Reply With Quote^ Still going to be 10 Years with MOST of it Incomplete.
Its nice to see that some people are realizng that the site isnt a hole in the ground anymore.
World Trade Center Complex Is Rising Rapidly
The pace of construction is so swift that any status report these days gets overtaken rapidly by the arrival of new beams and columns, rebar and concrete, pipes and conduit. About 2,000 construction workers are on the job, weekends included, officials said, and that number will just keep rising. Visiting the site brings to mind the tumultuous first impressions of arrival in New York City: people, vehicles and objects are headed toward you from every direction at startling velocity, and the only prudent thing to do is to keep moving.
Two years ago, it was difficult to imagine how the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site of the trade center and is building most of it, could ever finish the eight-acre memorial in time for the 10th anniversary of the attack, on Sept. 11, 2011. Today, it is difficult to imagine what would stop them (though, given the site’s tortured history, the possibility shouldn’t be completely dismissed).
The great square voids in the plaza marking where the twin towers stood are fully formed and almost entirely clad in charcoal-gray granite. Enormous pumps are standing by to send thousands of gallons of water cascading into the voids, creating what memorial officials say will be the largest human-engineered waterfalls in the United States. A metal fabricator in New Jersey is incising bronze panels with the names of all 2,982 victims of 9/11 and of the trade center bombing in 1993. And last weekend, 16 swamp white oaks began to take root on the plaza. Four hundred more will follow.
But in the public’s mind, it is still “ground zero” — as in, “When are they ever going to build something at ground zero?” Or as in, “ground zero mosque,” the shorthand reference for the Islamic community center planned two blocks to the north. While much of the nation has been debating who should be allowed to build what on that site, a former Burlington Coat Factory store, little attention has been paid to the fact that things really are being built on the spot where something actually happened.
A recent editorial cartoon in The San Diego Union-Tribune depicted the Islamic center as a giant salt shaker on the “wound” of ground zero, drawn as an empty expanse of earth. Apart from the issue of the Islamic center, the cartoon stoked frustration among those working at the site. Just at the moment they have something to show for nine years’ effort — 300,000 square feet of underground space, the shell of New York’s third-largest train station and two skyscrapers on the rise — the image has been resurrected of a barren, silent pit.
There was some truth to that image as recently as 2008. The trade center site was a dust bowl in summer and mud pit in winter. The only visible sign of progress was the silvery 7 World Trade Center tower across Vesey Street.
So many conflicting demands were imposed on the site — it was to be a solemn memorial, a soaring commercial complex, a vital transportation hub, a vibrant retail destination and the keystone in Lower Manhattan’s revival — that none could advance. And the many competing players seemed unable to break the logjam for long. They addressed one another as “stakeholders” in public, but the stakes they wielded usually seemed destined for someone else’s back.
What seems, in retrospect, to have been a key turning point was the politically unpalatable prospect that the 10th anniversary would come and go without a permanent memorial. In 2008, prodded in part by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who heads the memorial foundation, the Port Authority adopted new schedules, approaches and construction techniques. Dozens of firms, including many of the city’s leading developers, architects and engineers, are involved.
The progress since then has been visible, tangible and audible. You no longer have to be inside the sidewalk barriers to get that. Just stand on Church Street and take in the sight of two giant steel towers-to-be, framing a crazily angled forest of crane booms. Or you could try to cross Church Street against the frenzied, never-ending convoys of construction vehicles entering and exiting. Good luck.
Perhaps the most surprising phenomenon occurs at bedrock level, seven stories beneath the street, in the great chamber of what will someday be the National September 11 Memorial Museum. Here, the ceremonial “last column” from the twin towers already stands in a climate-controlled cocoon. At certain moments, the room echoes. Dull and distant noise is transformed into profound, inchoate reverberation.
As the ninth anniversary approaches, it has begun to sound like a memorial.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/ny...+GR1QKuoJhzb7A
^ Still going to be 10 Years with MOST of it Incomplete.
Glass half empty.Originally Posted by Tectonic
Keep in mind how long it took to build the original, from the beginning of planning through clearance to completion of the entire site -- smaller than what is being built now (in area) and actually never fully constructed (remember the southern bridge to nowhere from the WFC across West Street).
Not only that, buildings 3 and 7 weren't built at the same time as the original complex, so I'm in no rush.
September 4th, 2010
Great night shots!!
Oh wow. Even the NYPD cruiser looks cool.
How many floors are there? Eh....uh....hmm, I lost count.
Last I heard, it was at about 37 or so.
Looks like the police cruiser might be making sure that there is no suspicious activity at or near Ground Zero.
Last edited by Daquan13; September 6th, 2010 at 01:22 PM.
I didn't notice the cruiser at first when I took the picture but right after I saw it and I was like OOOH, hope they didn't mind.
Yeah, if it isn't already, and it probably is, security is going to be so tight there.
After all, two of the world's tallest buildings were attacked and destroyed there. They're probably going to want your whole life history just to visit the obs deck or dine at the skyroom restaurant. Hah!!
Sears tower deck inspects bags.
The last time that I was there to visit the obs deck, I had a small suitcase with me. They checked it out at the metal detector.
I request to leave it there and they said; "Nothing doing. Take it to the obs deck with you."
Prismatic glass -^-+-<-^->-+-^-
Bring it!
One World Trade Center
New York, New York
Base & Curtain Wall
http://www.som.com/content.cfm/one_world_trade_center
The tower rises from a podium wall base whose square plan – 200 feet by 200 feet – is the same size as the footprints of the original Twin Towers. The podium wall base is 185 feet tall and consists of laminated prismatic glass and welded aluminum screens. It is clad in more than 2000 pieces of prismatic glass; each measures 4 feet by 13 feet 4 inches with varying prismatic profiles. The design utilizes the optical properties of prismatic glass to reflect, refract and transmit light in various spectrums to create a dynamic, shimmering glass surface that drapes the tower’s base. The prismatic glass was developed over the course of four years in conjunction with some of the world’s top glass manufacturers, who worked with the architects to achieve the desired visual qualities and to produce the innovative prismatic glass.
For the curtain wall, architects worked with industry experts to develop glass of a new monumental scale that is capable of withstanding the wind pressure of a super-tall building as well as stringent security requirements. The 5’ by 13’4” insulated glass panels span the full 13’-4” floor-to-floor height with no intermediate mullion – a first in skyscraper construction. These glass panels allow for maximum daylighting and impart monumental scale to the project. The eight corners of the building are clad with stainless steel panels, with each panel spanning the full height of a floor.
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