On this day in New York · November 3, 2014
One World Trade Center Opens for Business
Thirteen years after the towers fell, workers walked back onto the same ground to start their jobs in a 1,776-foot answer to the hole in the skyline.
The facts
- Opened
- November 3, 2014
- Height
- 1,776 feet (541 m) with the spire
- First tenant
- Condé Nast, occupying floors 20 to 44
- Cost
- An estimated $3.9 billion as of April 2012
One World Trade Center opened on November 3, 2014, on the northwest corner of the site where the original Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001. Condé Nast, the magazine publisher that signed on as the building's anchor tenant in May 2011, began moving employees into floors 20 through 44 that day, with the full move finishing in early 2015. The tower was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill after an earlier, more angular design by Daniel Libeskind was reworked into a symmetrical shape that tapers into an octagon partway up. Below-ground utility work, footings, and foundations for the building had started back on April 27, 2006, and by April 2012 the Port Authority put the project's cost at an estimated $3.9 billion.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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We really wanted our design to be grounded in something that was very real, not just in sculptural sketches. We explored the infrastructural challenges because the proper solution would have to be compelling, not just beautiful. The design does have great sculptural implications, and we fully understand the iconic importance of the tower, but it also has to be a highly efficient building. The discourse about Freedom Tower has often been limited to the symbolic, formal and aesthetic aspects but we recognize that if this building doesn't function well, if people don't want to work and visit there, then we will have failed as architects.
David Childs, architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The tower's height was no accident: 1,776 feet was chosen to evoke the year of the Declaration of Independence, turning the rebuilt skyline itself into a statement that the site would be defined by what came after the attack, not just by what was lost.
Sources
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