Environment DEC
From the October 2006 issue
New World Trade Center Designs Seek High Environmental Rating
Governor George E. Pataki, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, World Trade Center Developer Larry A. Silverstein and architects Lord Norman Foster, Lord Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki gathered at 7 World Trade Center recently to unveil designs for the three World Trade Center (WTC) towers that will rise along a reintroduced Greenwich Street on the site's eastern edge, forming what will be the heart of a revitalized downtown Manhattan's retail, transportation and office corridor.
The Three Different Designs Form an Extraordinary Harmony
Governor Pataki (center) reviews the plans of the three world-renowned architects
"As the world stood transfixed on how Americans and New Yorkers would respond to the worst attacks on American soil, we dared to dream big and think bold. We selected the visionary master site plan by Daniel Libeskind that placed the memorial to our nearly 3,000 lost heroes at its heart. That inspired plan not only remains intact, but will be nearly realized by 2012," Governor Pataki said. "Today, three brilliant architects from around the globe have given New York and the nation a great gift in the tremendous buildings they have designed. Like our great city, these tower designs, joined by the Freedom Tower, Calatrava Transportation Hub and grand memorial, will fuse different approaches and perspectives, and create a complex that will be even richer in its beauty and more extraordinary in its entirety than the sum of its parts."
High LEED Rating Sought
In keeping with the model established by 7 World Trade Center and the Freedom Tower, the three Greenwich Street towers will serve as the paradigm of modern skyscrapers in terms of environmental quality, life safety and technology. Silverstein Properties has committed to ensuring that each of the towers will achieve at least a gold rating, as did the recently completed 7 World Trade Center, under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The three towers also will incorporate a wide range of life safety features that go far beyond New York City building code.
The three towers and the Santiago Calatrava-designed Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Transportation Hub will occupy the length of the east side of the World Trade Center site. In keeping with the Libeskind master plan for the site, the towers will form a descending spiral toward the memorial and will include 6.2 million square feet of office space and a half million square feet of interconnected and contiguous first-class retail.
The three towers were designed to seamlessly integrate with what will be newly created pedestrian thoroughfares along the reconnected grid at Cortlandt and Dey Streets, the WTC Transportation Hub, which sits between the towers at 200 and 175 Greenwich, and the rest of the downtown neighborhood, including the Fulton Street Transit Center.
Silverstein Properties has committed to commencing construction as soon as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for excavation of the area, turns over buildable sites. According to the new World Trade Center timetable, all three towers will be completed by 2012.
