|  In
a banner day for Lower Manhattan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
Governor George Pataki, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine,
and other rebuilding officials joined developer Larry
Silverstein in April 2006 to welcome construction crews
to the World Trade Center site, marking the official
start of construction for the Freedom Tower.
"If you listen in the background, you can hear
the heavy equipment … the builders here at the
World Trade Center site beginning their work,"
Pataki announced triumphantly at the early morning press
conference. "The Freedom Tower is going to be a
symbol of our freedom and our independence," he
said, adding that a plan is now in place for development
of the entire World Trade Center site.
With foundation work underway, architect David Childs
of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill continued to revise
the building’s design, addressing security concerns
raised by the New York Police Department about its positioning
along West Street and its accessibility from the restored
street grid through the WTC site. The Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation approved Childs’ revised
design in June 2006.
The revised, slimmer Freedom Tower will rise to 1,362
feet, the height of the original WTC South Tower, and
feature an outdoor observation deck at the height of
the original North Tower. An illuminated antenna will
rise from the center of the building to the symbolic
height of 1,776 feet. To increase security, Childs and
team shrunk the building’s base to 200 feet square,
the same measurement as the original twin towers. The
reduced footprint draws the building back 90 feet from
West Street, compared to 25 feet for the original tower
design, leaving a larger public plaza and more room
for at-grade security.
Click here
to view a slide show featuring the latest renderings
of this project.
 The
new dimensions of the tower’s footprint widen
the sidewalks on all four sides of the building, as
well as adjacent to the memorial, which itself preserves
the twin towers’ actual footprints. The new Freedom
Tower will rise from a cubic base that, from a bird’s-eye
perspective, appears to torque 45 degrees -- an effect
of the chamfered edges that transform its sides into
eight isosceles triangles.
The Freedom Tower’s bottom 200 feet, which will
house mechanics, will be clad in concrete covered with
glass prisms that shimmer and reflect light. The base
will be completely solid and windowless, except for
entrances on each of the building’s four sides
that will separately serve restaurant guests, observation
deck visitors, and tenants -- each of whom will enter
through a grand, 50-foot-high lobby.
Topped off by a restaurant and observation deck, the
new tower also will be home to a “beacon of light,”
essentially a woven metal sculpture that will serve
as the Metropolitan Television Alliance’s broadcasting
antenna. Sculptor Kenneth Snelson will collaborate on
the antenna’s design.
 Many
of the engineering and construction details of the original
design remain intact. Like its predecessor, the new
tower is planned to far surpass environmental codes,
with maximum utilization of recycled-content building
materials, cogeneration and other renewable energy sources,
water conservation and rainwater reuse, outside-air
ventilation, and ultra-clear glass for better interior
“daylighting.”
The building will also be among the country’s
safest, incorporating redundant measures like a steel-frame,
vertical core enveloped by two feet of solid concrete.
That core will encase the elevators, stairwells, utilities,
communication systems, and even an emergency “fireman’s
lift.” Emergency systems will also reside in the
core, such as generators, a pressurized ventilation
system, and a high-capacity water storage system for
building sprinklers.
Other key elements of the original design that will
be retained include tenant amenity spaces, world-class
restaurants, below-grade retail, and access to the PATH,
subway, and World Financial Center.
View animations of the Freedom Tower:
East River Flyby
Midtown Flyby
Siteplan Flyby
Nighttime Flyby
Timelapse
Click here
to see the latest information on the construction of
the Freedom Tower.
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