7 World Trade Center - by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

[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.

[NoyokA]

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. ;)

[NoyokA]

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.

[NoyokA]

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/)

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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/)

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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 were given 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. I could be wrong. 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,

[Tectonic]

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 fires 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 somewhere 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, Thanks for having my back.

What this sick depraved moronic piece of crap individual didn't tell anyone about is about all of the goddamn trouble & crap that HE'S caused now, did he? Here as well! Or that HE HIMSELF was banned from 3 forums where I'm a staff member, mainly mine the Quarry!!

If he's gonna tell it, then he should tell it right!!! This individual is an Internet Schoolyard Bully, and I use that term very loosely - a very notorious troublemaker of the worst kind who constantly Googles my name to find out where I am, then follows me there and then signs up there just to stir up goddamn trouble & controversy against me!! One who's hijacked, hacked, spammed and trolled my forum so badly with so much off-topic material like porn, grossly explicit photos and smirky comments and just kept on friggen coming back until I found a way to ban him and keep him out for good!! He needs to mind his own goddamn business and stop poking his nose in where it doesn't belong!!! I became so fed up with having to constsantly moderate his smirky remarks.

He's one of the ones who spammed and trolled SSF so badly and poked fun at TalB and myself there, yet he has the balls to say that I was banned from a forum for posting ridiculous rants there?!! His butt had just joined SSL about a week or so ago using a copycat version of my screen name there, started right in with the blasted troublemaking there toward me and then he was banned from there in just two days!! His time there was very short-lived. Please.

Then he joins SSA using MY screen name there AND POSTING ONE OF MY own personal PICTURES of myself in his avatar! I put the breaks on that and asked the admin to make him remove the pic of me! It was removed. Any more trouble from him and he's banned from there as well. Yet he puts MY business out here!! This scumbag seriously needs to just go get a goddam life or a job!!!

Then he found out that I'm an admin at The Crib. Comes there as a guest. Starts in on me right away! I banned him once, then he comes back with his names spelled backwards. I banned him & his IP address again. Comes to SkyscraperArchives.com, starts trouble there, stealing a pic of me and posts it there as his avatar. I pitched a bitch and complained to the admin who made him remove it. Puts up a pic of a K'Aid Stand Mixer there instead.

Lofter1, a wolverine is, I believe, a small heavily-built fox-like or ferrett-like animal related to the weasel. If you'd bothered to try to find that out when you went to school and learned about animals like I think that you should have, then you'd already know that.

I'm NOT the one who is making anything up!! YouTube and LooseChange.com DO have conspiracy theories (and supposed bomb 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 prejudge me first, 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.

Cancer does that. it eats away at innocent people. This moronic individual is just that - a cancer!! 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.

[GreenwichBoy]

German bank rents top 3 floors at 7 World Trade


By Theresa Agovino (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=123)

Published: December 4, 2008 - 12:20 pm

In a significant boost to downtown, German bank WestLB has signed a 15-year lease for the top three floors at 7 World Trade Center.

Asking rent for the 129,000-square-foot deal, which covers floors 50 to 52, was $80 a square foot. The bank, currently located at 1211 Sixth Ave., plans to move into the tower owned by Larry Silverstein in the second quarter of 2009.

The deal comes roughly two months after London-based HSBC pulled out of a deal to lease 300,000 square feet at the tower after bids to sell its own local headquarters at 452 Fifth Ave. came in well below the $600 million asking price.

The building, which opened in 2006, is now 83% occupied. But even after the deal, Mr. Silverstein still needs to lease seven floors. Additionally, there are four floors available for sublet by ABN Amro, a Dutch bank that was purchased by a consortium of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Banco Santander in 2007.

WestLB was represented by Newmark Knight Frank brokers Mark Weiss, Scott Klau and Robert Eisenberg.

Silverstein Properties was represented by Roger Silverstein, its senior vice president, and a team of CB Richard Ellis Inc. brokers that included Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive officer of the New York Tristate region, and Stephen Siegel, chairman of global brokerage.

“Their (WestLB’s) decision to relocate to downtown is yet another demonstration of confidence in this area’s future as a dynamic, 21st century live-work neighborhood,” said Larry Silverstein, in a statement.

Still, many brokers are especially worried about the lower Manhattan leasing market as new deals dry up in the wake of the financial crisis. They note that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will be vacating millions of feet of square feet when it moves into new headquarters, and there is also concern that troubled insurer AIG will begin shedding space in the wake of its massive federal bailout. Brokers say that much of the building stock downtown is old and that when given a choice, many companies prefer to be in midtown.

For now, however, lower Manhattan’s vacancy rate is on a par with the city’s average. According to Cushman & Wakefield, downtown’s vacancy rate was 7.3% while the overall rate is 7.4%.



From:Crain's New york

[brianac]

Old news but some decent photographs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


December 5, 2008, 7:30 am

Bank Locks Up Downtown’s Best View

By David W. Dunlap (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/david-w-dunlap/)

SLIDE (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/bank-locks-up-downtowns-best-view/)SHOW


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had some good news and some bad for Lower Manhattan on Thursday.

The good news was that the German bank WestLB (http://www.westlb.de/cms/sitecontent/westlb/westlb_de/en.standard.gid-N2FkNDZmMzU4OWFmYTIyMWM3N2Q2N2Q0YmU1NmI0OGU_.html) has signed a 15-year lease for about 129,000 square feet of space on the top three floors of Silverstein Properties’ 7 World Trade Center (http://www.silversteinproperties.com/properties/7-world-trade-center). The bad news was that the German bank WestLB has signed a 15-year lease for about 129,000 square feet of space on the top three floors of Silverstein Properties’ 7 World Trade Center.

What makes that bad news — or at least sad news, the words of Larry A. Silverstein, chairman and chief executive of Silverstein — is that the top floor, the 52nd, has served for two years as one of the most breathtaking event spaces in New York. (Breathtaking, that is, if your view was directed outward through its wraparound, parallelogram walls of glass.) It also functioned as a kind of town hall downtown.

“This floor has been used for every conceivable occasion,” Mr. Silversein said at a news conference held on the 52nd floor with the mayor and Connie Kain, a managing director of WestLB.
We’ve had religious functions here. We’ve had all kinds of ceremonies here. We’ve had temple meetings, church meetings, community board meetings. You name it: meetings of every kind, nature and description. It’s been used very extensively educationally, by educational institutions. It’s been a terrific source of fun and pleasure. And of course, the fact that Sports Illustrated decided to have its swimsuit opportunities here, it gave me an opportunity to have my photograph taken with all these lovely ladies. I particularly enjoyed that.
Explaining to the mayor why he had not been invited, Mr. Silverstein said the swimsuit session was open only to those 77 and older. “You’ve got plenty of time,” he added.

The last big event to be held on the 52nd floor was “MacDowell Shines,” a benefit dinner on Tuesday night for the MacDowell Colony, an artists’ residency program in Peterborough, N.H. The finale was suitably glittering, with appearances or performances by the actors Jane Alexander, James Earl Jones, Eli Wallach and Sam Waterston; the writers Rick Moody and Nam Le; the director Joshua Marston; the journalist Robert MacNeil; the composer Meredith Monk; the puppeteer Basil Twist; and the band One Ring Zero.

Dara McQuillan, Silverstein’s vice president for marketing and communications, said the 45th and 49th floors would still be available for events. But they are at least 40 feet closer to earth.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/bank-locks-up-downtowns-best-view/

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

[Gotham]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601206&sid=a_I115mq7IMY&refer=realestate#

German Bank WestLB to Move NYC Office to Trade Center (Update1)

By David M. Levitt
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- WestLB AG, Germany’s third-largest state-owned bank, agreed to lease the top three floors of New York’s 7 World Trade Center (http://www.wtc.com/about/office-tower-7), the only one of the towers destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to be rebuilt.

The Dusseldorf-based bank will move its New York offices to 129,000 square feet in the 52-story building, one block north of the trade center site, said building owner Silverstein Properties Inc. A portion of the space will be used as a trading floor, said Connie Kain (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Connie+Kain&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), WestLB managing director for the Americas.

The top floors have remained unoccupied since the building opened in May 2006. Larry Silverstein (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Larry+Silverstein&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1), 77, negotiated the deal as the city’s ailing financial industry is causing vacancies to rise and rents to fall. There were 79 blocks of office space of 100,000 square feet or more available in Manhattan on Sept. 30, up from 43 a year ago, according to broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that WestLB made the decision to come to lower Manhattan and most particularly to 7 World Trade,” Silverstein said today at a press conference on the top floor of the tower. “It’s an enormously significant move that they would come from Midtown to this location.”
The bank will move from 1211 Avenue of the Americas, a 44- story Midtown skyscraper owned by Beacon Capital Partners Inc. of Boston. WestLB’s 15-year lease raises the occupancy rate (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=CBOV1NYD%3AIND) at the 1.7-million-square-foot 7 World Trade to 83 percent.

Terms Not Disclosed

Terms weren’t disclosed. Downtown office rents average (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=COLA%3AIND) $52 a square foot, about 47 percent lower than Midtown’s.

Mark Weiss, executive vice president at Newmark Knight Frank, which represented the bank, said rents in Manhattan have fallen 30 percent from their peak and the lease reflected that.

“I don’t think we left a single dollar on the table,” he said.

Lower Manhattan’s lower rents, compared with midtown, were a factor in deciding on 7 World Trade, said Matthew Rich, associate director of facilities for WestLB.

“Lower Manhattan is a cheaper market,” Rich said in an interview. “We get the best bang for our buck here.”

Cain said WestLB was also attracted by the building’s “gold” environmental rating from the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

Silverstein was represented by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the world’s biggest commercial real estate services firm.

The developer is also responsible for developing three skyscrapers of more than 6 million square feet at the 16-acre World Trade Center site.
Investment Banking

WestLB will house investment banking teams focusing on energy, metals and mining, infrastructure and financial institutions at 7 World Trade once it moves there in 2010, Kain said. New York is the bank’s third-largest office, after Dusseldorf and London, she said.

Though the space is smaller than the 160,000 square feet the bank has at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, Cain said it will be able to house more employees. She said the bank expects to move in about 400 people, with room for about 100 more.

Silverstein said he would miss the tower’s top floor, which he rented for film shoots and parties including one given for the 2008 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

“It’s been a terrific source of fun and pleasure,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: David M. Levitt (http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=David+M.+Levitt&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1) in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: December 4, 2008 16:39 EST

[Derek2k3]

"Silverstein said he would miss the tower’s top floor, which he rented for film shoots and parties including one given for the 2008 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue."

I'm sure he won't miss it too much else he would have never rented it out. Why not include such a floor (a permanent one) in one of the 3 other towers he's building. So much of the city exists above street level yet hardly any of it is accessible.

[Alonzo-ny]

Im pretty sure the income from a tenant is more important than having a little fun.

[Veseу]

Im pretty sure the income from a tenant is more important than having a little fun.

Silverstein Properties respectfully disagrees, as we were tricked into the deal during the aftermath of an extremely alcoholic night on the top floor.

[stache]

Was there debauchery? ;)

[Veseу]

I often humor myself in thinking of 7WTC as a 50-story Playboy Mansion.

Short answer: Yes.

[lofter1]

I hope the glass for 1 WTC is as good as the glass we see on 7 ...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/WTC/7WTC_091.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/WTC/7WTC_099.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/WTC/7WTC_0912.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p242/Lofter1/WTC/7WTC_0915.jpg

7 wtc

[BrooklynLove]

I hope the glass for 1 WTC is as good as the glass we see on 7 ...

I'll be surprised if we don't get the same quality glass. I actually find myself sometimes visualizing how magnificent the translucency of 7 will look on a building twice the height with more twists and turns.

[NoyokA]

The glass on 7 WTC is so exceptional that it makes an otherwise boring box a great building. The quality of the glass is the last thing in the world I'd expect from SOM. Can someone tell me what exactly makes the glass on 7 WTC so different and spectacular compared to say TWC?

[ZippyTheChimp]

The glass is low-iron, and has no color at all. The stainless steel curved spandrels below the glass panels reflect skylight onto the glass, giving them color.

http://books.google.com/books?id=pshrUwTzn8YC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=%227+world+trade+center%22glass+spandrels++%22j ames+carpenter%22&source=bl&ots=8USu-jOLID&sig=fM3-NwTR2gTsP-Dq7l4L_tEhwKY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA74,M1

[NoyokA]

Thanks Zippy. Its more complex than I ever imagined, this building really is a study of the fascade. The Freedom Tower mockup does not have the ingenious daylight reflector so it mostly likely won't be as good as the skin on 7 WTC.

[Alonzo-ny]

You cant really speculate on that from the mock up, we dont know what the lighting conditions were at the mock up. It will look different for sure when its on the building. It will be as good as 7.

[antinimby]

7's glass might be very good looking but I wouldn't want the FT to have the same glass, at least not the same color/hue.

I don't want the two to have matching glass. There should be some distinction between the two towers especially since they'll be very close to each other.

[lofter1]

The glass at 1 & 7 can't be the same color. As Zippy pointed out:


The glass is low-iron, and has no color at all.


:cool:

[scumonkey]

Here is a picture looking through 4 feet
of 1 inch thick Starphire low iron glass, it's crystal clear...
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/1-1.jpg
This brand has the lowest iron content of any glass made.
I also believe this is the type of glass that was used on #7
(I know it was used on the NYTimes tower.
It's use even caused a shortage at the time).
What makes this glass so special is that it does not have
that "Green" tint that normal thick glass displays -high iron content,
but rather displays a luminescent blueish glow (only visible from the edges).
I built an Aquarium with it, and used regular glass for the bottom,
(It's Uber Expensive!;)).
I think you can easily see the difference in the pic below?!
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/4.jpg

[NoyokA]

You cant really speculate on that from the mock up, we dont know what the lighting conditions were at the mock up. It will look different for sure when its on the building. It will be as good as 7.

Well if the Freedom Tower mockup is accurate there will be no daylight reflector.

The Freedom Towers mockup wall is sheer.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2451683458_436f9daf8f_o.jpg

Whereas 7 WTC's wall has glass that overlaps an upwardly curved stainless steel spandrel panel.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/1070/daylightreflectorkm0.png

The Freedom Towers glass looks good on the mock up but it won't have the "daylight reflector" feature which is an integral part of the luminance of 7 WTC.

[Alonzo-ny]

That little reflector isnt responsible for 7's spectacular melting into the sky image, thats the glass. 1WTC will be different but it will still look amazing, you can tell the quality of that glass in the mock up.

[BrooklynLove]

All very exciting. This is going to be an amazing cluster once all WTC towers are up.

[NoyokA]

That little reflector isnt responsible for 7's spectacular melting into the sky image, thats the glass. 1WTC will be different but it will still look amazing, you can tell the quality of that glass in the mock up.

Read the article Zippy posted it has a lot to do with it. It reflects the atmospheric colors onto the glass.

[Derek2k3]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/3148604315_a5620f00e0_o.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/3148604309_f002522106_o.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

I love the way 7 looks painted on the sky.

[Derek2k3]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/01/24/2009-01-24_commodities_trader_arrested_after_dousin.html

Commodities trader arrested after dousing floor in 7 World Trade Center with gasoline

By ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

Saturday, January 24th 2009, 10:51 AM

A commodities trader flipped out inside a lower Manhattan skyscraper early Saturday and tried to set a 35th floor office afire before he was arrested, law-enforcement sources said.

The unidentified man was working inside 7 World Trade Center at 4 a.m. when security cameras captured him pouring gasoline on the doors and carpeting, the sources said.

The Port Authority police were able to arrest the man before he ignited the gasoline, the sources said. The suspect - now in custody at the First Precinct - worked one floor below the office where the gasoline was spilled.

It was unclear what motivated the incident.

[BrooklynLove]

Apparently this guy settled his gasoline trades via delivery rather than cash settlement.

[lofter1]

Great to see that these financial types are not only stupid (thanks for the economy) but also crazy.

Wall Street Rising, indeed ...

[Sherpa]

apparently this guy settled his gasoline trades via delivery rather than cash settlement.

lol !!

[GreenwichBoy]

Posted: Sunday, 25 January 2009 9:35AM

Drunk Man Sets Fire to WTC Elevator to get Rescued

NEW YORK (AP) -- An intoxicated commodities broker was arrested after he allegedly tried to set fire to a freight elevator after trapping himself in it.


Police say an inebriated Ryan Brinkerhoff, of Jersey City, went to his office at 7 World Trade Center early Saturday morning and got trapped in a freight elevator.


Police say Brinkerhoff tried set a fire in the elevator with cleaning fluids in an effort to attract attention.


Police say the smoke activate a fire alarm, which sent the elevator to the ground floor where Port Authority Police were waiting.

[lofter1]

Amazing what a different story the later report offers.

Facts can be important.

Not that the up-date does much for this guy's rep ...

[Alonzo-ny]

How did he manage to get into a freight elevator?

[BrooklynLove]

Posted: Sunday, 25 January 2009 9:35AM

Drunk Man Sets Fire to WTC Elevator to get Rescued

NEW YORK (AP) -- An intoxicated commodities broker was arrested after he allegedly tried to set fire to a freight elevator after trapping himself in it.


Police say an inebriated Ryan Brinkerhoff, of Jersey City, went to his office at 7 World Trade Center early Saturday morning and got trapped in a freight elevator.


Police say Brinkerhoff tried set a fire in the elevator with cleaning fluids in an effort to attract attention.


Police say the smoke activate a fire alarm, which sent the elevator to the ground floor where Port Authority Police were waiting.

Funny thing about this incident - the fact that he was crafty enough to devise this solution to his elevator predicament (reminds me of McGyver) shows that the guy has a brain, but at the same time his drunkeness throws judgment out the window.

[TonyO]

Funny thing about this incident - the fact that he was crafty enough to devise this solution to his elevator predicament (reminds me of McGyver) shows that the guy has a brain, but at the same time his drunkeness throws judgment out the window.

The video they had of him breathing fire (from his myspace page) was grounds for not ever being hired in the first place.

[wns808]

I wonder what other damage was done to that elevator.

People do dumb/crazy things when they're drunk, but good thing the cameras and police were quick to stop him from doing further damage

[antinimby]

Funny thing about this incident - the fact that he was crafty enough to devise this solution to his elevator predicament (reminds me of McGyver) shows that the guy has a brain, but at the same time his drunkeness throws judgment out the window.I don't think what he did was crafty. It was stupidity if you ask me.

He could have been burnt alive in that elevator from the fire he started. A roasted pig.

Given that circumstance, wouldn't it have been better to be just stuck in an elevator rather than stuck in a burning elevator?

[Alonzo-ny]

He could have simply pressed the alarm button.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/01/25/amd_trade_center_guy.jpg
"Oh right, the alarm button."

[BrooklynLove]

I don't think what he did was crafty. It was stupidity if you ask me.

craftiness and stupidity can coexist.

[Derek2k3]

Elevator-fire trader Ryan Brinkerhoff just went back for jacket, attorney says

By Sergey Kadinsky and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, January 26th 2009, 2:10 AM

The commodities trader who drunkenly ignited a fire in the freight elevator at 7 World Trade Center made his inebriated late-night visit to the tower only to retrieve a forgotten jacket, his lawyer said Sunday.

Ryan Brinkerhoff, 24, of Jersey City was ashen-faced as he sat in Manhattan Criminal Court during his arraignment on arson charges. He told cops he set the blaze to try to escape the elevator in which he had trapped himself.

Prosecutors asked for $30,000 in bail, but Brinkerhoff was released on his own recognizance after his attorney argued that his client was not a flight risk and did not have any malicious intent.

"It's his first job in New York, [and] he has not had a remote run-in with the law," said lawyer Leon Borstein. "He just went to his office to get his jacket."

Brinkerhoff had stumbled into the gleaming skyscraper at 3:10a.m. Sunday and tried to take the elevator to the 34th-floor offices of DRW Commodities.

He got off on the wrong floor and, after realizing his mistake, staggered back onto a freight elevator and landed on the 40th floor.

Because a fingerprint ID was needed to exit the lift there, he was imprisoned until he used a can of cleaner to ignite a fire that automatically sent the elevator to the ground floor.

Brinkerhoff, who recently transferred from his firm's Chicago office, declined comment. He is due in court April 22.

[lofter1]

But of course ... Chicago!

[DKNY617]

Some pics of the beauty! :)

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0077.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0078.jpg?t=1233627837
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0079.jpg?t=1233627975

[BrooklynLove]

Great shots of a great building, thanks.

[DMAG]

Elegant in its simplicity. Beautiful building.

[Daquan13]

Yeah, and in just a few more years it will have a neighboring tall big brother!! :)

[DKNY617]

A pic I took today on my way to the Financial District to look for some hot guys. :D

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0091.jpg

[lofter1]

Please give a full report on the outcome of your hunting expedition ...

[DKNY617]

Please give a full report on the outcome of your hunting expedition ...


Haha, well the full report, lots to look at, but nothing more than that. :(

Haha another Friday night without fun, another V-Day without plans. Haha!

[lofter1]

It's still early ...

[DKNY617]

Is that an offer? Haha. :D

Back to topic or we'll be yelled at. :p

[lofter1]

I'm booked ;)

Happy Valentine's Day, anyway ...

[DKNY617]

I'm booked ;)

Happy Valentine's Day, anyway ...


Haha thank you and Happy Valentine's Day to you as well. :cool:

[Sherpa]

Haha thank you and Happy Valentine's Day to you as well. :cool:

Booked by Angelina!

[DKNY617]

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0097.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0102.jpg

[antinimby]

You can tell from that pic which floors are still available for rent.

[DKNY617]

Around the middle and top, yep.

[Gulcrapek]

I recently did a paper for my Lighting class which heavily involved 7 WTC. It was pretty interesting to learn about the technology and design used for the facades and lobby. My partner in the project got to interview James Carpenter (I had a class at the only available time).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3611/3609092081_9725976280_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3634/3609905382_04affacebb_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3317/3609905296_4e89573703_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3382/3609091861_7ba27a4d9c_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2483/3609093617_64c7e5d093_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3609092953_9bf0780542_b.jpg

[dimadelux]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3579948744_b54677f0f2_b.jpg

[ablarc]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2483/3609093617_64c7e5d093_b.jpg
Pedestrian-friendly?

And what's with that dangling cable?

[Dan Kohn]

I understand from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_WTC) that the first 10 floors of 7 WTC are the ConEd substation:
The first ten floors house an electrical substation, which provides power to much of Lower Manhattan. The office tower has a narrower footprint at ground level than its predecessor so the course of Greenwich Street could be restored in an effort to reunite TriBeCa and the Financial District.

But can someone tell me whether that necessitated having no street-level retail in the building? Did the substation need the entire building footprint of the ground floor? Even if they were worried about truck bombs, couldn't they have put the shielding wall between retail and the interior?

Because the fortress-like shielding of the first few floors and complete lack of retail makes it one of the least appealing night streetscapes in the city. It's like something out of Tim Burton's Batman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_%281989_film%29#Design).

Sorry if this was already covered in the previous 100+ pages of posts. I did read back and try to use Google, but didn't see any direct answers.

[lofter1]

No room for retail -- the substation does indeed take up the entire frontage (other than the portion of the building on the east where the lobby of 7WTC stands and the areas on the west that allow egress for deliveries / service).

It was the same for the original 7 WTC, but there the major portion of the lobby was raised to the same level as the WTC super-block plaza across Vesey to the south.

[lofter1]

The dangling cable is like those seen in proximity to construction sites all over Manhattan -- often a line for a street lamp, traffic light or security cam that is supposedly "temporary" but ends up hanging in the air for years.

Washington Square South is lined with them (there they are mainly for security cams connected to the "temporary" NYPD bus that has been parked at the edge of WSP for the better part of a generation).

[ZippyTheChimp]

That cable is strung between temporary utility poles. Although it appears to be against the building, it runs along the curb.

[DKNY617]

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0533.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

Sweet. Dope shot.

[HoveringCheesecake]

Indeed. It's unfortunate that 1 WTC won't be using a similar facade system.

[Ebola]

I think 1WTC's facade looks much better than 7WTC's, which is already amazing. They will work well together.

[Alonzo-ny]

The mock up of WTC 1's facade looked very good. Very high quality.

[HoveringCheesecake]

I'm a creepy voyeur.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3490/3818145293_953fe19201_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34471641@N07/3818145293/sizes/o/in/set-72157620967620515/

*slightly better color corrected version

[dimadelux]

I'm a creepy voyeur.

hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/meh_cd/IMG_2667.jpg

i love that shot!

[195Broadway]

^
^
Is that taken from the Millennium? .... Nice

[bill schintler]

You can see THIS just right of center in the photo (the room appearing tan/orange colored)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Nyas_lobby_wtc7.jpg
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Nyas_lobby_wtc7.jpg

New York Academy of Sciences office (lobby) on the 40th floor WTC 7
http://greensource.construction.com/projects/0710_AcademyofSciences/1.asp

On a different note, I wonder what's in that top room of the Verizon building, who's large arched-top window is visible towards the lower-left of meh_cd's photo?

- bill

[HoveringCheesecake]

Yeah, that's from the Millennium.

[Daquan13]

The thing that I like most about 7 WTC is that luscious deep blue lighting that lights up the tower's bottom at night!

Sort of like the Tribute in Light Theme every year on 09-11. :cool:

[nyck]

That is indeed the New York Academy of Sciences -- I toured it in 2007 as part of Open House New York.

That floor-to-ceiling artwork in their lobby is actually the city grid of the neighborhood of their previous headquarters -- best seen in the link below.

http://greensource.construction.com/projects/0710_AcademyofSciences/2.asp

The location eludes me, but the tour guide mentioned it was a lovely mansion that had grown cramped and inadequate for the organization.

[Daquan13]

That too, but I was mainly talking about the outside around the base or just above it. :)

[Daquan13]

In Post# 916 on Page 62, there's a rendering of Seven there with the bottom of the tower just above the base lit up in the deep blue color.

Page 100, Post# 1493 shows a pic of the lobby lit up in the blue color.:)

[GreenwichBoy]

7 wtc

[Tectonic]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2662/3958564530_bf9d8cacd4_b.jpg

[ablarc]

^ Gridded sky (with window-cleaning rig?).

[Daquan13]

I don't think I'd want that job! :eek:

[kz1000ps]

I don't think I'd want that job!


I do! It looks like a fun time. Then again, I enjoyed being a bike messenger here in Boston, so maybe I just have a few screws loose.

[NoyokA]

This building's skin is sublime.

http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/1331/7081d9ab107d4b2fa2ce8b3b8ef698aa.jpg

[TREPYE]

One trick pony.

[NoyokA]

I have no problem with the glass being the sole focus when its that beautiful, frills might take away from its quality.

[londonlawyer]

This building's skin is sublime.



I agree.

[lofter1]

One trick pony.

:confused:

There's the glass, the great lobby, the little plaza with the fountain out front, the hidden lights around the base.

How many tricks are you looking for?

Let's not forget the ugly hulk that stood here before.

[HoveringCheesecake]

It isn't supposed to be the focal point, anyway. It's perfect the way it is.

[TREPYE]

No one said that it was a bad pony or a bad trick.

IMO plazas do not factor into a buildings archtiectural quality.

[lofter1]

In this case the plaza should be considered since the former structure took up that space; it's all the same plot. Could the Seagram building be discussed without noting the plaza out front?

[TREPYE]

Well, is One Chase Plaza a tower with pleasant architrectural qualities inspite of its nice plaza? A plaza can be nice in front of a hideous tower, the plaza of the aforementioned tower does not ease its hideousness IMO. Lets not forget that modernism was a discovery on how to do towers on the cheap by normaliazing the materials used to build and maximizing space. The plaza's became a proverbial bone to to throw for the case of going around zonning. In this context, plaza's are sort of....lipstick on a pig.

For the record 7WTC is a very nice tower, almost perfect in its modernist sense. It has awesome skin and it does not impede many views (for the most part; although ideally I would have like to be have been shorter). If you are gonna go modernist in terms of a buildings style, go short (less than 600 ft) and presentable (nice facade like 7WTC).

[fioco]

I am not an architect nor have I any other relevant pedigree, but I think building structure and public spaces can not always be separated in the analysis. The Lever Building's public spaces are an essential part of its design, to a lesser degree the curved driveway of Bloomberg Tower is part of the overall design. Are the plazas and passageways of Rockefeller Center an essential, critical part of the design, or can they be considered separate in a critical analysis of the building structures? The debate can not be closed so easily.

[NYatKNIGHT]

The 7 WTC "plaza" is a public space separated by the street and shared by Fitterman Hall, the Post Office, and the WTC site. It's not directly linked to the building as in the case of Chase, Lever House, or Seagram and ought not be considered as part of the building's architecture, IMO.

7 is a nice building, but besides its nice glass it's very boring. If it didn't have nice glass I'd dislike it, park in front or not.

[lofter1]

Not precisely correct. The "street" between 7WTC and the triangular plaza is listed as Private, and is indeed part of the building lot.



Not exactly ... it seems that regular traffic will be routed to the east of the new triangular plaza -- that is if Greenwich St. is actually ever opened to regular traffic, something that remains to be seen (once the Security folks have their say).

Info at this POST (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=54939&postcount=724)

Note that the map of the plaza (2nd image) shows the extended Greenwich Street as a "Private Street"...Map of Plaza (with variations per seasons):http://www.lowermanhattan.info/construction/gallery/photos/WTC7_future_11.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

^
I generally agree with you on the building, but the plaza space is still owned (and maintained I think) by Silverstein properties. The "street " that separates the building and the plaza is really a private driveway also owned by Silverstein.

The plaza influenced the building's shape. I already think it's a hulk from the north; it would have turned out much worse if it occupied the original footprint.

Unlike many ill conceived plazas that were merely means to get more height, This one is already heavily used, despite the construction to the south and Fiterman to the north. 7WTc is dead on three sides; at least the plaza animates the main entrance.

EDIT: Oops. The response was to NYatKnight's post.

[NYatKNIGHT]

OK, its a private street but it is a street nonetheless and that is different from Seagrams and Chase plazas which set the building back off the street, so that's how I mean it isn't directly related to the architecture. They look and feel detached from each other.

[Alonzo-ny]

I'm with NYatKnight on this one. It doesn't feel connected to the building in the manner that seagram does to it's plaza. I don't agree that it influenced the design. It just occupies space that would otherwise be building.

[Daquan13]

I'm a bit surprised that there was never an antenna installed atop this building. :(

[NoyokA]

I'm not. Its only 750 feet.

[BrooklynLove]

I'm a bit surprised that there was never an antenna installed atop this building. :(

I suspect that you're often surprised.

[Daquan13]

Surprise, surprise, surprise! :)

[DKNY617]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2569/4113891830_824eb0acbc_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/4113893788_44538a1b62_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2784/4113896492_2121007e3f_b.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

Funny. The middle picture doesn't look like NY to me for some reason.

[lofter1]

Due mainly to the deadly dull Barclay / Greenwich suburban office park in the background to the north.

[BrooklynLove]

I think you nailed it.

[DKNY617]

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0677.jpg?t=1258768104 (http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0677.jpg?t=1258768104)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t263/DKNY617/IMG_0684.jpg