World Trade Center Developments

[Daquan13]

RockStarJizzy,

Are you forgetting that there were 5 years of nothingness? False start-ups by Pataki? Furious fights and spats between Silverstein, Libeskind and Childs?

Plus the Freedom Tower's design was sent back 3 times for a redo and Pataki ignored the security saftey concerns of the NYPD?

Also, one continuous lawsuit after the other. And then the 09-11 relatives threatening to have the project stopped over frivelous things? Not to mention that they wanted the memorial stopped because they kept on complaining that stuff was invading the Twin Towers' footprints.

They even whined over the very design they choose to be built. Having had enough of their whining and acting like spoiled and selfish children, the officials finally put their foot down and said; "Sorry, but enough of this. We're building it and that's that!!"

When the Freedom Tower's construction finally got started, it was almost 5 years later - all because everyone had their hands in the cookie jar.

And now there are cost overuns and rising construction costs, pushing the project's completion date further back while the officials quibbled over how much it would cost to rebuild, knowing full well that they should have done their homework and had a much better game plan for Ground Zero.

It's like they went into this without really considering costs and didn't antisipate that inflation would jack up the cost to rebuild Ground Zero!

[RockstarJizzy]

Ah, ok. Thanks for that, Daquan.

How many companies will be in the FT/WTCs? What does the WTC do, exactly? Because I'm sure NYSE isn't located there

[Daquan13]

You're welcome.

The Chinese firm Cantone and possibly the PANYNJ.

Others have thought about moving in, but have yet to sign on the dotted line.

[RockstarJizzy]

Don't suppose I could get a job there?

Perhaps they'd take on the people who're temporarily working elsewhere in the Lower Manhattan area before the buildings are complete.

[brianac]

7 years = 10 years?

Oh, he's Brit. That explains it

A bit of a generalisation I think. I thought GT had changed his avatar.

Regarding the case in question, I would agree with you.

My ignore list is growing by the day.

[lofter1]

Sorry, Brianac.

I should have written: "Oh, he's Kentish"

[brianac]

No probs. Lofter.

[NYC4Life]

Overhead of the entire site. Also visible: 99 Church Street, Fulton Street Transit Center and Beekman Tower.

By: Andrea Bez. - Flickr

[Daquan13]

Great shot!!

But what is that weird looking stuff on top of 7 WTC?

[JSsocal]

Great shot!!

But what is that weird looking stuff on top of 7 WTC?

Uhhhh... that would be the mechancal portions of the building, as just about every skyscraper has on their building. Stuff like air conditioning and other necessities. Some of those "strips" are probably for collecting rainwater for the fountain, as you can see pipes running from them this is a "green" building after all

[brianac]

Cuts at Ground Zero are selling short the future of New York City

Andrew Kalloch

Issue date: 10/16/08
Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Copyright under a Creative Commons License by Flickr User WallyG
Historic Mosaic at the Fulton Street Subway Station, New York, NY?


Media Credit: Copyright the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey
Santiago Calatrava's Initial Design for the WTC PATH station

At the conclusion of the critically acclaimed finance thriller Wall Street, stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is carried away by Federal agents for securities fraud. A grizzled financier with a conscience, Lou Mannheim (Hal Holbrook), pulls Bud aside and, paraphrasing Nietzsche, states, "Bud...Bud I like you. Just remember something. Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."

It is in our darkest moments when we face our greatest challenges and simultaneously enjoy the opportunity for our finest triumphs. September 11, 2001 was our generation's darkest hour. The tragedy of 9/11 begat the opportunity to rebuilt Lower Manhattan in a triumphant, defiant manner for eternity. But now, as we stare into the proverbial abyss of a deep and mysterious economic malaise, our appetite for defiance has waned, our commitment to the future has lulled, and our promise to rebuild in a meaningful and provocative manner has faded away.

This week, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, along with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner of the Trade Center site, announced a new timetable for the reconstruction efforts at Ground Zero. The new timetable, which pushes back the opening of the 1776-foot-tall Freedom Tower until 2013 at the earliest, includes deep cuts in spending deemed superfluous in a time of declining tax revenues by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others.

The cuts include trimming the budget for the Fulton Street Transit Hub and World Trade Center PATH terminals, which will link 12 subway lines, the World Trade Center PATH trains, and provide thousands of square feet in commercial space. One of the most distressing cuts is to the soaring design for the PATH station by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The design provided for "wings" on the roof that would open up during good weather and on the anniversary of the attacks to, in Calatrava's words, "giv[e] us the sense of unprotection." It remains to be seen what, if any, of the initial design remains at the Trade Center site.

While there can be no doubt that the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is overseeing the construction of the new Fulton Street Transit Hub at the Trade Center as well as many other capital projects throughout the City, have had more than their fair share of corruption and gluttonous spending, the cuts recently announced by City Hall can only truly be understood as selling the future of New York City short for near-term expediency.

The first logical flaw in the reasoning behind the cutting of Calatrava's design is the tired notion that aesthetics have no fundamental value to a community. Nothing could be further from the truth. Millions of New Yorkers understand the value of aesthetics as they traverse the subterranean tunnels of the subway system. Indeed, when the system opened in 1904, a colorful series of tile and ceramic mosaics greeted visitors on the platforms. In addition to offering spaces for public art, the artwork reflected the manner in which the City conceived of itself.

Even the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, rarely one for emotive reflection in its opinions, evoked the symbolism of the subway in Macwade v. Kelly, stating, "The subway is an icon of the city's culture and history, an engine of its colossal economy, a subterranean repository of its art and music, and, most often, the place where millions of diverse New Yorkers and visitors stand elbow to elbow as they traverse the metropolis."

More importantly, the slashing of the budgets for the Trade Center reconstruction is the product of callous disregard for the future denizens of New York who will pass through the site every day.

Unfortunately, the Fulton Street Transit Hub is only one of several projects that have seen their budgets slashed and their possibilities dwindle in recent months. The extension of the 7 line, from Times Square (42nd Street at 7th Avenue) to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (34th Street and 11th Avenue) will not include a station at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, despite the subway tunnel passing directly through this poorly served neighborhood. New York Senator Charles Schumer remarked, "Failure to build a full 7 train extension is a huge missed opportunity to promptly realize the complete potential of the Far West Side."

It is truly ironic that, in an era of economic crisis precipitated by the greed of Wall Street corporations, the skeleton of the 7-line extension will serve the corporate interests in the burgeoning Hudson Yards district and not the residents who so desperately need access to the central business district of Midtown Manhattan.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, seeking, in vain, for a reasonable explanation for such a shortsighted blunder, stated, "most of the development around it [the proposed 10th Avenue station] is likely to be residential, and most residential doesn't pay taxes. The development around it doesn't contribute to paying back the bonds." Of course, Doctoroff's tunnel vision about tax revenues is blind to the many benefits of mass transit-environmental, cultural, and economic.

Indeed, if public transit was developed with the philosophy Doctoroff prescribed, it is hard to imagine a transit project would ever be built in a poor neighborhood.

The Twin Towers will never be replaced. That much we knew on September 11, 2001. But in the tragedy of their destruction lay an opportunity none of us were prepared to undertake, but each of us was obligated to join. The rebuilding of Lower Manhattan and the construction of urban infrastructure more generally are not projects for the selfish at heart. We build these monuments, in the form of bridges, towers, and tunnels, for posterity. And we build them in times of plenty as well as times of great need. In our arguments over short selling, may we find the strength to resist selling short our future and instead embrace the challenges that calamity has laid at our feet.

Andrew L. Kalloch is a 3L and Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Record

http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/...-3489943.shtml

© 2008 The Record

[Daquan13]

Yeah, I can see larrge fans and a/c units on the tops of the other buildings

I DID hear that Seven is supposed to take advantage of using rain water for fuel / energy savings or for environmental purposes.

[JSsocal]

Sorry, Daquan, I didn't know what you meant by weird stuff on the building. But as for those rods, those look like they're for rainwater.

[Daquan13]

No problem.

There is also window washing machinery stored up there as well.

[NYC4Life]

Updated 4:25 PM

Stringer Calls For Crackdown Of Illegal Vendors At WTC Site




Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer held a news conference Sunday urging police to crack down on vendors who have illegally set up shop near the World Trade Center site.

A 2004 state law prohibits vendors from working the area bordered by Broadway on the east, West Street on the west, Liberty Street on the south side, and Vesey Street on the north.

But, in a report released Sunday, Stringer says a recent survey by his office found more than a hundred instances of illegal vending in the area.
During the 10-day study, his office found an average of 15 vendors flouting the law every day.

The vendors, the report finds, are undeterred by a fine of $50. However, the Port Authority says that it has arrested about 300 people for violating the law.

Stringer says the illegal vending is not only a safety issue given the construction in the area, it's also a matter of respect for the thousands who died at the site.

"What's especially troubling about this is, this is a place we understand, we treat with special reverence and dignity and respect," said Stringer. "We don't think this should be a three-ring circus where profiteers are cashing in on one of the worst tragedy to befall the United States of America."

"If the money was going to a good cause the Fire Department the Police Department, maybe it's a good thing," said one visitor to the World Trade Center site. "But if it's going into the wrong pocket, then no, I don't agree with it."

Stringer is calling on the Port Authority police and the NYPD to increase enforcement of the ban, and raise the fine.


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