NEW YORK | One World Trade Center | 1,776' Pinnacle / 1,373' Roof | 108 FLOORS

[WTCman7301]

Originally Posted by Otie

Redesign of the west plaza.

Original design:


Redesign:

Personally I don't like the new design, I think the PA is too paranoid about another terrorist attack so they chose a different design for the plaza. I liked the old plaza, it was more open than this one. Only one staircase? What if somebody is running late for work there and had to run to that one staircase? I wouldnt like to work there...

[WorldTradeCenter]

Originally Posted by WTCman7301

Personally I don't like the new design, I think the PA is too paranoid about another terrorist attack so they chose a different design for the plaza. I liked the old plaza, it was more open than this one. Only one staircase? What if somebody is running late for work there and had to run to that one staircase? I wouldnt like to work there...

Where did this new design come from? On the PA website I still see the first design.

[Roadcruiser1]

Originally Posted by WorldTradeCenter

Where did this new design come from? On the PA website I still see the first design.

They haven't updated it yet. Go on WTC.com.

Originally Posted by WTCman7301

Personally I don't like the new design, I think the PA is too paranoid about another terrorist attack so they chose a different design for the plaza. I liked the old plaza, it was more open than this one. Only one staircase? What if somebody is running late for work there and had to run to that one staircase? I wouldnt like to work there...

The Twin Towers weren't exactly open. The plaza was two stories above the street. You had to climb two flights of stairs to get up. The plaza was windy and was devoid of anything except for concrete and the fountain at the center. The buildings surrounding it blocked the street views. This design isn't much different from that.

However the original World Trade Center's plaza was designed by Minoru Yamasaki to have more meaning architecturally even though it wasn't attractive. It was supposed to be a people's space in human scale to balance the huge bulk of the towers, and to bring a touch of serenity. The plaza also allowed the towers to be taken in as a whole. I am quoting a bit from Henry Gutthard. A man who worked with Yamasaki for the original World Trade Center.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...as-it-was.html

I think the Memorial would do the job now of balancing the bulk of the new towers of the World Trade Center. It would be the open space and the serenity that people need much like the plaza was.

[Otie]

Originally Posted by WTCman7301

Personally I don't like the new design, I think the PA is too paranoid about another terrorist attack so they chose a different design for the plaza. I liked the old plaza, it was more open than this one. Only one staircase? What if somebody is running late for work there and had to run to that one staircase? I wouldnt like to work there...

Tenants will access the building through the north and south entrances, the west entrance is designated for tourists heading up to the observation deck.

Originally Posted by WorldTradeCenter

Where did this new design come from? On the PA website I still see the first design.

The rendering was modified by the PA itself, they're too stingy to allow the 3D studio to make the modifications. Rendering can be found in this pdf file, don't expect to see it at the PA's main site.

[Don098]

This is a very cool piece on the Mohawk Indians from Montreal that have been building Manhattan skyscrapers for the past 100 years...extremely well done as only NPR can do.


Fewer Tribal Ironworkers Reaching For The Sky
by STEPHEN NESSEN for NPR
April 4, 2012 from WNYC

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/04/150008...ng-for-the-sky

Since the 1900s, the country's most iconic bridges and skyscrapers have been put up by men who risked life and limb to connect steel beams hundreds of feet in the sky. Ironworkers come from all backgrounds, but a small Indian reserve outside Montreal has supplied the U.S. with a proud lineage of Mohawk ironworkers.

But with fewer Mohawks going into the trade, the tradition may be on the wane.

Striding across a steel beam 26 stories in the sky, a lean ironworker grabs the corner column and pulls himself up. What could someday be a corner office on 55th Street in Manhattan is now nothing but open air. It's windless and the sun is bright, a perfect day for putting up steel.

"Like Houdini, he gets up there and disappears," one of the workers says of Kaniehtakeron Martin. "Poof!"

In 2 1/2 hours, the crew lays 68 pieces of steel.

"I'm a connector in the raising gang. It's my job to climb the steel and erect the iron," says Martin, or Geggs as he's known. "It's my job to put the building up, basically. The only thing mechanized about it is the crane."

Martin is a fourth-generation Mohawk ironworker from a reserve just south of Montreal. At about 5 feet 8 inches, the 35-year-old is one of the smaller guys on the site, and with 15 years of experience, one of the smartest.

"A lot of people, they watch us, they see what we do and they ask me if I'm crazy, but it's fun. You gotta love what you do," he says. "They always often ask me, 'Are you afraid of heights?' Naw, I'm not. A lot of people are, but I'm one of them who isn't."

The Long Commute

At the peak in the 1950s, there were as many as 800 Mohawks living in New York City. Now, Martin is one of about 200.

[jsr]

Originally Posted by Otie

Redesign of the west plaza.
Redesign:

Sloppy render-over. Looks like the theater seating from the original image is still visible in the upper right corner.

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by Otie

Redesign of the west plaza.

Original design:


Redesign:

I don't think it's that bad. They can always change the design even after this is built. The PA will have to learn the hard way as this is not how you attract people to a tower.

[Zafor]

Originally Posted by Otie

Redesign of the west plaza.

Original design:


Redesign:

A huge disappointment. A great plaza has been incredibly dimmed down with the new design. I am really missing 3 world trade center's braces, 1 world trade center's old base, and now the original plaza. Please, no more.

[NYguy]

I don't like that plaza revision. It makes the building appear to be even more closed off than it does now with the "bunkerish" base.
Where before the plan was to keep it lively, with people hanging around it looks like that will be discouraged. But this could be more
Durst than Port Authority.

Originally Posted by pnapp1

Today, April 4th.

[Image via: WTCProgress Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/WTCProgress/s...431296/photo/1

Another look at that one...







Joel Raskin





Dominick Paoli





smith_cl9













jag9889









lensepix

[Otie]

EXCLUSIVE: 1 WTC Logo Revealed




CBS NEW YORK

[bunky]

Crane jump currently in progress.

[sw5710]

This crane jump will place the 270' free standing part of the cranes on floor 93 at 1,208' or a total of 1,478' taller then ESBs antenna top as of today.

[cityenthusiast]

Originally Posted by 10023

Somehow I can see 3 WTC from my apartment but not 1 WTC. Somehow it gets perfectly blocked by another building.

I think you mean 4 world trade center

[cityenthusiast]

Originally Posted by aquablue

There is something fishy about that wall. I bet it is for security reasons, not cost. I mean, why remove a staircase and put up a wall otherwise? Also, it looks like they put up some kind of glass barrier around the plaza. Perhaps to protect against a blast?

Im pretty sure glass wouldn't protect against a blast from a bomb but I'am curious why they redesigned and what the glass is for.

[cityenthusiast]

Love the new logo too

[hunser]

Btw I hate the new plaza, looks kind of cheap. The logo is ok.

[PZelda]

Not sure how I feel about the logo just yet. It'll have to grow on me - like when the designs for the buildings came out. I wasn't crazy about them at first, but they grew on me. 1 WTC is by far my fave.

[Puzzlecraft]

I like the logo.

Two notes:

1) To be true to the logo, the radome ring will have to be built and no skinny antennae.

2) There used to be two and now there is ONE.

[CarlosV]

cocoon...


DSC_0125 copy by Ceva321, on Flickr

[fimiak]

The 1WTC West Plaza redesign is a definite improvement. Now it separates the sidewalk and the tower plaza so as to maintain the movement of the streetwalkers while not encouraging 1,000 Europeans to sit on the stairs. 1WTC is not a museum and does not need to encourage loitering.