7 World Trade Center

[BigMac]

Nice photos Big Mac!I found them on Flickr and I meant to document that; problem corrected. I wish I did take those pictures, though. ;)

[GVNY]

Am I the only one who's very disappointed in this building?



Well, you have every right to be disappointed. I am too.

7WTC is hardly a work of architecture. Designers just filled the block it sits on with office space, raised the tower to X number of floors, and sheathed it in glass.

That is not architecture. That is standard fare. That is another day at the office.

[Citytect]

I hate this building. For some reason it offends me personally. A building should be more than just nice glass, in my opinion.

[BrooklynRider]

Oh dear, Citytect. If 7WTC offends you, then 10 Barclay is going to reach out, slap you in the face and call you names. 10 Barclay is a bad, bad building.

[Citytect]

^Not so much. I don't like 10 Barclay either, but it doesn't irk me in the same way 7 does. The two buildings are equally as bad, in my opinion. I guess what really bothers me is how overrated I feel 7WTC is. That's not a problem with 10 Barclay, because no one pretends to like it.

[ablarc]

^ Bugs me too. Overpraised.

[NewYorkDoc]

It's praised for showing a commitment to downtown most of the time, not really what it looks like...which is a box.

[Eugenious]

Love it, cold and unassuming just like the rest of downtown. :)

[wns808]

As for the inside, what's going on here (52nd floor ceiling)?

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/747/dscf4785aai0.jpg

Maybe the 52nd floor and a few other floors are yet to be leased? :confused:

Looks like the "Perfect Stranger" movie is coming to DVD and I heard something about some scenes being shot inside 7 WTC?

[LeCom]

^Larry Silverstein is in that movie.

[LeCom]

Derek, wonderful shot that makes WTC 7 look positively ethereal. I wonder how the ESB would come off clad in such glass?
That would be a great idea indeed, in my opinion, a building with such massing and facade; same with 7WTC clad in classic Art Deco.

[Stern]

It would probably look something like this:

http://photoblog.parella.com/images/300_torre_latinoamericana.jpg

[BigMac]

It would probably look something like this:

[img]http://photoblog.parella.com/images/300_torre_latinoamericana.jpg[img]

A black, white, and red postmodern box? I shudder at the thought. ;)

[Stern]

A black, white, and red postmodern box? I shudder at the thought. ;)

Me too.

I went from liking this building at the proposal stage, to hating it during construction, now I love it, it's one of my favorites in the city.

SOM photogallery:

http://www.som.com/content.cfm/7_world_trade_center

[ablarc]

For some reason it offends me personally.
Bad proportions.

[Hamilton]

Me too.

I went from liking this building at the proposal stage, to hating it during construction, now I love it, it's one of my favorites in the city.

SOM photogallery:

http://www.som.com/content.cfm/7_world_trade_center

he's talking about how your picture link doesn't work, it just shows up as an annoying warning not to hotlink.

[lofter1]

That link ^^^ works for me ...

[Citytect]

^The picture Stern hot-linked doesn't work. There is a message in a black box stating "Stop stealing copyrighted material..." BigMac made a reference to this black box, but I think Stern misunderstood the reference. The SOM link he posted in his reply to BigMac works fine though.

[Stern]

Alright here's the building to clarify:

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/2860/1161286696037282446S425x425Q85.jpg

Although the materials on 7 WTC are great, they would clash and look horrible on a classically proportioned building, as was suggested many posts back.

[BigMac]

GlobeSt.com
September 28, 2007

7 World Trade Gets 14,000-SF Tenant

By Natalie Dolce

http://www.globest.com/newspics/nyc_7worldtradecenter.jpg
7 World Trade Center

Another law firm moves Downtown. Kostelanetz & Fink LLP took 14,000 sf of space for an eight-year term on part of the 34th floor at 7 World Trade Center. The company is moving from 530 Fifth Ave., where it occupied approximately 7,000 sf.

CB Richard Ellis' Bernard Weitzman, a first VP in the firm’s Midtown office, and Jeffrey Kilimnick, VP, represented Kostelanetz & Fink. CBRE’s Howard Fiddle, vice chairman; Adam Foster, SVP; Brad Gerla, SVP; Jason Pollen, first VP; Stephen B. Siegel, chairman of global brokerage; Mary Ann Tighe, CEO, New York Tri-State Region; and Simon Wasserberger, SVP; represented landlord Silverstein Properties.

A source close to Silverstein Properties tells GlobeSt.com that the Downtown move is expected to be completed by the end of October. Although the source would not disclose the taking amount or aggregate lease value, they did confirm that the taking rent was very close to the asking rents, which are between the mid-$60s to mid-$70s per sf.

"We are pleased to welcome Kostelanetz & Fink to an impressive roster of world-class companies that have made 7 World Trade Center and Downtown their home," notes Larry A. Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties, in a release. "Their commitment is yet another sign that the revitalization of Lower Manhattan continues to gain velocity and serves as a testament to everyone who believed in and has worked tirelessly to cultivate a vibrant Downtown community."

CBRE has completed a wide variety of transactions at the 1.7-million-sf 7 World Trade Center, including recent leases for office tenants such as Scottsdale Insurance, Scout Real Estate Capital, WhenTech LLC, IVC America, DRW Commodities, Moody’s Investors Service and Ameriprise Financial. "After a thorough exploration of the Midtown market we ultimately determined that leasing pre-built space Downtown at 7 World Trade Center was the best move for Kostelanetz & Fink, enabling the firm to obtain the high-quality space it required,” Weitzman says in a release.

Copyright © 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.

[BigMac]

Zarxos on Wikipedia
July 28, 2007

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Wtc7-lookingup.jpg/800px-Wtc7-lookingup.jpg

[lofter1]

These images look great -- but what happened to WNY's 800 pixel max width rule?

It would be much more user & forum friiendly if folks were to re-size these images to a viewable size -- and give the link to the mega pic for folks who want to see / download the big pic.

Just my opinion :cool:

[BigMac]

Good point; resized to 800px.

[lofter1]

Great ...Thanks ... Now we can actually see it ;)

[alonzo-ny]

I remember reading in some other thread that it should resize automatically?

[Pussy Willow]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v109/nyctowers/2007/Picture015-1.jpg

[lofter1]

Loving that ^^^

[21&Invincible]

It almost looks computer generated. Very nice picture.

[antinimby]

Why is it in this city, when the glass is nice, the shape isn't but when the shape is nice, the glass isn't?

Would love to see how BofA would have looked with 7's clothes.

[nyck]

I went to the NY Academy of Sciences Open House this weekend, and snapped some pics from inside (the rest will probably appear in the 6-12 Barclay St. thread).

But the experience reminded me to post some photos from September, when the the Old 97's gave a concert in front of 7WTC. Silverstein made an appearance... so did some conspiracy theorists...

[BigMac]

Crain's NY Business
October 16, 2007

Tech company signs lease at 7 WTC

Kira Bindrim

World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein just signed up another tenant for 7 World Trade Center, leaving only eleven of the building’s 52 floors open for leasing.

Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp. a provider of technology solutions, signed a multi-year lease for the 35th floor at 7 World Trade Center, where it plans to open its first New York office with 200 employees. Asking rents at the tower are between $70 and $75 per square foot.

NCR will receive $1.5 million in relocation assistance, in addition to a $1.1 million rent tax exemption and a $500,000 sales tax exemption for the office's build out.

The company, which specializes in ATMs, digital check processing, point-of-scale devices, retail self-checkout and multi-function kiosks, says the move will allow it to expand into core retail and financial markets. NCR is a Fortune 400 company with around 30,000 employees worldwide.

“NCR’s decision to move its executive offices to the World Trade Center site is further evidence of the continued revitalization of lower Manhattan,” said Gov. Eliot Spitzer in a statement.

The announcement comes four months after JPMorgan Chase & Co. signed an agreement to build a new tower on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building, also known as World Trade Center Site 5 and just as financial firm Merrill Lynch is expected to announce the location for its headquarters in the next few weeks.

Mr. Spitzers’s office was unavailable for immediate comment.

© 2007 Crain Communications, Inc.

[BigMac]

kelsycc on Flickr
October 19, 2007

Larger Size (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/1638402630_381bdf5720_b.jpg)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/1638402630_381bdf5720.jpg

[Derek2k3]

Thanks for posting all these pics. You can see Trump Soho splendidly rising out of context in the lower left hand corner.

Shame that all the ugliest new buildings are at the forefront of Midtown...like that Chelsea Stratus (vomits). You can also draw a pretty nice 750' line straight across Midtown, w/ a few exceptions.

[sfenn1117]

Pictures like that help remind me how great we have it in this city.....even though we could be getting some better buildings, it just shows what dominance our skyline has over any other city (including Chicago).

So thanks, I needed that :)

[Ebola]

When it comes to office skyscrapers, what really matters, NYC is by far #1 in the world.

[BrooklynRider]

Pictures like that help remind me how great we have it in this city.....even though we could be getting some better buildings, it just shows what dominance our skyline has over any other city (including Chicago).

True. NYC has so many spectacular skyline angles. In that photo above, you wouldn't necessarily know that the skyline goes 40 blocks north as well. Plus, we have downtown.

[NewYorkDoc]

True. NYC has so many spectacular skyline angles. In that photo above, you wouldn't necessarily know that the skyline goes 40 blocks north as well. Plus, we have downtown.

Plus downtown Brooklyn. I remember the first time we drove on the BQE through downtown on the way to the 59th street bridge, I was in awe. It may not seem like much now, or to you guys, but at that time I thought it was great.

Also, we have Jersey City. I know its another state, but it's across the river, so I always include it.

[Derek2k3]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2045/1534023068_81deed159f.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/1533156597_477610cd96.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/1533156205_e2dea4e523.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/85/241194349_58e15a4d51.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2267/1533157683_ebd34117a3.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/87/241198016_b7e4252cdd.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2190/1534023780_c78aa700be.jpg
kmf164 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmf164/)

[joshj928]

I hope the remove that "red ballons" thing, its a real eye sore:eek:

[ablarc]

I think what bothers me most about this building is the proportions of the sides to each other. The building seems close to a square in plan, but it's not a square. It also isn't a satisfactory lozenge.

When I saw it I really disliked it. The skin is OK.

[lofter1]

Considering the prices paid for the works by artist Jeff Koons (http://www.nysun.com/article/32286) you might have to cough up a few million to get Balloon Flowers (Red) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/manzari/152747913/) away from Mr. Silverstein.

But you're not the only one (http://animalnewyork.com/2006/05/wtc_7s_balloon_flower_should_b.php) who would like to see it go ...

[scumonkey]

Jeff Coons is to art what Gene Kaufman is to Architecture!

[alonzo-ny]

Not quite, george bush is to iraq what kaufman is to architecture.

[BPC]

I think the Koons sculpture is actually the perfect piece for the park. It's so whimsical and carefree -- a direct rebuke of all those who wanted to turn the site into a cemetery.

[BigMac]

7 World Trade Center (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_World_Trade_Center) is today's featured article on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

[ManhattanKnight]

And an admirably objective account it is, too:On September 11, 2001, the building was pulled down by Silverstein who planted explosives inside the building. Its structural integrity was further compromised by fires which burned throughout the afternoon.

[BrooklynRider]

...by Silverstein who planted explosives inside the building.

He planted trees outside the new WTC, so I guess it all equalizes in the end.

[BigMac]

wtc.com
September, 2007

The Plaza At 7 World Trade Center

http://www.wtc.com/uploads/images/712x534/7_01_7WTCPark.JPG

http://www.wtc.com/uploads/images/712x534/7_02_7WTCPark.JPG

http://www.wtc.com/uploads/images/712x534/7_03_7WTCPark.JPG

http://www.wtc.com/uploads/images/712x534/7_04_7WTCPark.JPG

http://www.wtc.com/uploads/images/712x534/7_05_7WTCPark.JPG

© 2007 Silverstein Properties, Inc.

[lofter1]

I hope the remove that "red ballons" thing, its a real eye sore ...




Considering the prices paid for the works by artist Jeff Koons (http://www.nysun.com/article/32286) you might have to cough up a few million to get Balloon Flowers (Red) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/manzari/152747913/) away from Mr. Silverstein.

'Hanging Heart' beats a record $23.6M


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/04/arts/04voge-450.jpghttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gifhttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif Sotheby’s

Jeff Koons' sculpture becomes the most expensive piece
by a living artist sold at an auction.

CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/15/news/funny/bc.apfn.artauction.ap/index.htm?postversion=2007111510)

NEW YORK (AP) -- A sculpture of a stainless steel heart hanging from a golden bow sold Wednesday for $23.6 million, becoming the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned, according to Sotheby's spokeswoman Lauren Gioia.

The bright magenta "Hanging Heart" sculpture is considered one of Jeff Koons' most important works.

The previous record for a living artist was Damien Hirst's "Lullaby Spring," which sold for $19.5 million at Sotheby's in London in June. Hirst's piece was a stainless steel cabinet containing 6,136 handcrafted and painted pills.

The Koons work was bought by the Gagosian Gallery, which had picked up his "Diamond [Blue]" sculpture for $11.8 million at a Christie's auction on Tuesday.

"Hanging Heart," nearly 9 feet tall and weighing more than 3,500 pounds, is from Koons' "Celebration" series, inspired by celebratory milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries. The "Diamond [Blue]" also is from the series.

"Koons is an artist who doesn't allow compromise, and 'Hanging Heart' is all about making an impossibility possible," said Tobias Meyer, head of Sotheby's contemporary art department.

The sculpture was offered for sale by a private American collector and had a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $20 million. Its sale price included an auction house commission.

© 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company

[stache]

Very Hallmark window -

[ZippyTheChimp]

$23.6 million.

Talk about discretionary income.

[ZippyTheChimp]

"Koons is an artist who doesn't allow compromise, and 'Hanging Heart' is all about making an impossibility possible," said Tobias Meyer, head of Sotheby's contemporary art department.Need more effective art-speak to justify the price tag.

[econ_tim]

Need more effective art-speak to justify the price tag.

apparently not since somebody bought it :confused:

[lofter1]

I gotta admit I don't understand the fascination for the works Koons.

Although I do like the Red Balloons sculpture as an individual piece (particularly in the location outside 7WTC), I could really care less about Koons' supposed social commentary and what he thinks he's telling us about the modern world.

[stache]

Largely I think the auction result is a case of too many dollars chasing too few objects.

[scumonkey]

Koons is a Hack! (the Gene Kaufman of the art world)
I would hardly call anything he does "ART".....more like Hype!
When I was in college (graduate 1984 Rhode Island School of Design),
most teachers and students had nothing nice to say about him (except his now ex porn star wife).
Wasn't he even involved in a lawsuit -for stealing an image of puppies from a postcard ?!

[DarrylStrawberry]

The lights of the top 3 floors are lit tonight for the first time. They are way brighter than the crown..

[BrooklynLove]

was just noticing that myself. may have something to do with the buildout of that space.

on the subject of this view, does anyone else find it disappointing that barclay tower does not have an illuminated cap? it just sits there in the middle of a beautiful night time cluster (7 wtc, woolworth, etc) all dark and glum.

[infoshare]

Someone has posted photos on skyscraper page, all taken from the top of the building: worth a look (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3277207&postcount=2292).

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3277207&postcount=2292

[lofter1]

... disappointing that barclay tower does not have an illuminated cap?
The less attention that pile draws to itself the better.

Honestly, I think it is too close to Woolworth to be illuminated in any way that would not wreck tthe nightime glory of the Woolworth crown.

[Derek2k3]

It is illuminated, not very noticeable however.

[BrooklynLove]

It is illuminated, not very noticeable however.

for real? i have a pretty clear shot, and all that i can make out is the red warning light on the tippy top.

[DarrylStrawberry]

Building at World Trade Center is a showcase of terrorproof technologies

Architects around the world are erecting skyscrapers that use a hollow concrete core surrounded by bomb-resistant glass and other security innovations.

By Harry Bruinius | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the February 4, 2008 edition

New York - When a documentary crew wanted to film the emergency glow-strips that line the expansive stairwells in 7 World Trade Center, Dara McQuillan called down to the security desk and asked them to flick off the lights. Moments after the stairwell went dark, however, a backup power system switched on and ruined the shot.

Mr. McQuillan, vice president of communications for the building, called again, but when the security desk shut down the backup system, this time a battery-powered generator flooded the stairs with light. The crew never got its dramatic glow-in-the-dark shot.

It has been hailed as the safest building in the world, its 52-stories of glass elegance belying a concrete core built to be a bunker in the sky. It is the first skyscraper to be completed at the World Trade Center site, and as it approaches its second anniversary, its innovative architecture and endlessly redundant security features – most of them designed from the lessons of the Twin Towers catastrophic collapse – offer a template for high-rise buildings in a post-9/11 world.

"The biggest change in high-rise construction now is this sealed, hardened core," says Dr. Herb Hauser, president of New York-based Midtown Technologies, a firm that specializes in security technologies for
buildings. "This means that the structure around the core can go down, or be on fire, or be invested with a biological or chemical problem, but the actual core itself will be protected." [Editor's note: The original version incorrectly stated that Dr. Hauser worked with architects designing new buildings for the World Trade Center site in New York. He didn't.]

At least three skyscrapers under construction that will surpass the height of the world's tallest building, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, are using the concrete-core technique (as well as a number of others under proposal in Russia and Korea). Indeed, the 1,776-foot high Freedom Tower, the anchor of the World Trade Center site, will in many ways simply be a larger version of the adjacent 7 WTC. The Chicago Spire, at 2,000 feet high, and Burj Dubai, soon to be the tallest building in the world at a staggering 2,700 feet, will also each have hollow concrete spines anchoring floors that will cascade and twist around them.

•••

Making buildings with a concrete core isn't a new idea, but the cost of constructing them in the past has been prohibitive. "The main drawback at one time was that a steel frame was so much faster to build," says Mir Ali, professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "It took you approximately three to four days to build a steel-frame floor. With concrete, it used to take 10 to 14 days a floor."

But with advances in construction techniques – better and cheaper concrete, more powerful pumps, easy-to-assemble slip and fly forms – crews can now put up a concrete core as fast as a steel frame. Moreover, very tall steel-frame buildings like the former World Trade Center towers and the Sears Tower often shimmy and sway in the wind. The top floor of a concrete-core high rise is as solid as a first-floor lobby.

And yet, since such buildings are, in part, towering symbols of power and strength, and therefore important symbolic targets, the question persists: Will tenants want to work in them? Ellis Rubinstein, president of the New York Academy of Sciences, the first organization to sign a lease at 7 WTC, recalls a number of board members and employees who were wary of working in a high rise at the site. "But the reverse was also quite true, actually. There was a great deal of pride that we were standing for the revitalization of the area," he says.

In addition to 7 WTC and the Freedom Tower, Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the site, is planning three more massive skyscrapers in the area. "Larry's big gamble in building over 7 million square feet of office space without tenants is that people will soon want more out of their buildings," says McQuillan.

Old Wall Street buildings, forming the "canyons" of 1930s-era high rises, often choke off the signals for legions of BlackBerrys, and just aren't built for the high-tech business needs of today. In 10 years, Mr. Silverstein believes, Wall Street firms will head a few blocks west to Greenwich Street, near the World Trade Center site, leaving the historic business district to the luxury loft renovators. But first he must convince them these state-of-the-art buildings are state-of-the-art safe.

•••

The sense of security architects tried to build into the hollow spine of 7 WTC, which has tenants on 30 of 42 available floors, starts with the glow-strip lined stairs. Stadiumlike in size, the stairwells allow a space where evacuees can rest or the wheelchair-bound can wait for assistance. They are also pressurized to force out smoke, and engineers have incorporated dual standpipes and extra water storage for the sprinkler system.

But beyond the concrete core, 7 WTC has a host of other security features. The building's skin is made almost entirely of glass, and since the foundation is designed like a diamond parallelogram, the structure gives off a crystalline appearance – hardly the look of a concrete bunker in the sky.
The glazing process incorporates new bomb-resistant technologies into the glass that eliminate flying shards – and actually shield the structure from an explosion, deflecting the energy of a blast. Windows are double-paned, laminated, and layered with a new plastic polymer. The windows near the lobby are reinforced with inner cables that would, like a rubber band, absorb a blast and snap back.

The lobby features another use of "new" glass. A 65-by-14-foot art installation behind the reception desk doubles as a bomb shield for the elevator lobby. The installation has two laminated glass walls. Each wall is a series of vertical panes that tilt inward, like a giant hinge, and spring back in the event of an explosion. Designed by James Carpenter and conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, the display flashes illuminated poetry and prose.

"It's quite robust in its strength, although it's relatively delicate in terms of its visual presence," says Mr. Carpenter, a sculptor and architect at James Carpenter Design Associates here.

Throughout 7 WTC, architects have tried to convey openness and optimism rather than a fortress mentality. Even the first eight floors, which are windowless and house a utility substation, are wrapped in a stainless-steel screen that glows a faint blue after dusk. The wall contains light sensors that create a drifting illumination whenever a pedestrian walks near it. "We're always trying to harness two things," says Carpenter, "performance and visual aesthetics."

Indeed, as four larger towers begin to rise at Ground Zero, architects in a post-9/11 world must balance safety with art, commerce, and community interests. "There's no doubt in anyone's mind that as they're building these towers," says Hauser, "somebody overseas is thinking about how to take them down again."

[DarrylStrawberry]

3.23

I love 7.

[BrooklynLove]

word

[brianac]

On 7 World Trade's Top Floor: Parties, Swimsuit Models, Vassar!

by Dana Rubinstein | April 4, 2008

http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/files/imagecache/article/files/7WTC%20012.jpg Dana Rubinstein.

“Wow, look at the mist,” murmured Sarah Craig, a Vassar College freshman, as she and 60 other students walked onto the 52nd floor of Seven World Trade Center, developer Larry Silverstein’s glamorous office skyscraper that, this rainy afternoon, pierced the clouds.

Thanks to the top 10 floors still being up for lease, the penthouse hosts a lot of visitors — Mr. Silverstein’s publicist and his staff lead four to five tours a week — and lots of glamorous parties.

On Feb. 12, the starkly gorgeous concrete-and-glass space hosted babealicious swimsuit models celebrating the release of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (the models traded their bikinis for cocktail dresses for a party that Silverstein Properties spokesman Dara McQuillan said was fabulous).

Of course, the Vassar students weren’t there to chat about star-studded fetes. The three classes — Intro to Urban Studies, Urban Geography and Architecture of the Modern World — had bussed in from Poughkeepsie and spent the day touring Chase Plaza and the perimeter of Ground Zero.

Now, in their Chuck Taylors, rain boots and stylishly large handbags, the students visited what one professor called “one of the best new buildings around.”

And, as Mr. McQuillan repeatedly pointed out, one of the safest.
Jeffrey Holmes, an architect who helped build the skyscraper, pointed out that the building has a concrete core, unlike the World Trade Center towers, whose weight was supported by the buildings’ perimeter. And the tower’s stairwell — as the students found out first-hand — has extra-wide steps. In case of an emergency, there’s room for employees to climb down while firefighters climb up.

Other high security features (aside from the klatch of conversationally-inclined cops standing outside):

The broad security desk is backed by a wall designed to absorb the impact of an explosion.
And, when an employee swipes her ID, a microchip embedded within tells the building’s super-computer her identity and summons an elevator to take her to the floor where she works.
Like the new New York Times building at 620 Eighth Avenue, the elevators are also equipped with keypads outside of the actual elevator.Oh, the elevators. They were a little nerve-racking.

“Did we push the right button?” asked one nervous professor.

They had.

“Oh, our ears are popping,” murmured another student.

As were their eyes, when Mr. McQuillan told them how much it cost to rent the top floor.

“It’s 40,000 square feet, so that’s $3.2 million a year,” he said. “It’s not much.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Observer.

[drcronex]

I don't like it much!

I appreciate the materials use and the facade. Nice transparency, screening and so on in the facade and parts&details are good. For someone attentive to detailing.

The wide-mouth lobby has an interesting art project but does little for the neighborhood. Out of scale and context. All adjacent sidewalks are reduced to mere circulation pathways by the imposing incredibly dull building. In general, the building does nothing for a neighborhood diversity. Skyline? I don't much care, its in reality nothing special, but this a secondary consideration for a neighborhood viewpoint. The devil is in the details and the neighborhood details are ignored. WTC7 has basically blank walls at the sidewalks like many of the other fascist buildings in the area. Not solving this makes a dull and defensive fortress like anti-city building.

I like the little park!

But I think the WTC7 could look great somewhere in nowhere-land New Jersey.

[BrooklynLove]

i worked on a deal to lease this space which unfortunately fell through - the plans for the space were excellent. it really is a great building.

[TREPYE]

Art Review
A Panoramic Backdrop for Meaning and Mischief

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/22/arts/koons.600.jpg Librado Romero/The New York Times

[/URL]
By [URL="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=byll&v1=ken johnson&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ken johnson&inline=nyt-per"]KEN JOHNSON (http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/arts&pos=Frame4A&sn2=b51a2ac8/6ac48b2c&sn1=625919f6/30894510&camp=foxsearch2008_emailtools_810902c-nyt5&ad=youngheart_88x31_8.gif&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2Fyou ngatheart)
Published: April 22, 2008
With its breathtaking, panoramic views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, the Cantor Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/metropolitan_museum_of_art/index.html?inline=nyt-org) may strike you as an excellent place to mount a seasonal outdoor sculpture show, which it does every year. In truth, it is an inhospitable site for sculpture, as demonstrated by the 2008 display that opens on Tuesday: three wonderful, previously unexhibited works by the celebrated Pop artist Jeff Koons (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jeff_koons/index.html?inline=nyt-per). Each of these sculptures is a greatly enlarged, glossily lacquered, stainless-steel representation of something small: a toy dog made of twisted-together balloons; a chocolate valentine heart wrapped in red foil, standing en pointe; and a silhouette of Piglet from a “Winnie the Pooh” coloring book, randomly colored as if by a small child.
Skip to next paragraph (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/arts/design/22koon.html?hp#secondParagraph) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/22/arts/koons.2.190.jpg Librado Romero/The New York Times


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They are mischievously meaningful works. With its pneumatic, sausagelike parts, “Balloon Dog (Yellow)” is a sly Trojan Horse: it seems innocent but is loaded with aesthetic and erotic perversity. “Sacred Heart (Red/Gold)” acidly comments on the commercial debasement of emotional and religious experience. “Coloring Book” reflects the youth-obsessed infantilism of modern culture and society.
But placed on the architecturally nondescript patio, where there are also shaded areas for patrons of the Roof Garden Cafe, the sculptures too easily turn into benign, decorative accessories.
The biggest problem is scale. Seen in an indoor gallery, the elephantine, shiny metallic “Balloon Dog (Yellow),” which rises to 10 feet at its highest point, would have a weirdly imposing, slightly menacing presence. On the roof it appears dwarfed by the vast sky and by the open expanses of space to the south and west of the museum.
The intimacy of Mr. Koons’s sculpture is also diminished. Perfectionist attention to detail is one of his work’s most compelling aspects: note the exactingly formed knot that serves as the balloon dog’s nose, or the folds, pleats and stretch marks in the heart’s wrapper. The distracting outdoor environment, though, discourages careful, contemplative looking.
Because it is both the biggest and the simplest, the 18 ½-foot-tall “Coloring Book” is the least undermined by its environment. But it is also the least interesting formally, being little more than a flat, irregularly contoured slab whose colors are thin and watery.
Their setting aside, Mr. Koons’s sculptures remain intellectually and sensuously exciting objects — “Balloon Dog” is a masterpiece — and they are worth visiting under any circumstances.

[scumonkey]

Masterpiece....?
Ken Johnson must be easily impressed :rolleyes:

[antinimby]

I think they're cute and playful. I like Jeff Koon's works. Whether they're masterpieces or not, one thing for sure is that they're original.

By the way, if you look at the valentine chocolate heart one, you can see with the finer details such as the folds/pleats in the skin, that those sort of things are not necessarily easy to do, particularly with steel.

[scumonkey]

... one thing for sure is that they're originalN O T !
He has been sued for stealing images from others to turn into his sculptures.:rolleyes:
He doesn't even do the work.....look for the signature of the real talent,
(the person who actually makes this stuff for him)....I believe he has to let him sign the sculpts now as well .

[antinimby]

I'd be really interested in finding out what the outcome of those suits were.

Likely they're dismissed since you can have images of fairly common things such as valentine chocolate hearts and balloon dogs but that doesn't make those objects exclusively yours.

Besides, he is transforming those images into large, solid objects, something entirely different from mere images.

As for the work, if indeed he doesn't do the hands-on, physical work, I think that is all right because these heavy, hard materials such as steel needs certain type of metalworking skills that artists don't necessarily possess.

It's like saying architects don't deserve credit for their designs because construction workers build the actuall buildings.

He provides the vision and the ideas without which, these works wouldn't have come about. He does give those other people credit so that is more than sufficient.

[scumonkey]

As a professional artist (with degree) i can understand what your saying HOWEVER.....
you can have images of fairly common things such as valentine chocolate hearts and balloon dogs He steals more than that!
Here is a link to review one such suit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_v._Koons
he is transforming those images into large, solid objects, something entirely different from mere images...not quite different enough!
...steel needs certain type of metalworking skills that artists don't necessarily possess.This Hack has NO skills, (he's worse than Mark Kostobi-
who has others think up the designs for his paintings, and paint them, pays others still to give them names on a self hosted game show, and then signs them himself)!
At least Mark is "Known" for doing this.....he hides nothing!
He provides the vision and the ideas without which, these works wouldn't have come about. No, he steals the ideas from others and has still others
to produce them for him!
oh yeah... he's a scum bag in more than one way:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/27/wporn127.xml

[antinimby]

LOL. I know how you artist types might get all sensitive when it comes to these issues (maybe even a bit of paranoia?) but c'mon now, calling it stealing is a bit overdramatic.

Anyway, according to that wikipedia court case link you provided, he made no secret that he had used that Rogers photograph as inspiration for his sculpture, apparently thinking it fell under "fair use by parody" rather than any copyright infringements.

So it took a court to decipher the legal fine line between the two. No big deal. :)

[lofter1]

I bet it's a big deal to the guy who had the copyright on the original photograph -- and probably a big deal of cash coming out of Koons' pocket (although, based on the other link, it seems likely that the photographer will have quite a hard time getting any payment from Koons -- no matter what the Court said).

[scumonkey]

...he made no secret that he had used that Rogers photograph as inspiration for his sculpture...
He did not admit this until AFTER he got caught!;)

[antinimby]

It's no big deal in the sense that Koons, like many of us who aren't lawyers, probably didn't know the finer differences between what constitutes parody and infringement, particularly when it comes to matters of a less than tangible nature such as artwork.

Isn't that what the courts are for?

Anyway, he himself have had his own work copied by others (see the previous wikipedia link, right-hand side under 'Holding') but is considered all right, which illustrates the fuzziness of what could be considered copying and what isn't in the world of art.

[BrooklynLove]

AN - even lawyers don't know the boundary between fair use and infringement - extremely grey, case by case legal doctrine.

[Daquan13]

LOL. Did little Danny ever get his money? How refreshing it was to see him appearing with Pataki one last time, for old times sake. Now, may they both hit the road.



He was nothing but a whiner and a stumbling block anyway. It still puzzles me to this day, why Pataki picked his design in the first place.

But at least ALL of the towers got elegant makeovers.

[Daquan13]

http://static.flickr.com/107/295524703_8c09172fa3_b.jpg
11-12-06
China Chas (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaspope/)



LOVE this dramatic shot of Seven!! Looks almost like a 100-story!!!

[The Benniest]

I agree with Daquan.

That shot is amazing. :cool:

[BrooklynLove]

here here. great shot.

[brianac]

The Optimistic (and Long) View of Larry A. Silverstein

By Terry Pristin | May 14, 2008
New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/business/14larry.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The+Optimistic+%28and+Long%29+View+of+Larry+A.+ Silverstein+&st=nyt&oref=slogin)

Larry A. Silverstein, the New York developer, is used to being second-guessed.

"There's no shortage of people who are always trying to tell you what you should do when it's not their money that's at stake, and not their property," he said last week.

Mr. Silverstein completed the first 7 World Trade Center in early 1987, not long after the brokerage firm Drexel Burnham Lambert had run into trouble and abandoned plans to lease all 42 floors of the tower. Later that year, the stock market crashed.

As office vacancies reached their highest level in a decade, Mr. Silverstein allowed his new building to remain nearly empty rather than reduce his asking rent of $37 a square foot annually. Brokers said at the time that he could fill the building in a flash if he would lower the rent to $34. But Mr. Silverstein refused to budge. "I have the staying power and the ability to do what I need to do," he told The New York Times in April 1988.
Two decades later, Mr. Silverstein has a new 7 World Trade Center. He finished building the luminous 52-story tower in 2006, less than five years after its predecessor was destroyed in the 2001 terrorist attack. But two years later, just as the real estate market is bracing for a significant loss of financial services jobs, no leases have been signed for the top 10 floors. The penthouse is used instead for movie shoots, fashion shows and receptions for civic groups, though Mr. Silverstein draws the line at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Once again, real estate professionals are puzzled by Mr. Silverstein's refusal to compromise on his annual asking rent, which now ranges from $75 to $85 a square foot for the top floor. Last summer, the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton came close to making a deal, but Mr. Silverstein would not shave a couple of dollars off the rent.

"Our client would have loved to have moved there," said Cleary's broker, Barry M. Gosin, chief executive of Newmark Knight Frank.

Mr. Silverstein, who will turn 77 this month, smiled when he was reminded of the 1988 parallel. "History repeats itself, doesn't it?" he said in an interview in his office on the 38th floor of 7 World Trade Center.

The energetic Mr. Silverstein has other reasons to smile these days. At a time when many developers around the country are being forced to pull in their reins because of the credit squeeze, Mr. Silverstein has only to look out his floor-to-ceiling windows to see a new real estate empire in the making. His private company, Silverstein Properties, has $9 billion worth of projects in the works.

To the south, the Freedom Tower, which Mr. Silverstein is developing for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is rising. Work is finally under way 80 feet below street level on the foundations for two of the three towers at ground zero that Silverstein Properties will control: 3 World Trade Center, with 71 stories, and 4 World Trade Center, with 61 stories.

This summer, the Port Authority is expected to finish building the slurry wall that will allow the digging of a foundation for Mr. Silverstein's third office building, Tower 2, with 78 stories.

After years of delay - much of it a result of often acrimonious wrangling between government officials and Mr. Silverstein, who signed a long-term lease for the World Trade Center just six weeks before it was destroyed - some 800 construction workers are now employed at the site. Many of them also participated in the rescue efforts at ground zero.

Looking east, Mr. Silverstein can monitor the demolition of 99 Church Street, a 13-story office building a block from City Hall Park that will be succeeded by an 80-story limestone tower, designed by Robert A. M. Stern, with a 175-room Four Seasons hotel and 143 condominiums.

Mr. Silverstein's financial partner in that project is the California State Teachers Retirement System - also his partner in the recent purchase of two Midtown Manhattan office buildings; one, 1177 Avenue of the Americas, between 45th and 46th Streets, cost more than $1 billion.

Mr. Silverstein acknowledged that the team was also interested in the Midtown buildings that Harry B. Macklowe surrendered to his lenders after defaulting on billions of dollars in short-term debt.

Like Mr. Macklowe, Mr. Silverstein is a famously tough negotiator. But he is also known for his unusually optimistic personality. Within days of the terrorist attacks, he pledged that the World Trade Center would be rebuilt. The cushion on his office sofa that bears a paraphrase of a Thomas Jefferson adage: "Steer your ship with hope, leaving fear astern" Though Lower Manhattan has blossomed as a residential community, growing to more than 50,000 residents, it has nearly 30,000 fewer jobs than it had before the Sept. 11 attack. Office vacancy downtown was 6.7 percent last month, compared with 6 percent in April 2007, according to the brokerage firm of CB Richard Ellis.

Predicting that the current downturn will not last long, Mr. Silverstein said leases throughout Manhattan amounting to 60 million square feet will expire within the next four years, just when his buildings are ready to accept tenants. He is already trying to persuade Merrill Lynch to move out of its offices at the World Financial Center.

Some real estate specialists wonder if Lower Manhattan will be able to attract so many new tenants at once. "I don't see why all the buildings are being finished at the same time," said the developer Douglas Durst, who is active in Midtown. "That seems to me a tactical mistake."

Others say they share Mr. Silverstein's optimism. "The Lower Manhattan of tomorrow is really a very very different place than the Lower Manhattan of 10 years ago," said Carl Weisbrod, the president of Trinity Real Estate, which owns commercial buildings just north of downtown. "I think Larry is totally right in betting on the future."

Interest in 7 World Trade Center remains high, said Stephen B. Siegel, the global chairman of CB Richard Ellis, which is representing the building.
Two decades ago, the tax breaks and favorable financing Mr. Silverstein received for 7 World Trade Center eliminated pressure to fill up the building quickly.

The new $700 million parallelogram-shaped 7 World Trade Center was financed with insurance proceeds and $475 million worth of triple-tax-exempt Liberty Bonds. The building has a mix of tenants, including Moody's Investors Services; Mansueto Ventures, a magazine publisher; and the New York Academy of Sciences. The cash flow more than covers the debt service, Mr. Siegel said.

"He's very confident in his product, and he holds out for his number," Mr. Siegel said. Lowering the rent by $2 a square foot would reduce his annual income by $10 million and would lower the value of the building by as much as $20 million, based on a current capitalization rate of 5 percent, he said. (That figure is a ratio of the building's net operating income relative to the sales price.)

Mr. Silverstein said he was taking the long view to protect a family-owned asset. "When you get to be in your 70s, you look at things like this through a different lens," he said. "It's better to take your time and do it right."

[Daquan13]

He certainly proved a lot of non-believers wrong when they thought Ground Zero was going nowhere - starting with Seven, and now the Freedom Tower!!

[Bob]

What I don't get -- and maybe I missed it somewhere in this threat -- is why 7 WTC stopped short at its existing height. Opportunity lost to build 7 much taller than it eventually ended up. Compared to its future neighbors, 7 looks as if it will get lost in the crowd.

[ZippyTheChimp]

He certainly proved a lot of non-believers wrong when they thought Ground Zero was going nowhere - starting with Seven, and now the Freedom Tower!!Silverstein isn't building the Freedom Tower.

[Daquan13]

Silverstein isn't building the Freedom Tower.



I would hate to dispute you, but last time I checked, yes he is. At least he's in charge of it. Then he hands it over to the PA after it is completed. The PA WAS going to be in charge of building it, but it was given to Silverstein to do.

At least that was the agreement and part of the rebuild deal. Now whether that has changed or not, I don't know. Never can tell anyway, because things change so much when it comes to stuff for Ground Zero.

[ZippyTheChimp]

"In charge of building" isn't the same thing as building 7WTC.

The arrangement is mostly one of finance and convenience. Part of Silverstein's insurance money was allocated for the Freedom Tower, ans SOM and Tishman were already in place.

But 1 WTC LLC owns the building, and is responsible for getting it leased.

[Daquan13]

"In charge of building" isn't the same thing as building 7WTC.

The arrangement is mostly one of finance and convenience. Part of Silverstein's insurance money was allocated for the Freedom Tower, ans SOM and Tishman were already in place.

But 1 WTC LLC owns the building, and is responsible for getting it leased.



Well, we know that no one actually 'BUILDS' a building but the contractor, which in this case IS Tishman Constr. Co.. Tishman was more than happy to do it again, since they did the old Seven and the Twins.

Yes, that is why Silverstein fought so hard to get the dough from the insurers to help secure the replacement towers' financing. Now he's getting money from the PA for their slowness in getting the pits dug for the other towers.

David Childs came on the scene just before the terror attacks, and a deal was being worked out to renovated the Twins and the underground mall when Silverstein signed the policies for the Twins.

But SOM had already designed the destroyed 3 WTC (Marriott Hotel formerly Vista) as well.

[brianac]

NBC on Office Hunt

Network mulls 7 World Trade, 11 Times Square for new business center

by Dana Rubinstein (http://www.observer.com/2008/author/dana-rubinstein) | June 12, 2008

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/7worldtrade.jpg

NBC visited 7 World Trade Center on June 2, the most recent of more than one visit to Larry Silverstein’s gleaming downtown tower, whose top 10 floors are still available for lease. Sources say NBC was considering housing its new business operations center there.

“NBC has been back to 7 World Trade Center a number of times, with executives and different division heads poring over the building,” said a real estate insider, who, on a recent visit to the building, saw NBC representatives looking like “cats who swallowed the canary.”

Those “executives” included Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, according to another source.

A Silverstein spokesman said he would “not comment on nor confirm discussions with potential tenants.” But another broker familiar with NBC’s plans said the media giant has since moved on from 7 World Trade, and is now looking at SJP Properties’ under-construction 11 Times Square and properties along Eighth Avenue.

Cory Shields, NBC’s executive vice president of communications, would say only that the company is “looking at multiple locations around the city.”

In May, John Wallace, president of the network’s Local Media Division, announced that NBC would “transform its 30 Rockefeller Center facility into a multimillion-dollar content center and launch a 24-hour local news channel.” As part of that realignment, the network said it would also create a “new, state-of-the-art Manhattan facility” for the business operations now housed at 437 Madison Avenue, 2 Park Avenue and the Chelsea Market. Those units would move to the new site in 2009.

http://www.observer.com/2008/nbc-mulls-7-world-trade-11-times-square-new-business-center

© 2008 Observer Media Group,

[Skylimitone]

11 TS seems more appropriate since its a media company...just my thought.

[NYC4Life]

From: NY Post

CIAO CIPRIANI: LEASE TO END IN '09

Last updated: 3:24 am
July 1, 2008



THE bitter war between the Cipriani organization and its landlord at 200 Fifth Ave. is over.

Ending a year of litigation and public mudslinging, the owners of the former Toy Building on Madison Square Park and the Ciprianis have "amicably" agreed that the high-end caterer will end its lease there on Jan. 31, 2009 - years before its scheduled expiration.

The mostly confidential settlement in Manhattan Supreme Court brings to an end a bitter dispute that started last summer, when L&L Holding Co. tried to evict Giuseppe Cipriani's much-in-the-news company.

The mutual decision to end Cipriani's lease will let L&L, headed by Chairman David W. Levinson, complete interior renovations and retail repositioning at the building.

It simultaneously allows Cipriani to focus on "identifying new projects in the city" consistent "with the company's portfolio of historical landmark properties," according to a joint announcement to be released today.

L&L is converting 200 Fifth Ave., between 23rd and 24th streets, into a first-class office address and recently signed advertising giant Grey Group as its anchor tenant. The building also has about 50,000 square feet of retail space, most of it vacant.

Last year, L&L tried to boot Cipriani over its indictment for tax fraud, which resulted in Giuseppe and his father, Arrigo, agreeing to pay $10 million to settle the charges.

The Ciprianis, in turn, sued L&L for $20 million, claiming the case was irrelevant to its 200 Fifth Ave. tenancy and that the landlord was "maliciously and wrongly" interfering with the company's use of the premises.

The Cipriani space has about 15,000 square feet.

With the space freed up, L&L is expected to begin aggressively marketing it as a first-class restaurant destination, possibly in combination with the retail space. Reps for L&L and attorneys for Cipriani declined comment.

*

Grubb & Ellis has been tapped to market 140,000 square feet of office space at 7 World Trade Center, which ABN Amro has put up for sublease.

The Dutch bank, which was swallowed up by Royal Bank of Scotland not long after it signed the lease with developer Larry Silverstein, has floors 30-33 in the skyscraper across the street from Ground Zero.

When ABN Amro signed the lease in late 2006, it was considered an affirmation of the downtown market's resilience.
The bank planned to move employees to the gleaming new skyscraper from locations in Midtown and Jersey City.

The lease brought occupancy above 1million square feet in the 1.6 million square-foot tower.

However, ABN Amro never actually moved in after doing some preliminary infrastructure work.

"Royal Bank of Scotland, which has its headquarters in Stamford, Conn., didn't want the space downtown, and it's been empty all along," said an insider.

The ABN Amro availability means that 14 floors of the 52-floor tower are on the market.

Silverstein is still marketing 10 floors, including the top five, and has recently raised the asking rent to more than $75 a square foot.

Grubb & Ellis declined comment on how much the ABN Amro space was asking. Silverstein reps had no comment.

*

The untimely death of Terry Spillane at 52 has saddened all who knew Cushman & Wakefield's longtime director of media relations. In an often cutthroat business, Spillane was known for his gentlemanly style.

Cushman CEO Bruce Mosler praised him for the "integrity and trustworthiness he communicated every day."

Spillane, who started as a sports writer at The Post, managed the firm's strategic media relationships for two decades and more recently served as international liaison for corporate communications in New York.

[Veseу]

Does anyone have any idea what the lobby lights in 7WTC say in this picture? I'm dieing to know... All I can make out is "The Twin Towers Were..." and then it cuts out.

http://www.debunk911myths.org/images/wtc7bluelights-600px.jpg

[Daquan13]

I see that also, but it looks like there's a U there starting for the next word which can't be seen.

I'm guessing that it might say Unmatched or Undisputed. Or Unforgettable.

[Jasonik]

It's an installation by Jenny Holzer (http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1894).

“We have everything from words by early explorers going ‘Behold!’ to Whitman and on up to relatively new poems,” [Holzer] says. The texts include E. B. White’s classic book Here Is New York in its entirety, a poem by Allen Ginsberg, and David Lehman’s reconsideration (http://jerz.setonhill.edu/design/WTC/index.html#Lehman) of the World Trade Center after the first attack in 1993. “I wanted to make a mash note to the city. I don’t know whether that’s proper or not, but after racking my brain, that’s what I came up with.”

David Lehman
"The World Trade Center" (1996)

I never liked the World Trade Center.
When it went up I talked it down
As did many other New Yorkers.
The twin towers were ugly monoliths
That lacked the details the ornament the character
Of the Empire State Building and especially
The Chrysler Building, everyone's favorite,
With its scalloped top, so noble.
The World Trade Center was an example of what was wrong
With American architecture,
And it stayed that way for twenty-five years
Until that Friday afternoon in February
When the bomb went off and the buildings became
A great symbol of America, like the Statue
Of Liberty at the end of Hitchcock's Saboteur.
My whole attitude toward the World Trade Center
Changed overnight. I began to like the way
It comes into view as you reach Sixth Avenue
From any side street, the way the tops
Of the towers dissolve into white skies
In the east when you cross the Hudson
Into the city across the George Washington Bridge.

(From "Valentine Place" [Scribner, 1996]. Originally published in "The Paris Review (http://www.theparisreview.com/back/tpr136.htm)." [source (http://ericdarton.net/html/litallusions.html) -- text not verified] )

[Veseу]

Ah, thanks Jasonik! Makes sense now.

Not sure why they would have that in 7WTC's lobby... An odd way to build excitement for the new WTC. =P

[NYC4Life]

New York Post

HSBC might move in at 7 World Trade Center

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/1899/7WTC_articlebox.jpg

Larry Silverstein is going for the grand-slam he's patiently awaited ever since his 7 World Trade Center opened two years ago.

The developer and HSBC are inching toward a deal for the banking giant to lease nearly 300,000 square feet on the tower's top seven floors.
But this is fast-track inching.

Although no lease is out, and a term sheet has not even been signed, our downtown mole said "a term sheet is out," meaning the sides are close to agreeing on basic numbers.

They include rent starting at $75 a square foot on the lower-most floors and rising to $85 a square foot on the top two floors (51 and 52). That would be downtown's highest rent, but clearly within HSBC's ability to afford.

Hard negotiating still lies ahead, but we're told the parties are "feeling good" about it.

If a deal is struck, it will be sweet vindication for Silverstein, who could have leased the floors for slightly less but has held out for what he considers their true value.

And if it happens, HSBC will likely sell its building at 452 Fifth Ave., which the bank quietly has had on and off the market and from which employees would move south to 7 WTC.

[Daquan13]

Vesey, you're right!

It should be put in the Freedom Tower's lobby when it's built. To show that the Freedom Tower is a much more superior building!

[ablarc]

[I]I never liked the World Trade Center...
The World Trade Center was an example of what was wrong
With American architecture...
When the bomb went off and the buildings became
A great symbol of America...
My whole attitude toward the World Trade Center
Changed overnight.
Exactly.

How many of us have traced this trajectory in our thoughts?

[BrooklynLove]

If a deal is struck, it will be sweet vindication for Silverstein, who could have leased the floors for slightly less but has held out for what he considers their true value.

And if it happens, HSBC will likely sell its building at 452 Fifth Ave., which the bank quietly has had on and off the market and from which employees would move south to 7 WTC.

Hmm. Query whether we might see a combined transaction here with Silverstein buying 452 5th and HSBC taking space at 7 WTC.

[NYatKNIGHT]

How many of us have traced this trajectory in our thoughts?I know I did, but I never went so far as to want replicas rebuilt.

[NYC4Life]

New York Observer

HSBC Has Mega-Lease Out at Silverstein's 7 World Trade

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article/files/7WTC%20012_0.jpg

One of the 7 World Trade Center floors HSBC plans to lease.

HSBC Bank is poised to become Larry Silverstein's newest tenant at 7 World Trade Center, with a lease pending on the last big block of space in the 52-story, 741-foot, two-year-old skyscraper on the edge of Ground Zero.

The banking giant has a lease out on 280,000 square feet of space comprising the top seven floors of the building, according to a knowledgeable source. While the lease has yet to be signed, insiders believe it's nearly a done deal. (We guess that means no more penthouse parties (http://www.observer.com/2008/7-world-trades-top-floor-parties-swimsuit-models-vassar) for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.)

Read more about the pending deal in Wednesday's print Observer.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Report Says Fire, Not Explosion, Felled 7 W.T.C.


By ERIC LIPTON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/eric_lipton/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: August 21, 2008

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Fires in the 47-story office tower at the edge of the World Trade Center site undermined floor beams and critical structural columns, federal investigators concluded Thursday, as they attempted to curb still-rampant speculation that explosives or fuel fires were responsible for the building’s collapse of Sept. 11, 2001.

The long-delayed report by engineers here at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in suburban Washington is intended to solve one of still lingering central questions about the 2001 attacks: Why did 7 World Trade Center fall, if it was not hit by an airplane.

“Heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail,” said Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator. “Video and photographic evidence combined with detailed computer simulations show that neither explosives nor fuel oils played a role in the collapse that brought the building down.”

No one died when 7 World Trade Center fell, nearly seven hours after the twin towers came down. But the collapse of the adjacent tower — once home to branch offices of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service and to the Giuliani administration’s emergency operations center — is cited in hundreds of books and Internet sites as perhaps the most compelling evidence that an insider secretly planted explosives, intentionally destroying the tower.

It is the first skyscraper in modern times to collapse primarily as a result of a fire.

Mainstream engineers and government officials have rejected the speculation as ridiculous. But national polls have shown that perhaps as many as 1 in 7 Americans believe that the destruction of the World Trade Center towers was an inside job.

The investigators determined that debris from the falling twin towers ignited fires on at least 10 floors at 7 World Trade Center, which was about 400 feet north of where the city’s two tallest buildings once stood. The blazes burned out of control for six hours, as the city fire department, devastated by the collapse of the twin towers, abandoned its efforts to extinguish the fire, and the sprinkler system was incapacitated.

The heat from these fires, the investigators said, caused the beams on the lower floors of the east side of the tower to expand, ultimately causing a girder on the 13th floor to disconnect from a critical interior column that supported the building’s long floor spans. Once the 13th floor gave way, a cascade of floor failures started down to the fifth floor, leading to the overall collapse of the tower.

Skeptics have questioned if explosives were planted at 7 World Trade Center, as well as the twin towers and the Pentagon, as the Bush administration was seeking a justification to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. What started as a small number of such conspiracy theorists has only ballooned into a movement of sorts, largely fed by Internet sites that promote the theories.

“Seven World Trade Center is one of the key points of evidence, one of the smoking guns,” said Richard Gage, a California architect who leader a group called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. “There have been much hotter, longer lasting and larger fires in skyscrapers that have not fallen down.”

The investigators said that if the city water main had not been broken during the collapse of the twin towers, the sprinkler system would likely have put out the fires at 7 World Trade Center, and the building would not have fallen.

The engineers also examined whether diesel fuel tanks in the building — to power the Giuliani administration’s emergency operations center and other government offices — might have been a fuel source that caused the collapse. The investigators determined, based in part on computer models and videos of smoke coming from the tower, that the heat generated from any fuel-fed fires would not have been enough to cause the collapse.
Dr. Sunder said the investigation pointed to how expansion that can occur in steel as it heats up in a fire needs to be considered to prevent skyscraper collapses.

“Our take-home message today is the reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery,” Dr. Sunder said. “It did not collapse from explosives or fuel oil fires.”

A new, substantially different, 52-story 7 World Trade Center opened in 2006.

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/nyregion/22wtccnd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Daquan13]

I never once believed that bogus story about the tower being set up and detonated anyway.

Where on earth would they find the time to do that? Not in seven hours, that's for sure!

You'll find all that bogus stuff at Youtube.com and LooseChange.com, if the latter one is still around. They just couldn't WAIT to get their hands in the cookie jar and pull out a "magical rabbit"!

They jumped all over that and just ate it up like a hungry hog!! Cheap sensationalism and a bogus way to put out false info!!

[KenNYC]

Conspiracy theories are nothing new really, but they still don't make for good entertainment. But let's take real comfort in the fact that the real conspiracies we'll never hear anything about at all:)

[Daquan13]

Yeah, I'm so glad that all that crap has been put to bed! I'm so relieved!!;)

[CoolCzech]

Report Says Fire, Not Explosion, Felled 7 W.T.C.




But... but... but...

Didn't Rosie say there's no way fire can melt steel??? :rolleyes:

[Daquan13]

I think if the fire was hot enough, it could. After all, steel is fabricated from a molten state.

In this case though, as with the Twins, the fire only had to be just hot enough to soften and weaken the steel to the point where the building's structural ingetrity was no longer any good.

[lofter1]

I'm confused.

Seriously: Can someone smarter please explain (and I really do mean smarter -- as in knows what they are talking about on this subject, not just spewing words) ...

The report says:



... Fires in the 47-story office tower at the edge of the World Trade Center site undermined floor beams and critical structural columns, federal investigators concluded Thursday ...

“Heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail,” said Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator. “Video and photographic evidence combined with detailed computer simulations show that neither explosives nor fuel oils played a role in the collapse that brought the building down.”

... investigators determined that debris from the falling twin towers ignited fires on at least 10 floors at 7 World Trade Center...

... the heat generated from any fuel-fed fires would not have been enough to cause the collapse.

... the reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery,” Dr. Sunder said. “It did not collapse from explosives or fuel oil fires.”


Are these people claiming that the fuel in the basement storage tanks for the Giuliani command bunker did NOT burn?

If so, given the situation, how is that even possible?

If they're NOT saying that, then considering that fuel DID burn and fed the fires within 7 WTC: how can they claim that the collapse, while due to fire, was NOT due to fires connected to buring fuel?

They seem to be going out of their way to somehow claim that Giiuliani's fuel storage was not an issue in the destruction of the original 7WTC.

[Jasonik]

When you have a predetermined conclusion that you need a plausible scenario to support, you construct cause and effect narratives that strain credulity -- I'm speaking here of both NIST and the conspiracy theorists.

ALL the evidence was destroyed within weeks of the accident. We'll NEVER know what happened. WTC7's collapse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD06SAf0p9A) is unprecedented and uniquely symmetric among steel framed structures. There is no magic bullet this time. Instead we are presented with a magic girder. Same difference though, since most people know as much about structural engineering as they do ballistics.

When the government says this proves it conclusively, case closed -- that's the end. Never mind the mix up about WMD or Hatfill/Ivins -- this time they've figured it out. Never mind it took them seven years -- that should make you believe it MORE.

If the debate doesn't end right now -- the terrorists have won.

[Daquan13]

Supposedly, from how I was informed, there was an emergency backup
generator somehwere on one of the buildings low floore and the diesel fuel lines used to power it caught fire.

Whether that theory still had any bearing or whether the theory held any water is possibly still up in the air.

So many therories and rumors just flew off the panhandle, ran amuck like a rabid wolverine and just spread like wildfire, parden the pun. And if there was or were any explosions at all, it had to have come from the fuel tanks that stored the fuel or the generator in and of iteslf..

[stache]

After the building collapsed, the diesel fuel was pumped out of the emergency tanks and given to little old ladies so they would not freeze that winter. I'm sure we will have photographic evidence of this any day now. ;)

[lofter1]

WTF is a "volverine" :confused:

Don't know that I've ever read a sentence containing so many mixed metaphors :cool:

Daquan: Do you just make things up? Or simply pick and choose bits and pieces of articles that catch your fancy?

It's often helpful to clarify things in one's own mind before attacking the keyboard.

[195Broadway]

I guess my haiku......

[ZippyTheChimp]

Are these people claiming that the fuel in the basement storage tanks for the Giuliani command bunker did NOT burn?

If so, given the situation, how is that even possible?Haven't got time now to read the full report - maybe someone should do that.

But looking at the graphic, reading the article, and from the limited knowledge I have of the building and its substation:

7WTC was built around the substation, which was somewhat isolated from the tower. Some of the vertical load was transferred with long headers instead of continuing straight down to the foundation as in most towers. The way I read the article is that any fuel fires in the building did not reach what they determined to be the critical column 79 (see graphic).

I can't see how the issue of what fire caused the collapse lets Giuliani off the hook. It was stupid to locate an emergency command center across the street from a terrorist target after it was already attacked (1993). It was rendered unusable just when it was most needed.

Gotta go.

[stache]

And he was warned about this beforehand, yet he insisted his fort be built right there.

[theWatusi]

lofter,

That is just Daquan being Daquan.

You should have seen some of the stuff he posted at skyscraperpage.

[stache]

Posted?

[theWatusi]

Well I mean the ridiculous rants he used to have.

He was banned from there a while back and most of it has been deleted.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Whatever happened on SSP is the business of SSP.

[CoolCzech]

Well I mean the ridiculous rants he used to have.

He was banned from there a while back and most of it has been deleted.

Yeah, well I also noted quite a few persons purposefully baiting him, knowing what his reaction would be and getting a kick out of it. People could try to be a little kind. If somebody really hates his posts... use the ignore button.

[Daquan13]

Thank you, CoolCzech.

What this individual didn't tell anyone about is about all of the trouble & crap that HE'S caused now, did he? Here as well! Or that HE HIMSELF was banned from 3 forums, mainly mine!!

If he's gonna tell it, then he should tell it right!! This individual is an Internet bully of the worst kind who's hijacked spammed and trolled my forum so badly with so much off-topic material like porn and grossly explicit photos and comments and just kept on friggen coming back until I found a way to keep him out for good!!

Lofter1, a wolverine is, I believe, a small heavily-built fox-like or ferrett-like animal related to the weasel. If you'd have gone to school and learned about animals like I think that you should have, you'd already know that. I'm NOT the one who's making anything up! YouTube and LooseChange.com DO have conspiracy theories on 09-11 and 7 WTC. Why don't you just go over there and find out for yourself and not be so damn quick to judge me, since you don't believe me? But I don't care if you do or if you don't.

But this thread is supposed to about 7 WTC - Not about what happened over at SSP or anywhere / anything else, like Zippy said. I'll shut up on this now.:mad:

[theWatusi]

Lofter1, a volverine is, I believe, a small fox-like or ferrett-like animal. If you'd have gone to school and learned about animals like I think that you should have, you'd already know that.

It's Wolverine, not volverine. :rolleyes:

[ZippyTheChimp]

The two of you seem to have unresolved issues. Take it to PMs, or ignore each other.

[Daquan13]

Sorry about that. And I'll do that. Thanks.

[pattali]

Hello to everyone,

Just to say that if you want to visit WTC 7 you must watch "Perfect stranger" the movie with Halle Berry ;) and Bruce willis, at the beginning I saw Larry Silverstein in the lobby like the famous Hitchcok apparition :cool:


wonderfull Building and nice view , So try to rent it in DVD ....

[ZippyTheChimp]

If it wasn't for Catwoman, Perfect Stranger might win as Halle Berry's worst movie.

[pattali]

Sure it wasn't a great movie , just a visit to WTC 7 and see Silverstein-Hitchcok in the lobby :o

[Daquan13]

I believe 7 WTC also appears in Superman Returns as well. Superman flies over it.

[Dagrecco82]

7 WTC serves as the set for a Crest commercial. Out the window you can see Barlcay and Woolworth.

[Daquan13]

The tower has also been in a few TV commcercials.

It should only be about 5 or 6 more years or so before the Freedom Tower is back in the limelight, doing the same thing that the Twins did - serving as the backdrop in films!

[LeCom]

It should only be about 5 or 6 more years or so before the Freedom Tower is back in the limelight, doing the same thing that the Twins did - serving as the backdrop in films!

It has already done so in Adam Sandler's Click.

Also, in one of the scenes in the new Superman, you can see the new 7 WTC battered and broken by Lex Luthor-caused disasters.

[stache]

Oh, goodie. ;)

[Daquan13]

You're right, LeCom!

Yeah, I think in Supeman, a huge ball-shaped thingy had started to roll off the top of the Daily Planet Buiding and on the way down, it hit 7 WTC or something like that.

I have the movie Click, but I haven't seen it yet.

Supposed to be twin Freedom Towers in it. Yeah, I forgot about that one.:D

[pattali]

You're right, LeCom!

....

I have the movie Click, but I haven't seen it yet.

Supposed to be twin Freedom Towers in it. Yeah, I forgot about that one.:D


Yes There are 2 freedom towers at the end of Click, marvelous future !

[Daquan13]

Because an individual here has refused to believe me that the former 7 WTC Tower was part of the subject of the 09-11 conspiracy theory, and we ALL know that it was, and that this individual has accused me of making it up, here's the evidence;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z4ZH9BRwm&NR-1 . Type 7 WTC in the Search bar and watch the videos and conspiracy conversations about what the website thinks supposedly caused the building to fall.

[Jasonik]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/BREAKING_NIST_%3CI%3Efinally%3CI%3E_poses_theory_o n_0821.html
Specifically, in Appendix C of its World Trade Center Building Performance Study, FEMA claimed:
Evidence of a severe high temperature corrosion attack on the steel, including oxidation and sulfidation with subsequent intergranular melting, was readily visible in the near-surface microstructure. A liquid eutectic mixture containing primarily iron, oxygen, and sulfur formed during this hot corrosion attack on the steel... The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 and 2 are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified.
Yet, no study of the mysterious sulfur or melted steel was included in the NIST report.

It was for some time claimed by armchair conspiracy debunkers that the sulfur was from the diesel fuel and that this is what melted and/or corroded the steel.

Daquan, since your video link is 'malformed' here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58h0LjdMry0) is some representative youtube skepticism.

And here are NIST's nifty computer graphics (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/wtc_videos/wtc_videos.html) 'resolving' the mystery.

[lofter1]

Is it bad reading skills, inability to ascertain sarcasm or simply a case of a ...

http://www.newyorkology.com/archives/images/crybaby54.jpg

:confused:

[Daquan13]

Thank you, Jasonik.

Guess the website won't do it that way now.

But that WAS the right link for it though.

[brianac]

September 2, 2008, 1:25 pm

The See-Through Skyscraper

By David W. Dunlap (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/ddunlap/)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/02/nyregion/See-Through_Skyscraper_(Dun.jpg
7 World Trade Center almost disappears. (Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)

“Transparency” is the architectural watchword of the era, almost guaranteed to appear in any reference to contemporary glass-clad towers.

But real buildings usually look a lot different than the clear plastic models and crystalline renderings shown at news conferences and ribbon cuttings.

Once in a while, however, when the light and the angles are just right, a skyscraper can come close to vanishing.

That happened last Thursday, when the 52 floors of 7 World Trade Center faded into the cloud-flecked blue of a late summer afternoon. Its masonry neighbors (140 West Street and 90 West Street) stood out in contrast.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/the-see-through-skyscraper/

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[NYC4Life]

This building vanishes on any clear day.

[Bob]

I realize building height/proportions are dictated by a variety of factors, but it seems odd that the new 7 didn't go taller. Seems like a waste of valuable airspace (or air rights?) not to have built 7 another 20 floors or so. A brilliant tactic would have been to engineer the building to accept additional floors, and build those floors when the economics allowed.

By that same measure, I think the market right now would make additional floors on the limestone-clad MetLife north tower quite appealing. Beats me why the owner is not seriously considering that. (whoops! off-topic!)

[Daquan13]

The new building is five stories taller than the former one, or so that's what we're told.

It's just narrower in floor space because New York officials wanted to reopen and extend Greenwich Street back to the way that it was before the land was cleared for the Twins.

Silverstein had originally wanted to rebuild the tower exactly as it was, but that was the reason why he couldn't do it that way again.

The slightly higher height and floors are supposed to make up somewhat for the loss in land space for the building. But still to me, it DOES look shorter than the old one.

[Derek2k3]

Well 7 was built on spec in a bleak office market. Under normal circumstances nothing would have gone up in the first place.

I read that for Silverstein to go higher, he'd need more elevator banks, which in turn would eat up the floor space so precious to today's big tenants.


Regarding Metlife North, I'm not sure our current zoning would allow a building that big. Though its footprint is very large, it's already 2.3 million sq. ft. with just 29 floors. If built out to its 100 floors, it would be pushing 4 msf.

Perhaps in a very tight office market, the owners could plead to Landmarks and get a variance. The unbuilt design is undoubtedly monumental.

[Daquan13]

Silverstein was then and still is committed to replacing most if not all of the office space that was lost.

By hook or crook, he would rebuild Seven.

That fact that no one died at all in the former building when it fell, made it much easier to replace than it does with the rest of the complex.

Also, the former tower's core was built using just steel and drywall like the cores for the Twins were.