One World Trade Center of New York

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New One World Trade Center

https://www.onewtc.com/ Standing as a shining beacon for the new Downtown, and a bold addition to the skyline, One World Trade Center is safe, sustainable, and artistically dynamic. Soaring to a symbolic 1,776 feet — it is the Western Hemisphere’s tallest building, and already an iconic New York landmark.

• BUILDING FACTS

Building the One World Trade Center

Opened October 2014 Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (David M. Childs) Tallest of new WTC Complex 104 Stories / 1776 feet high 3 million rentable square feet of space 55 foot high office lobby 54 High-speed destination dispatch passenger elevators Life-safety systems far exceed NYC building code Bound by West, Fulton, Washington and Vesey Streets 55% leased to tenants including Condé Nast

• DESIGN

Poster of new design

With entrances on all 4 sides of the building, One WTC has been designed to smoothly integrate traffic of visitors & office tenants. The cubic base has a footprint identical to the original Twin Towers. The surface of the base is clad in more than 2,000 pieces of shimmering prismatic glass. The tower ascends 69 stories — its edges chamfered back to form 8 isosceles triangles, a perfect octagon at center. It culminates in a square, glass parapet at the crown, its crystalline form creating a vibrant effect, as light refracts like a kaleidoscope, changing throughout the day. The “One World Observatory” — opening 2015 — is an enclosed observation deck rising 1,250 ft. above street level. The crown of One WTC is a 408-foot spire — consisting of a mast and a communication platform ring. At night, a beacon at the top sends out a horizontal light beam, which can be seen from miles away.

• ABOUT THE ARCHITECT

DAVID CHILDS is consulting design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/New York. He also designed 7 WTC, which opened in May 2006. Childs is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Art and Architecture, and joined SOM in 1971. Child’s diverse range of completed projects includes Worldwide Plaza on Eighth Avenue; the New York Mercantile Exchange; the JFK International Arrivals Building; the Bear Stearns Headquarters; the Stuyvesant School Bridge in Tribeca; and the renovation and preservation of Lever House.

History

The Iconic Twin Towers of Downtown Manhattan’s World Trade Center were a triumph of human imagination and will. Completed in 1973, the towers stood at 110 stories each, accommodating 50,000 workers and 200,000 daily visitors in 10 million square feet of space. They were the hub of the bustling Financial District, a top tourist attraction and a symbol of New York City’s–and America’s–steadfast devotion to progress and the future. On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center became the target of a massive terrorist attack that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people. The disaster also radically altered the skyline of New York City, destroying the twin columns of glass and steel that over the years had come to embody the city itself.

• Because the ground in lower Manhattan was largely landfill, engineers would have to dig down 70 feet to reach bedrock. Excavating machines dug a three-foot-wide trench down to the bedrock, and as dirt and rock were removed, they were replaced by slurry: a mixture of water and bentonite, a type of clay that expands when wet to plug any hole along the side of the trench. Workers then lowered a 22-ton, seven-story-high steel cage into the trench and filled it with concrete by using a long pipe. As the concrete flowed in, it displaced the bentonite slurry. By making more than 150 of these slurry trench segments, workers enclosed an area two blocks wide and four blocks long. Called the “bathtub,” it was used to seal the basements of the towers and keep water from the Hudson River out of the foundation. All in all, 1 million cubic yards of landfill had to be removed. The Port Authority used this landfill to create the $90 million worth of land that would become Battery Park City. To piece the steel frame of the building together, engineers brought in Australian-made “kangaroo” cranes, self-powered cranes powered by diesel motors that could hoist themselves up as the building grew higher. At the end of construction, these cranes had to be disassembled and brought down by elevator. When the towers were finished, each one would have 97 passenger elevators, capable of carrying loads of up to 10,000 pounds at speeds of up to 1,600 feet per minute. In all, the towers were assembled from more than 200,000 pieces of steel manufactured around the country, 3,000 miles of electrical wiring, 425,000 cubic yards of concrete, 40,000 doors, 43,600 windows and six acres of marble.

Timeline

• 1939-At the World's Fair in Flushing, NY the "World trade center" pavilion is dedicated to "world peace through trade."
• 1959-Downtown Lower Manhattan Association is created by real estate developer David Rockefeller to revitalize lower Manhattan and begins to promote the idea of a "world trade and finance center" in New York City.
• January 1960-David Rockefeller presents a plan for a world trade center along the East River of Manhattan. The Port of New York Authority is commissioned to study the plan.
• March 1961-On March 10, Port Authority issues a favorable report on the feasibility of developing a world trade center.
• February 1962-New York and New Jersey authorize the development of the World Trade Center.
• December 1962-World Trade Center location moves to West Side amidst protests by displaced business owners.
• November 1963-The Port Authority wins legal challenge in the development of the WTC.
• January 1964-The Port Authority unveils an architectural plan for the WTC featuring the world's tallest buildings.
• March 1966-Construction begins on March 21 at the WTC site with the demolition of 78 Dey Street.
• August 1966-Excavation work begins for the WTC. First use of "slurry wall" method in the United States.
• June 1967-New York City Board of Estimates formally approves the WTC legislation.
• October 1970-The North Tower of the WTC exceeds the height of Empire State Building, making it the tallest building in the world.
• December 1970-The first tenants move into North Tower of the WTC on December 15. The North Tower of the WTC is topped off at 1,368 feet on December 23.
• July 1971-The South Tower of the WTC is topped off at 1,362 feet on July 19.
• September 1971-The first tenant moves into Two World Trade Center (South Tower).
• March 1972-The first tenant moves into Five World Trade Center (Northeast Plaza Building).
• April 1973-The World Trade Center is dedicated on April 4.
• January 1974-U.S. Customs Service moves into Six World Trade Center.
• August 1974-Tightrope artist Philippe Petit performs an unauthorized walk between the Twin Towers on August 7.
• December 1975-Top of the World Observation Deck opens at Two World Trade Center (South Tower).
• April 1976-The Windows of the World Restaurant opens at the top of the North Tower on April 19.
• January 1977-The first tenant moves into Four World Trade Center (The Commodities Exchange Center).
• May 1979-The 360-foot spire atop One World Trade Center is completed.
• July 1981-The Vista International Hotel, first hotel built in LM since 1836, opens.
• May 1987-Seven World Trade Center opens.
• February 1993-On February 26, terrorists detonate 1,500 pounds of explosives in a van parked in the underground public parking lot of the WTC, two levels below the southern wall of the North Tower. The attack kills six people, including a pregnant woman, injures more than 1,000 people and creates a five-story crater beneath the towers, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.
• March 1993-The WTC reopens for business on March 19, led by tenant New York Governor Mario Cuomo and his staff. The Port Authority implements a $250 million upgrade plan focusing on life safety and security.
• 1994-The WTC is designated one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The WTC is visited by every U.S. president between the time of its opening and the time of its destruction at least once, as well as by many dignitaries and heads of state.
• Spring 1995-A memorial fountain is dedicated in the WTC plaza to the victims of the 1993 bombing.
• December 1995-The Vista International Hotel is sold and renamed the New York Marriott World Trade Center Hotel.
• September 1998-On September 24, The Port Authority announces plans to seek a 99-year net lease of the complex.
• 2000-The WTC reaches its highest occupancy rate.
• July 2001-The WTC is net-leased on July 24 to private developer Silverstein Properties, Inc. for approximately $3.2 billion. A three-to-six month transition period commences.
• September 11th two planes hijacked by terrorists crash into the Twin Towers, destroying the complex. One World Trade Center is struck at 8:46 a.m.; Two World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m.
• September 12, the last survivor is rescued from WTC site at approximately 12:30p.m.
• September 14 is a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance; President Bush visits Ground Zero.
• September 17, New York Stock Exchange reopens.
• September 23, Prayer for America service takes place at Yankee Stadium.
• October 2001-Robin Relief Fund holds a concert for first responders at Madison Square Garden on October 17.On October 28, an interfaith ceremony is held at the WTC site.
• March 2002-Six-month anniversary of the September 11 attacks is marked with beams of light.
• May 2002-On May 30, the WTC recovery ends with a public Last Column Ceremony.
• 2002-The 9-11 Commission is created to study the events leading up to the September 11 attacks and to provide recommendations on emergency preparedness and response. The 9-11 Commission issues its report on July 22, 2004.
• November 2003-On November 23, a temporary World Trade Center PATH station opens to replace the one destroyed on September 11.
• 2005-A study by the Center for Disease Control reports that the majority of September 11 survivors continue to suffer from psychological trauma. A May 2006 study prepared for the American Red Cross reports that the majority of people who received therapy after the attacks are still suffering.
• May 2006-The newly constructed 7 World Trade Center opens on May 23, the first building to be rebuilt in Lower Manhattan after the September 11 attacks.

WTC Attack

In July 2001, just two months before the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Port Authority agreed to lease the twin towers to Larry Silverstein, a New York City developer. Silverstein agreed to pay the equivalent of $3.2 billion over the next 99 years. At the time, over 99 percent of the 10.4 million square feet controlled by the Port Authority was occupied. The impact of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, was more devastating than any of the building’s designers and engineers had ever imagined. The first plane ripped a hole in the north tower from the 94th to the 98th floors, causing massive structural damage and igniting some 3,000 of the 10,000 gallons of jet fuel the plane was carrying. The second plane hit the south tower at an even faster speed, striking the corner and gashing the building from the 84th to the 78th floors. The heroic efforts of the city’s fire and police departments and other emergency services helped 25,000 people escape from the site before the unthinkable occurred. The damage done at each point of impact forced the physical weight of the towers to be redistributed, and the undamaged part below the hole had to support the floors above. At the same time, the fires raging in both buildings weakened the steel trusses holding up each floor. With damage to a greater number of floors lower down on the building, the south tower gave way first, crumbling to the ground at 9:59 a.m., only 56 minutes after being hit. The north tower collapsed less than a half hour later, at 10:28 a.m. Debris from the falling towers ignited fires in the remaining buildings of the trade center complex, including 7 World Trade, which burned for most of the day before collapsing at 5:20 p.m. Overwhelmed by horror, shock and grief, New Yorkers and people around the world trained their eyes on “Ground Zero,” where the fall of a treasured icon of American industry and ingenuity had left a gaping hole in the sky.

• The north tower was completed in 1970

The World Trade Center Concourse connected Tower 1 and Tower 2. Here you could find shopping (a big Borders store, clothing, music, and more), eateries for a quick lunchtime bite, and bank branches and other daily errand destinations.The World Trade Center Concourse was also the entrance to the PATH station for commuting to and from New Jersey.

World Trade Center Concourse connected Tower 1 and Tower 2.

One 9/11 Tally $3.3 Trillion By SHAN CARTER and AMANDA COX Published: September 8, 2011 Al Qaeda spent roughly half a million dollars to destroy the World Trade Center and cripple the Pentagon. What has been the cost to the United States? In a survey of estimates by The New York Times, the answer is $3.3 trillion, or about $7 million for every dollar Al Qaeda spent planning and executing the attacks. While not all of the costs have been borne by the government — and some are still to come — this total equals one-fifth of the current national debt. All figures are shown in today’s dollars.

Victims Killed 2,977

Victims injured 6000

Workers killed-343 firefighters (FDNY), 37 police officers (PAPD), 23 police officers (NYPD), 8 emergency medical technicians, and 1 Patrolman.

Continuing deaths 2000 and counting.

Death Toll

• 2,000 people are estimated to have died from exposure at ground zero — not all of them considered first responders.
• “Many were building workers, electricians and doctors also,” he said. “It is believed that this number will eventually surpass the deaths that occurred on 9/11 itself.”
• Police and fire officials at the ceremony said that the ramifications of 9/11 are still felt every day in the United States.
• The overall death toll from the attacks stands at 2,977 — including 2,753 killed as a result of the attacks at the World Trade Center, 184 killed at the Pentagon and 40 killed in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
• The death toll does not include the 19 hijackers aboard the four jetliners that crashed at the attack sites. The World Trade Center death toll includes three victims who died of respiratory disease months to years after 9/11 and whose deaths were reclassified as homicides by the New York City medical examiner's office because of the victims' exposure to World Trade Center dust at the time of the twin towers' collapse.
• The list includes the victims' names, ages and hometowns if available, affiliations of victims at the World Trade Center and the sites of their deaths.
• Passengers and crew members aboard the four jetliners, and where they crashed, are identified separately. In the cases of the three victims who died of post-9/11 illness, and more than a dozen others who died of their injuries days and weeks after the attacks, the dates of the victims' deaths are listed.

• 2,977 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks

• Find A Name On The Memorial at: https://names.911memorial.org/

Building the OWTC

Sources

• https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/us/sept-11-reckoning/cost-graphic.html?_r=1
• https://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/timeline-rebuilding-effort.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(1973%E2%80%932001)
• https://oneworldobservatory.com/en-US
• https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/world-trade-center
• https://names.911memorial.org/