7 WTC rising

[NYguy]

NY Times...

Rising Above Ground Zero, Tower Slowly Takes Shape

Already 314 feet tall, 7 World Trade Center is designed to reach 52 stories and 750 feet. A view from an upper floor shows some of the planned 1.7 million square feet of office space.

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

May 5, 2004

After two and a half years of absence, there is a towering presence at ground zero.

That skyscraper of muscular concrete and sinewy steel on Vesey Street is not just overlooking the World Trade Center site, it is part of it. Building No. 7, the last tower lost on Sept. 11, 2001, is the first to be rebuilt.

Its emergence has surprised out-of-towners and even New Yorkers who have not been to Lower Manhattan in a few months.

Now 314 feet tall, the building is destined to reach 52 stories and 750 feet. It will be sheathed in sheer, water-clear glass, with a kinetic, sculptural, stainless-steel wall by James Carpenter Design Associates around the Consolidated Edison substation at the base.

In a speech today, Gov. George E. Pataki is expected to announce that power will start flowing through the substation by the end of the month. After the speech, he will visit 7 World Trade Center.

(Mr. Pataki may also soon announce a chairman for the World Trade Center Site Memorial Foundation, which will oversee the creation of the memorial and the cultural center. One prominent name mentioned among the possible candidates is Sanford I. Weill, chairman and chief executive of Citigroup and chairman of Carnegie Hall.)

The governor's visit to 7 World Trade Center may be a tonic for the developer, Larry A. Silverstein, who has been fighting with his insurers over the main trade center site. He holds 99-year leases on both parcels from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

On Monday, a federal jury whittled Mr. Silverstein's total possible insurance claim to $4.68 billion, about $2.5 billion less than he sought. As his potential proceeds have shrunk, doubts have grown about Mr. Silverstein's ability to complete four more office buildings around the site, after the $700 million 7 World Trade Center and the $1 billion- to-$1.3-billion Freedom Tower, for which financing seems assured.

But Mr. Silverstein is no stranger to skepticism, since there were ample doubts last year that he would build 7 World Trade Center.

"I kept hearing and hearing that," he recalled in an interview Monday. "When I finally announced we had bought $60 million worth of steel, they still didn't believe. I think people finally changed their minds when the building reached 15 or 16 floors, and they said: 'You know what? He's doing it.' "

The structure is to pass the 615-foot mark in October, marking the moment when the new 7 World Trade Center exceeds the height of its shorter namesake, also built by Mr. Silverstein, where Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had his emergency command center. This will occur around the 20th anniversary of the first groundbreaking.

Tishman Construction Corporation, which built the first No. 7, is building its replacement. Elio Cettina and Mike Pinelli are among the Tishman executives involved in both projects. And a number of ironworkers are reprising their roles, too, said Jack Klein, a vice president of Silverstein Development.

Seven World Trade Center is to be finished in late 2005 or early 2006, with 1.7 million square feet of office space. Apart from his own company, Silverstein Properties, Mr. Silverstein does not yet have tenants. But in the time-honored tradition of developers, he said there was "considerable interest," particularly now that there is a tower to see.

Already visible inside the tower is a hallmark of what is supposed to be its great durability and safety: a concrete core around the elevator shafts and fire stairs, two feet thick in most places. The stairways are ample, five and a half feet wide, and the landings are deep enough to fit a person in a wheelchair while others pass on the stairs.

"A firefighter carrying gear could walk up while people are walking down," said Nicholas Holt, an associate partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which designed 7 World Trade Center, working with the structural engineers at the Cantor Seinuk Group. (They are also Mr. Silverstein's architects on the Freedom Tower.)

The surprisingly spacious lobby, sandwiched between two banks of Con Ed transformer vaults, is framed by steel-jacketed columns five feet in diameter. Outside, Greenwich Street will be recreated as a driveway for taxis and limousines but not as a through street. Across the street, Mr. Silverstein will build a 12,500-square-foot public park designed by Ken Smith.

The principal art in the lobby will be a 12-foot-tall wall of glass and light-emitting diodes by James Carpenter and Jenny Holzer, an artist known for using epigrams in her work. "What we did insist upon was the choice of the words," Mr. Silverstein said. "I wanted something uplifting, positive; that talked about renewal, talked about America, talked about freedom, talked about what our values are about."

[monsoon]

[Jaden]

Have they actually decided on an actual PROJECT for Ground Zero yet? I mean one that is 100% for sure going to be built?

[Guest donaltopablo]

Have they actually decided on an actual PROJECT for Ground Zero yet? I mean one that is 100% for sure going to be built?

Funny you should ask....

WTC groundbreaking set for July 4

Gov. Pataki announces date for the "Freedom Tower," due to be the world's tallest building.

May 5, 2004: 5:13 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN) - Groundbreaking for the tallest building in the world, to rise from the ashes of the World Trade Center site, will take place July 4, officials involved in the rebuilding told CNN.

The 1,776-foot skyscraper -- designed by architect David Childs and WTC master planner Daniel Libeskind -- has been dubbed the Freedom Tower by Gov. George. Pataki.

Pataki said that rebuilding plans are moving from "paper to steel" in a prepared speech before the Association for a Better New York.

The tower's height, symbolic for the year of American independence, includes a 276-foot spire. A broadcast antenna will bring the structure's total height above 2,000 feet.

By comparison, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stand 1,483 feet and were the world's tallest building until they were surpassed last year by the Taipei 101 tower, which rises 1,674 feet. The CN Tower in Toronto, which Canadians claims as the world's tallest free-standing structure, is 1,815 feet.

The Freedom Tower glass and steel design, unveiled in December, calls for 70 floors to be topped by wind-harvesting turbines that designers predict will provide 20 percent of the building's energy. The tower will contain 2.6 million square feet of commercial space.

More than 60 floors will contain offices, capped by an indoor observation deck, a restaurant and an event space.

The tower is supposed to be ready for occupancy in 2009. Rebuilding officials estimate construction will cost $1.5 billion, or $1 million per 500 square feet.

Pataki, a Republican, had come under some criticism for previously indicating the groundbreaking would be in late August or early September, possibly coinciding with the Republican National Convention that will nominate President Bush. The new date eliminates that controversy.

In the fall, Pataki announced, work will begin to take down the black-shrouded Deutsche Bank building at the southern end of the 16-acre trade center site.

The 40-story office building -- gashed, uninhabited, and shrouded in black since Sept. 11, 2001 -- will be dismantled under the accord reached by the building's owner, its insurance companies and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the government agency overseeing the rebuilding process.

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, appointed by Pataki, brokered the deal in February. It calls for Deutsche Bank to receive $140 million from two insurers -- Allianz and AXA -- for the building damage and $90 million from the LMDC for the land.

The $45 million dismantling, paid for by the LMDC, is expected to be completed by 2005. Plans call for the razed plot to include 30,000 square feet of new park space and a building of undetermined size that would house an underground tourist bus depot and security station for delivery trucks coming to the trade center site.

The governor in his prepared speech also renewed his and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's call for a one-seat rail ride from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Lower Manhattan.

In his remarks to the association, Pataki revealed that a new feasibility study for the estimated $4 billion project says the best approach would be to build a new tunnel under the East River between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, creating direct service from the World Trade Center to the Long Island Rail Road's station in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens.

The first new structure to be built at the WTC site is the 52-story replacement building for 7 World Trade Center, an office tower adjacent to the north edge of the site that fell on Sept. 11.

With 20 floors finished, it is scheduled to completed at the end of next year. It is being developed by realtor Larry Silverstein, the WTC leaseholder who has been tapped to develop the Freedom Tower.

[Allan]

If they want Freedom Tower to be the WTB, they better hurry up and get it built! The Burj Dubai is now u/c (at least acording to skyscrapers.com), and it is said to be taller than 800 meters (2625 feet). It will be completed in 2009...or at least that's what the plan is so far. So far the height has been kept a secret. The only height information that anyone has is the 800+ meters figure. I guess we won't know how tall it really will be until it's completed. It's likely that Freedom Tower won't be the WTB for very long.

I saw a rendering of 7 WTC a while back...I'll see if I can find it.

[Allan]

Found the renderings. It's basically a box. It seems like SOM forgot how to design buildings that aren't boxes.

[NYguy]

If they want Freedom Tower to be the WTB, they better hurry up and get it built! The Burj Dubai is now u/c (at least acording to skyscrapers.com), and it is said to be taller than 800 meters (2625 feet). It's likely that Freedom Tower won't be the WTB for very long.

Freedom Tower isn't in the "race" for world's tallest buildings. Its height of 1,776 ft won't change, and is meant to symbolize America's independence. Or course, there are no buildings currently higher than that, and as such it would be the world's tallest.

But as far as the Burj Dubai is concerned, I don't take anything they say seriously, they won't even release a height. What are they afraid of?

[NYguy]

Have they actually decided on an actual PROJECT for Ground Zero yet? I mean one that is 100% for sure going to be built?

That was decided early last year when Libeskind's site plan was chosen out of six competing plans...

[NYguy]

Some pics of 7 WTC taken April 3rd...

[Allan]

But as far as the Burj Dubai is concerned, I don't take anything they say seriously, they won't even release a height.  What are they afraid of?

You bring up a good point there. It's not like somebody is going to come up with a plan for a building any taller tomorrow, the next day, or even in the next ten years. In the past, architects and developers kept building heights secret during their construction because they were competing with another building for the title of WTB. Unless there is some other project I don't know about, no building constructed any time soon will be even close to 800 meters. The entire project seems to be shrouded in secrecy for some reason. About the only thing anybody has said about Burj Dubai is that it is to be the WTB. Nobody can even get good pics of the site because it's surrounded by a gigantic fence. ss.com says it's under construction, but I think the only people who really know are the people working on the project. Honestly though, nothing would surprise me. Dubai has some pretty insane proposals to say the least! Every project is massive. I guess we'll know if steel at the Burj Dubai site rises above the fence so people can see in. And to know the official height, I guess we'll have to wait five years.

[NYguy]

The new 7 World Trade Center will set the future standard of commercial building construction both in New York and across the United States. The tower will feature a wealth of safety and environmental enhancements, amenities and comfort items to properly meet the requirements of today's tenants. The Building will contain a center-core design in the classic

[NYguy]

7 WTC continuse to rise from the ashes...(5/9/2004)

[NYguy]

[NYguy]

Saturday, JUNE 19th, the view from BARCLAY ST...

Silverstein's "monster" rises....

[Neo]

Thanks for posting these! It's going to be a beautiful building when it's completed.

[Cotuit]

Found the renderings. It's basically a box. It seems like SOM forgot how to design buildings that aren't boxes.

Well it is not quite a box. It is a parallelogram angled to allow for the rebirth of Greenwich Street through the site which the old building blocked.

I also think the surface material will prove to be very interesting and have an enchanting quality similar to Boston's Hancock Building, changing to reflect the natural elements of a given moment. It promises to be quite stunning.

Do we know if it will carry the name 7 World Trade Centre when complete. Part of me likes that, but it is in fact no longer 7 World Trade Centre as the World Trade Centre no longer exists and will not exist again.

[NYguy]

Do we know if it will carry the name 7 World Trade Centre when complete. Part of me likes that, but it is in fact no longer 7 World Trade Centre as the World Trade Centre no longer exists and will not exist again.

Well, it is in fact 7 WTC. The entire complex is and will always be known as the World Trade Center. Its the same exact site, new buildings will rise, but everything else remains the same.

The only thing that won't exist are the buildings that were destroyed on 9/11. New York has had 4 Madison Square Gardens, the last 2 nowhere near Madison Square. But the WTC at least will rise where it always has been...

[NYguy]

(Daily News)

SEC has sights on 7 WTC space

Prospects are starting to look up for 7 World Trade Center, the tower Larry Silverstein is building at Ground Zero.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is in talks about renting 200,000 square feet, sources told the Daily News.

And a high-profile downtown law firm, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, is considering taking 450,000 square feet.

It's early days in both would-be tenants' negotiations. But if the SEC actually leased space there, it would send a huge message - because the regulator was a tenant in the original 7 World Trade Center, which was destroyed by the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. The SEC has been housed since then in the nearby Woolworth Building.

And if a Fried Frank deal were to pan out, it would be big enough to make the firm the anchor of Silverstein's 1.7 million-square-foot project, which is partly built.

In an interesting convergence, Fried Frank - currently headquartered at downtown skyscraper 1 New York Plaza - does a lot of securities work. How convenient to be in the same building as the SEC.

If either of these prospects winds up signing a lease, it will be a breakthrough for Ground Zero developer Silverstein. He doesn't have a single office tenant lined up for 7 World Trade Center, which he will complete late next year or in early 2006. For now, the only occupant of the 52-story skyscraper is Con Ed, which is operating a substation on the bottom 10 floors of the building.

A spokesman for Silverstein declined to comment.

[Cotuit]

Well, it is in fact 7 WTC. The entire complex is and will always be known as the World Trade Center. Its the same exact site, new buildings will rise, but everything else remains the same.

The only thing that won't exist are the buildings that were destroyed on 9/11. New York has had 4 Madison Square Gardens, the last 2 nowhere near Madison Square. But the WTC at least will rise where it always has been...

I didn't realize that the plan was for the rebuilt site to carry the World Trade Centre moniker. I know there was a lot of back and forth on the emotional impact of keeping the WTC name at the PATH and subway stations, I was under the impression the name was going away for the project, but the stations were retaining the name for historical reasons. Also the fact that the original WTC never really was the world trade centre that was originally intended.

But aren't there only 5 buildings in Daniel Libeskind's design, making 7, 6?

[NYguy]

I was under the impression the name was going away for the project, but the stations were retaining the name for historical reasons. Also the fact that the original WTC never really was the world trade centre that was originally intended.

But aren't there only 5 buildings in Daniel Libeskind's design, making 7, 6?

There are actually about 8 or 9 depending on whether or not the museum under the memorial is considered to have an address. Remember, all of the WTC buildings were given a designation, no just the Twins. While it was never really a "world trade center" that's the name it was given. Thus, the WTC will live on...here's some signage from the PATH station that reopened on site....

[wolfdawg54]

I think the design will flow with the rest of the buildings. It's about time though. Go New York, and build us a tower!!

[BoneRattler]

Ehm, for those not familiar with ground zero, is 7WTC the building right across the Barclay-Vesey Building? North of the North tower? Or is it the one between the Barclay-Vesey Building and the Federal Office Building?

I'm kind of building a small model of the WTC, but I can't see the names of the buildings any more because ehm...well, the buildings are there now

[NYguy]

Ehm, for those not familiar with ground zero, is 7WTC the building right across the Barclay-Vesey Building? North of the North tower? Or is it the one between the Barclay-Vesey Building and the Federal Office Building?

It's the one in between....

[NYguy]

JULY 10, 2004

The glass is more reflective than I originally thought it would be...but I like it.

The West St corridor will become very busy in the next year with new construction (7 WTC, Freedom Tower, Goldman Sachs)

Another look at the reflective glass...

[NYguy]

NEWSDAY

The last I beam is hoisted to the top of 7 World Trade Center Thursday, October 21, 2004, during the topping off ceremony in lower Manhattan.

Construction workers applaud as the last I beam is hoisted to the top of 7 World Trade Center Thursday, October 21, 2004, at the topping off ceremony in lower Manhattan.

Construction workers lean against the final steel beam before it is lifted into place at a topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center October 21, 2004 in New York City. The 52-story building is five stories taller than the original 7 World Trade Center which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg (L) and New York Governor George Pataki look on with construction workers at a topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center October 21, 2004 in New York City. The 52-story building is five stories taller than the original 7 World Trade Center

L-R) Silverstein Properties President Larry Silverstein, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Silverstein Properties Vice President John Klein watch as the final steel beam is lifted into place at a topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center October 21, 2004 in New York City.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg watches with construction workers as the final steel beam is lifted into place at a topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center October 21, 2004 in New York City.

A makeshift memorial to a deceased firefighter is seen after the topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center ® October 21, 2004 in New York City.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg with construction workers as the final steel beam is lifted into place at a topping out ceremony to mark completion of steel erection for 7 World Trade Center