Govs Island, WTC potential sites for 2000 ft tower

[NYguy]

NY Post...

BOTH SIDES OF HUDSON VIE FOR NEW TV TOWER
By LOIS WEISS

April 9, 2003 -- While Bayonne, N.J., is ready to welcome a $200 million permanent TV antenna structure that would replace the World Trade Center's TV tower, area broadcasters still favor a New York location.

The city is negotiating to locate a temporary tower on Governor's Island until the first tall building at ground zero is ready for occupancy.

Currently, the only local broadcast tower for emergency services and media companies is the Empire State Building, where WPIX-TV just signed a 15-year lease to locate its broadcast facilities, as have most of the other major outlets.

"We made room for them," said Thomas Sullivan of Helmsley-Spear, who negotiated the deal for the building.

But Ed Grebow, president of the Metropolitan Television Alliance - a consortium of area television outlets - said he viewed the Empire State Building as a mere backup spot until a taller home can be constructed.

"The World Trade Center antenna was 1,750 feet. The Empire is 1,350 feet, and the Durst antenna [being constructed at 4 Times Square] will be about 1,100 feet and change," he said. "In this business, height matters, because otherwise you get terrible interference and lose range."

He says the MTVA really wants to relocate the broadcasters back to the World Trade Center site, and is now talking with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s redevelopment architect, Daniel Liebskind, as well as developer Larry A. Silverstein about using the plan's tallest tower for that purpose.

Until that tower is actually constructed, however, the MTVA wants to use Governor's Island for what they have dubbed the "cheese grater" - a streamlined, low-cost temporary tower.

The Bloomberg administration nixed Governor's Island last year because, as Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told us in June, it "didn't see the [dollar] value to having an observation tower there and it would involve a lot of digging for wiring."

The MTVA is talking about an $8 million-a-year rent, but right now, sources say the Bloomberg administration is looking for nearly double that.

Meanwhile, Bayonne wants to host a $200 million permanent antenna, similar to the CN Tower in Toronto, which it hopes would anchor a local revitalization.

And the Liberty Science Center, also in New Jersey, is willing to host the antennas as well.

If Bayonne gets the nod from the MTVA, no additional city facility would be needed, Grebow said.

[Bk Italian 123]

i really hope that that thing will be built in NewYork... if it is going 2 b built.

[dbhstockton]

Chinese finger handcuffs

[ZippyTheChimp]

Now I'll never get that image out of my head.

I would say let Bayonne have it, except there's a chance it may line up with my view of the Statue of Liberty, and look like a ridiculous hat.

[billyblancoNYC]

Put up the temp, get the rent, let the WTC have the permanent (uh, huh, rhyming's cool, or something).

And put some damn casinos on that sh*t!!

[NYatKNIGHT]

Put it on Coney Island and make a ride out of it.

[TAFisher123]

Gee im glad they finally settled that

[NYguy]

Here's a different view of the 2,000 ft tower in Bayonne ....

DAY
http://www.greghigginsarchitect.com/bayonne.html


NIGHT
http://www.greghigginsarchitect.com/...ight_view.html


http://www.greghigginsarchitect.com/index.html

[NYguy]

[Fabb]

Why not ?
I mean, it's totally unrealistic, but that would make me happy.

Anyway, that new design NYguy posted is great.
It has something of the spider web that I love.

[JMGarcia]

I don't think its an official design. That architect also has a proposal for the WTC.

[NoyokA]

The above picture is from Governor's Island, not Bayonne.

[NYguy]

Stern, the above pic is from Bayonne, you can even see the Jersey City skyline in the background. *Govs Island would give you more of a Downtown view, and you wouldn't see Midtown from that angle.

JMGarcia, its similar in pricipal to that last design we saw for the Bayonne tower. *I think it may have been one of the 12 designs. *Read below....


..


From the website...

In September 2002, after an expression of interest by MTVA tower planners, the rendering was produced to illustrate how the tower could appear on The Peninsula. As specified by the MTVA, the tower is crowned with 3 antenna masts. Broadcaster's call this antenna arrangement a "candelabra". The tower must accommodate an unprecedented number of antennas at an optimum height of from 1800 feet (for maximum coverage) to 2049 feet (maximum height above sea level permitted by FAA regulations): Hence the three masts on a circular platform.

An elevated 2-story transmitter building is incorporated at the tower's base, within the ring of anchor cables. Bayonne officials propose that the tower be located within a public park. "The park, and possibly a portion of the transmitter building, could incorporate a host of public amenities, including the 9/11/01 memorial the City is planning." The super-tall tower could also serve as a 21st Century lighthouse to assist ship navigation into New York Harbor.

[Fabb]

Hence the three masts on a circular platform.

The second rendering has three masts plus an antenna. That's beautiful. It could be like a huge insect above its nest.

[NYguy]

I received an interesting email from the architect (Greg Higgins) who said:

-he and Geiger Engineers *are competing with KPF (no secret)

-the MTVA asked and received permission to use the daytime Bayonne rendering in USA Today

-he produced no renderings for a governors island site, but the WTC site rendering was a result of meetings early on with the MTVA (not just pie in the sky)