June 29, 2006
New Freedom Tower design envisions wall of prisms
Modified plan for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero were released Wednesday, revealing a less "fortress-like" design that now uses a wall of prisms that will refract light around it.
The prisms will stretch up 187 feet from ground level, obscuring thick, bomb-resistant concrete protecting the base. The New York Times succintly spells out what goes where:Because the base would be so tall, the first office floor atop the base is counted as Floor 20. There would be 69 office floors, ending at Floor 88. Above that would be broadcasting space on the 89th and 90th floors, followed by three mechanical floors so high they are counted as nine stories.
 In the upper reaches, a restaurant would occupy the 100th and 101st floors. The enclosed observation deck, which would almost undoubtedly include a gift shop, would be at 102. Above that would be three floors of mechanical equipment.
The last 408 feet of the tower's height would be a white structure, clad in fiberglass composite panels, with a gentle convex curve in the middle. Designed in collaboration with the sculptor Kenneth Snelson, it would hide a bristling forest of antennas. Elevators cannot go directly to the top; instead express elevators will head to the 64th floor where passengers would transfer to local elevators. One elevator shaft will be protected and use a water-resistant car meant for rescue workers, if needed.
The Sun's architecture critic weighed in on the changes:The best thing about the base looks to be the four massive portals, one on each side, that punctuate the monolithic expanse of prismatic glass. There is something that one might call neo-Babylonian about these entrances: They seek the kind of grandeur that has largely vanished from the diapason of both modern and postmodern architecture. Contemporary buildings are often big, but almost never grand. The building's lead architect, David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was asked if this redesign of the Freedom Tower is the final one."Yes, this is it," he said, according to the Daily News.
But Daniel Libeskind, the the official master planner of the trade center site, told the New York Times: "With further refinement it can become an icon for the city. But that will depend on how the top of the building looks."
Additionally, the Daily News notes that two weeks ago, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, said the tower may have t be scaled back if government tenants don't soon commit to leasing at least 38 percent of the office space.
In the four years that architectural plans for rebuilding Ground Zero have been debated, change has been the one constant. The New York Sun points observes of the latest Childs' design:In fact, the only thing that survives intact from Mr. Libeskind's version is the somewhat irrelevant symbolism according to which the building is to rise 1,776 feet, in commemoration of the year of our nation's founding.
The Freedom Tower is scheduled to open in 2011.
Related: Revised plans for the World Trade Center Memorial Museum are on display, and public input is sought, through Friday at the Center for Architecture.
Images of the model's west plaza and south elevation provided by SPI, SOM and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which has a few other views of the redeisgn on its website.
Earlier: Freedom Tower's cornerstone leaves Ground Zero
Scaled-back WTC Museum plans keep waterfalls
June 29, 2006 08:12 AM in Architecture, Downtown
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