THIRTEEN years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the World Trade Center in New York City is once again open for business.
On Monday, Nov. 3, the mass media publishing giant Condé Nast began moving into the new One World Trade Center, a 104-story, $3.9 billion steel skyscraper built at the same site where the decimated Twin Towers once stood. The One World Trade Center—dubbed the “Freedom Tower” during initial planning—is America’s tallest building, and dominates the Manhattan skyline.
“The New York City skyline is whole again, as One World Trade Center takes its place in Lower Manhattan,” said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns both the building and the World Trade Center site.
The new building “sets new standards of design, construction, prestige and sustainability,” Foye continued. “The opening of this iconic building is a major milestone in the transformation of Lower Manhattan into a thriving 24/7 neighborhood.”
Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend and his company’s reported 3,400 employees plan to settle into “the most secure office building in America.” Condé Nast will fill up five floors of the tower, according to a company spokesperson. More employees and offices are set to arrive by early 2015.
The building is already 60 percent leased, with another 80,000 square feet going to the advertising firm Kids Creative, the stadium operator Legends Hospitality, the BMB Group investment advisor, and Servcorp, a provider of executive offices. Furthermore, the government’s General Services Administration and the cultural facility China Center have signed up for additional office space.
The new tower overlooks the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, built in the center site where the Twin Towers once stood, honoring those heroes and victims who lost their lives that day.
For many years since the incident, the grisly site of the aerial terror attack was dubbed “Ground Zero” and respected as a highly-secured memorial site.
Now, the surrounding area has prospered with more residents, businesses, restaurants, and shops. The high-rise’s illuminated steel-and-glass spire serves as a beacon to airplanes, seemingly at eye level with the open rooftop, with a view stretching from central Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty, into New Jersey, and all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The spire can be seen from ships approaching into New York Harbor.
Many New York residents, architects, and officials view the new building as a “bittersweet victory.”
T.J. Gottesdiener of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm that produced the final building design said that the high-rise was specially built with steel-reinforced concrete, making it as terror attack-proof as possible.
Construction for the 1,776-foot-high One World Trade Center began in 2006, and the newly-opened building is now the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world. “We did it, we finally did it,” Gottesdiener said.
(With reports from Associated Press, USA Today)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek November 5-7, 2014 Sec. A pg.5)
