NEW YORK | World Trade Center Memorial & Transit Hub

[animatedmartian]

I haven't checked this thread in a while and it's nice to see how far the oculus has come. Although I kind of expected it to be a little bit farther along, but still nice nonetheless.

[weidncol]

Originally Posted by Eveningsong

What a colossus waste of money for a pretty platform. What we need is a new state-of-art bus terminal to replace PABT. This will help get rid of vagrants/hoodlums around a 3-block radius of the terminal and make crime drop by a lot %, if in fact it is built.

Now THAT is a transit improvement. Did you hear that PANYNJ?

It's not just a path terminal, it's also the hub for the 600,000 square foot multi-level mall that will be here. I do agree, though, it is kind of a lot of money that could've been spent on something better.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by weidncol

It's not just a path terminal, it's also the hub for the 600,000 square foot multi-level mall that will be here. I do agree, though, it is kind of a lot of money that could've been spent on something better.

Something better?! You crazy? It's not not a question of whether or not we could have gotten something better, because the answer to that is "absolutely not"; but whether or not we should have spent the money to buy the best PATH terminal money could possibly buy. Should we aspire to create masterpieces in our lifetime, or is "good enough" good enough for now as long as it saves money. I respect arguments on both sides, but ultimately the romantic in me can't help but want to leave a few landmarks for my children's children to cherish. Good for us!

[Skyguy_7]

^And that it will be; an instant landmark. The awe-inspiring feeling that this structure will give to every soul passing through will no doubt leave some aspiring to match or top this, and not just in the field of architecture, but in all fields of work. The structure itself will repay society as a whole in time.

I imagine Calatrava follows these words closely:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.” -Daniel Burnham

[Perklol]

delete

[nyc7]

Lot of rafters went up...looks like they are installing one on each side in the pics

[RobEss]

Getting off the Fulton Street C, I saw the new wings cutting a fine shape against the sunset. Sadly, I only have this zoomed-in phone photo to share, but you get the idea:

[Design-mind]

From my visit to NYC this week.

[chris08876]

I was there yesterday. So hot, it felt like 100 degrees. But anyways, the structure itself looks almost finished. The site definitely looks a lot more organized and is not that big of a mess from the ground level. Just like the picture in the above post, they where welding. On a side note, it is nice that they opened the memorial to the street level without going through that line. Overall, I must say, the site is really becoming a reality. Even though WTC2, and 3 have to go up, in terms of a cleanup job for the rest of the site, its all coming together and doesn't look like the construction mess that it was a year ago.

[Skyguy_7]

^ Nice to read another positive review of the site. I'm staying across the street in a few weeks and can't wait to walk around and feel for myself the new-found openness. By the way, fantastic update DM. The Hub is really going to be incredible.

Another grab from Earthcam. For sense of scale, look at the size of the men walking on these wings. Wow.

[weidncol]

Just wait until the longest rafter goes up on the north side, which will measure ~190 feet.

[Skyguy_7]

^I'll have to see it to believe it.

A 190' "wing" will require 4 flatbed trailers for delivery! Where are these being manufactured and shipped from?

[weidncol]

Not exactly sure, but the large rafters will be cut into sections due to time constraints. West Broadway will be closing soon by the city for water infrastructure improvements, so Skanska had to change up the plan to not get delayed.

[401PAS]

Originally Posted by Skyguy_7

^I'll have to see it to believe it.

A 190' "wing" will require 4 flatbed trailers for delivery! Where are these being manufactured and shipped from?

Behold! The larger ones actually are in two sections and they will be welded together onsite. Most of the "wings" are delivered on double flatbed trailers already.

7-24-2014 1-01-31 PM by 401PAS, on Flickr snapshot of Earthcam.net

[H4vok]

7/29/2014

WTC Transportation Hub by H4vok_13, on Flickr

[Perklol]

New York’s $4B shrine to government waste and idiocy

By Steve Cuozzo August 2, 2014 | 11:00pm


'The Calatrasaurus' aka the monstrosity that will soon serve as the transit hub at the World Trade Center. Photo: J.C. Rice

Here comes The Calatrasaurus — the Port Authority’s “World Trade Center Transportation Hub,” a cyclopean PATH terminal onto which scary “wings” have been grafted like plastic mutant terrors of 1950s sci-fi movies.

Or do the wings, not plastic but steel, suggest teeth whittled down by a sadistic dentist? Or a giant fishbone? The Hub exhausts your capacity for cheap jokes.

With each passing week, the embarrassing ugliness of this $4 billion boondoggle designed by Santiago Calatrava — a hideous waste of public money — grows plain for all to see.

Not everyday-ugly, like a tacky brown tie or dress, but LOL-ugly. What are those spiky “ribs” and “wings” doing next door to 3 World Trade Center and the memorial pools?

What happened to the “bird in flight” we were promised?

The elephantine excess won’t be fully realized until the scheduled opening at the end of 2015.

[....]

And citizens of New York and New Jersey may well ask: The Port Authority, which is scrambling to come up with a mere $90 million to fix the miserable Eighth Avenue bus terminal, spent more than $4 billion on this?

The problem isn’t that the Hub looks different from its neighbors. A work of architecture need not “fit in” to be beautiful. “Contextualism” typically results in pastiche.
When Frank Gehry created the great Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, he was not seeking to mimic its surroundings.

Yet, the wavy-surfaced facade commands its site with the inexpressible eloquence which only a great artist can muster.

But it does not follow from Gehry’s masterpiece that an architect should stick thumbs in the eyes of everything around a new project and say, “Look at me! I’m Calatrava!”

His vision, first unveiled in 2004, was universally hailed. I admit to being an accomplice in this: suckered by captivating renderings and models which suggested a “bird in flight,” I praised the Hub’s “lyrical buoyancy” and “optimistic and resilient aesthetic.”

But the “bird in flight” has bird-and-switched into a sharp-edged stegosaurus shorn of beauty by “value engineering” — the cost-saving strategy which alters or replaces just enough of an architect’s original vision to make it look cheap.

Read more: http://nypost.com/2014/08/02/new-yor...te-and-idiocy/

[weidncol]

Steve Cuozzo is a dumbass. I would rather have an expensive, nice Transit Hub than something like the Penn Station that is nothing more than a one-level transit connection floor. Also, he needs to get his facts straight. The Oculus alone is not what costs 4 billion, that price tag includes EVERYTHING related to it, including transit infrastructure and retail. The WTC Oculus will essentially be connecting three of Lower Manhattan's biggest retail centers; WTC, WFC and Fulton Center, without the need to pay a subway fare.

I'd say what the Port Authority is building here is a damn good investment that will also become an instant icon, while possibly even becoming the best transit/retail center in the U.S.

[Skyguy_7]

^Couldn't agree more. The hub is a temple to transit, urbanity and the American drive to make big plans. This will become an instant icon. It will have more traffic than the Statue of Liberty, and will pay for itself ten-fold by consumers and tourists. You gotta spend money to make money, which is one simple concept this jackass doesn't understand.

[Busy Bee]

New York Post! Haha

[alex1217]

So he praised it when he originally saw the renderings but now he says he hates how it's coming out? Its only half complete and it hasn't even been painted yet so obviously, it doesn't look like the renderings but it will. This guy just wants to stir the pot.