Arab Emirates to begin work on what would become the world's tallest tower while New Yorkers were busy sticking their thumbs in each other's eyes.
The current design is much less flashy than the previous one. It is something like a large sloping block with the corners carved off, so it appears that the entire building twists as it gets higher. The building's faces will be huge triangles that taper toward the top and the bottom. At the center of the building, they will form an octagon. The skyscraper is symmetrical. Asymmetry was something in the last design that set a lot of people off. Some people also don't appreciate the spire at the top. They forget that the Twin Towers had a spire, too, and the mast is necessary for communications transmitters.
The new Freedom Tower will pay homage to the twin towers in several ways. The base of the Freedom Tower will be 200 feet square -- the same dimensions as the original towers. The observation deck will be at 1,362 feet: the height of World Trade Center Tower Two. The glass parapet will be at 1,368 feet: the height of World Trade Center Tower One.
That square base is a safety measure, not just an engineering method. Though it will be clad in glass prisms, the 186-foot-tall base will be a windowless concrete wall, intended to absorb and deflect the blast from car or truck bombs. The glass prisms will be coated with plastic like automobile safety glass to help absorb the impact. It is hoped that the prisms will refract light into color and make the monolithic security measure an eye-pleasing curiosity. The Twin Towers were targeted by Islamic terrorist truck bombs twice, once successfully in 1993, before they were destroyed by terrorists in jets in 2001. The corners of the base will taper inward, with small reflecting pools at ground level.
The Freedom tower is just one of several buildings that will be erected to compose the new World Trade Center. The design is officially known as "Memory Foundations" because it leaves room for several memorials in the 16-acre complex. One of those memorials is the slurry wall, more commonly known as "the bathtub." This structure was the basement of the World Trade Center and served to hold back the Hudson River to keep it from flooding the complex. It was here that the remains of thousands of dead were found, and hundreds more who were never found. People will be able to walk down a ramp from ground level all the way down to bedrock along the edge of this wall -- the last original remaining piece of the twin towers.
Sculptor Kenneth Snelson is working on the spire at the top of the building.
The glass prisms at the base will each be 13-feet tall.
The base of the tower will be 186-feet tall.
The base of the tower will be 200-feet by 200-feet.
The top of the tower will be 145-feet by 145-feet.
The shaft of the tower will be 1,182 feet tall.
The main structure will be topped by a 408-foot-tall mast containing antennae. The base of the mast will be surrounded by a 145-foot wide ring containing more equipment.
The trees surrounding the Freedom Tower will be sweetgum trees.
The corner cutaways are each 186 feet tall. The Twin Towers also had chamfered corners.
The building tapers inward at an angle of 3.8 degrees. The chamfers taper outward at the same angle, resulting in a 16-foot overhang.
Floor space: 2,600,000 square feet.
Height to roof: 1,368 feet -- the same as to the roof of the old 1 World Trade Center
Height to tip of spire: 1,776 feet - the same as the year of the nation's declaration of independence.
29 May, 2003 - The New York Times reports that the Metropolitan Television Alliance has signed a deal to put as many as 22 antennae on top of Freedom Tower. The World Trade Center was home to many of New York's television and radio transmitters until the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Freedom Tower will be the new home to TV channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 28, 30, 31, 36, 38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 47, 53, 56, 61, and 68.
17 July, 2003 - Architect David Childs is chosen to design the Freedom Tower.
4 July, 2004 - Groundbreaking. A 20-ton granite slab is used as the cornerstone of the project. It is inscribed with the words "To honor and remember those who lost their
lives on September 11, 2001 and as a tribute to the enduring spirit
of freedom. - July Fourth, 2004."
9 November, 2004 - An architecture student sues the designers of the Freedom Tower. He claims the building was copied from his design for a skyscraper intended to be part of New York's 2012 Olympic bid.
16 December, 2004 - The World Trade Center victims memorial is revised. The new plan includes a Memorial Hall between the reflecting pools that will mark the footprints of the former World Trade Center. It will also include a grove of oak trees with a clearing for memorial services, and public access to the stumps of the columns that once held the Twin Towers aloft. The memorial is expected to cost US$500,000.00 and be completed by 2009.
3 May, 2005 - U.S. Senator Charles Schumer warns that the Freedom Tower project is in jeopardy. He notes that the steel has yet to be ordered, and claims that critics are being given too much attention, preventing the start of real construction. At the same time, the New York Timesreports that Kevin M. Rampe has quit as project leader.
29 June, 2005 - Amid much criticism from celebrity real estate moguls and the general public, a new design is released for the Freedom Tower.
April 27, 2006 - 21 months after the cornerstone was laid, it is announced that construction has formally begun on the Freedom Tower. The work was delayed because of disputes between the developer, Larry Silverstein, and the land owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The New York Timesnotes, however, that work actually began quietly a few weeks earlier while the two sides were still hammering out the details. Those details include a total of five buildings to be erected on the site of the World Trade Center, all to be completed by 2011. Mr. Silverstein gives up control of the Freedom tower to the Port Authority in exchange for control of more lucrative property in the complex. He will also pay higher rent.
June 27, 2006 - The design of the Freedom Tower is revised once again. The 186-foot-tall podium upon which the tower rests will now be covered by a screen of glass prisms, hiding the concrete base that has been often criticized for being too brutalist.
June 28, 2006 - The New York Timesreports that the Freedom Tower will have a sky lobby on the 64th floor. This is a controversial move because so many people died in the 78th-floor sky lobby waiting for elevators when 2 World Trade Center collapsed. The sky lobby in the Freedom Tower was necessitated by the June, 2005 design revision which decreased the building's footprint and restricted the amount of space available for elevator shafts.
April 18, 2008 - Pope Benedict XVI blesses the ground where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood.
April 18, 2008 - WINSreports that a homeless man found two sets of confidential blueprints for the Freedom Tower in a trash can. He turned them over to the New York Post.
May 17, 2008: Structural elements start to climb above street level.
June 30, 2008: The Wall Street Journal reports that reconstruction of the World Trade Center could take 1-3 years longer and cost $1-$3 billion more than expected.
July 24, 2008: Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church agrees to sell its property next to the World Trade Center to the Port Authority for $20 million. The sale will give construction crews more space to work in and help speed construction of the Freedom Tower and other parts of the World Trade Center. The church building was destroyed in the terrorist attacks.
October, 2008: A report from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey indicated a revised completion date of 2013.
January 14, 2009: NY1 reported that the foundation of this building was completed.
March 25, 2009: The Beijing Vantone Industrial Company became the first company to lease space in this building. It signed a 23-year lease for floors 64 through 69.
March 27, 2009: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey came under fire for trying to eliminate the name "Freedom Tower" and only use this building's mailing address of 1 World Trade Center as its name.
August 4, 2009: The New York Daily News reported that the completion date of this building was pushed back to 2018.
November 18, 2009: Construction of this building reached the fourth floor.
March 30, 2009: An official announcement was made that the name of the building will be One World Trade Center instead of the Freedom Tower.
The building will be partially powered by 12 hydrogen fuel cells. They are expected to generate 4.8 megawatts of power for the Freedom Tower and other buildings in the World Trade Center.
Albert E. Amick jr.
Sunday, July 4th, 2004 @ 4:22pm
Rating: One star. Ugly It has no real look to it . Just another group of buildings.
Richard R. Wertz
Thursday, July 1st, 2004 @ 3:04am
Rating: Five stars. A very fitting tribute, to those who lost their lives at the site, and to those who witnessed the events of that horrible day.
Jeffrey Aiken
July 18th, 2003
Think that the design is great for the interior. It will take a while though to get adjusted to the exteror. I cant wait for the completion. God Bless America
Sameer Kelkar
July 18th, 2003
The idea about the Freedom Tower is fantastic. Let terrorists know that nothing can bog us down
Fernando Burghi
July 18th, 2003
Moved from California,feb.2003,becouse of a job ofer to my wife,at ST.Vincent hospital,when we arrive to N.Y.we deside to bring life back to this part of the city,in memory of those who are not longer with us,to show the rest of the entiry world that we still standing in our principals of FREEDOM,SELF DETERMINACION,and LOVE for this BLESS Country of ours.
Kenneth Bernard Gray
July 18th, 2003
I'm moving back to NY. This is wonderful, formidable!!
leopold mutamuheza
July 18th, 2003
I found it quite enduring my heart by what had taken place on september 11th, 2001. No human mind can imagine such treacherous act of barbaric can be planed by civilized but since we are living with evil-spirithuman we can not trust no more in human.
Tom Page
July 18th, 2003
Ugliest thing I ever saw. The tower looks a lot like the last piece of the WTC that remained standing for weeks after 9/11. Horrible. Tower looks like an afterthought. It adds nothing of value or interest to the skyline. Some people didn't like the original WTC at first, but I don't think I could ever learn to like the Freedom Tower.
Leon Lopez
June 17th, 2003
I AM SO HAPPY FOR THE HUMAN KIND FOR WE CAN RAISE AND LOOK UP TO THE SKY AGAIN FROM A NEW TOWER. IT IS LIKE STANDING UP AND SAYING 'HERE WE ARE, AND WE WILL STAND UP TOGETHER AGAIN, LIKE BROTHERS WE ARE, IN THE PATH OF GLORY'.
ken vaclavik
July 17th, 2003
Everyone in this great country needs the healing and the new building's will do that!
Brian Rainey
July 16th, 2003
I don't know how you could do it ANY better. Bravo
Vince
July 16th, 2003
That is one ugly design. It is clear the architect is trying so hard to build something different, that good taste had to be set aside. The buildings look cheap and the angular construction makes things look like old barns that haven't been maintained and will topple over in the next wind. Yuk.
Katia Avila
July 16th, 2003
I have tears in my eyes. The concept it's beautiful and so light. The open space gave me the impression that was like an open heart , still hurt but still pulsing.
Samantha
July 16th, 2003
The design is beautiful and breathtaking. Reading this article brought back a lot of hurt from the time of the attack.....I hope by the building of this everyone will see that the United States will always stand back up and that when someone tries to hurt us they only bring us closer together.
Patricia Tropser
July 16th, 2003
I Think this will be a great design especially for the people that are still healing, death of a family member takes years to get over. I'm still healing from the loss of my mother so I know this will be a place to set and just relax, and meditate on thoughts of the day. I hope I get a chance to go to NYC and see this wonderful building one day.
Brian Hazlip
July 16th, 2003
Absolutely beautiful!!! The brilliant idea about the Wedge of Light brings a tear to my eye. Excellent work!
Bessie Medina-Muzumdar
July 16th, 2003
I was thunderstruck when I read about the "Wedge of Light". In my opinion this alone is the winning feature for this amazing design! I love it.
Henri Dubois
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004 @ 3:15am
Rating: Five stars. I think that this building is very nice and would look good in New York's skyline
tuan
Thursday, May 27th, 2004 @ 2:34am
Rating: Four stars.
Dot
Saturday, May 22nd, 2004 @ 11:14am
Best. Building. Evar.
Shawn Karvasales
Wednesday, May 5th, 2004 @ 1:20pm
Im proud that yet another amazing American landmark is being constructed. Proud that we the American people refuse to live in such fear that we are afraid to continue constructing such amazing monuments. Praise be to God.
Albert E. Amick jr.
One star.
Five stars.
Sameer Kelkar
leopold mutamuheza
Leon Lopez
Henri Dubois
tuan
Four stars.