Katherine Rushton of The Telegraph shares her experience touring the new One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Americas, prior to its opening.
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| One World Trade Centre, left, and the view from the top, right |
It is the coldest day Manhattan has seen for more than 70 years, but it is not
the biting, whipping, whistling wind that brings tears to my eyes. All of
New York is laid out before me.
The Empire State Building, once the tallest structure in the world, pokes up
above the rest of Manhattan looking like one of the thousands of plastic
replicas sold in the tourist shops below. The building I stand on, at the
southern tip of the island, casts a dark shadow that stretches to the other
side of Houston, two and a half miles north.
This is One World Trade Center, or the "Freedom Tower" as it used to be known,
erected close to the site of the original World Trade Center complex which
was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.
It has taken 26,000 people eight years to build the new complex, which has
gone over schedule and over budget several times. The tower itself was
originally expected to cost around $3bn, but that figure now stands just shy
of $4bn.
The building is close to completion, however. It was topped out in August
2012, and a “spire” was later attached, taking its overall height to 1776
feet –a good 400 feet more than the original Twin Towers.
Last year, it was officially recognised as the tallest building in the Western
Hemisphere, following considerable controversy over whether the spire was an
adornment or “integral” to the building.
The first tenants have now started to move into their offices. The mirrored,
cubist edifice is expected to open later this year, finally restoring to the
public a part of the city that has been out of bounds since 9/11.
“It’s a huge step — it’s no longer ground zero, it’s the World Trade Center
now,” said Douglas Durst, whose company, the Durst Organization, has bought
a stake in the building from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“It’s been surrounded for 12 years by barricades, inaccessible. This is going
to make a dramatic difference.”
Around 55pc of the building has been let so far, to tenants including Conde
Nast, the publisher of magazines such as Vogue and Wired and Vantone
Industrial, the Chinese property group.
Talks with finance and media companies are still ongoing, and Durst estimates
it will reach around 70pc occupancy by the time the building opens.
Legends Hospitality Group has taken the observatory desk on the 101st and
102nd floors, around 1,300 feet above ground. The whole building promises to
be a big business - the Empire State Building made $63m in profits last
year.
But of course, One World Trade Center will attract tourists for more than just
its spectacular view.
The building is inextricably linked with one of the most horrific acts of
terrorism in the world, and is likely to become a place of pilgrimage for
Americans who want to pay tribute to those that died in the atrocity.
There are delicate nods to the Twin Towers throughout the building. In the
cavernous entrance hall, the walls are lined with white marble slabs from
the same quarry used to decorate the first World Trade Center.
With the nostalgia, however, comes a fear that the new building could become a
target once again. Its design has been through a number of revisions with
this in mind.
The original architect, Daniel Libeskind, proposed dedicating the upper floors
to a series of “sky gardens”, so that offices would be restricted to the
lower floors. The eventual structure, adapted and designed by David Childs,
includes a 57m concrete pedestal to ward off terrorist attacks from ground
level.
Inside, the walls and floors are very thick: 14,000lbs of concrete per square
inch, compared to the 900lbs that is standard for skyscrapers. There is a
waterproof fire lift, and lifts and multiple stairways are housed in a
reinforced column “like a bunker”.
Wall Street gossips claim there are missile launchers on the roof, although
the building’s developers are quick to scotch that rumour.
“The safest place to be in any incident in New York will be One World Trade
Center. It is the safest building on the planet,” says Mr Durst.
What about if another plane is hijacked? “There is no building safe from a
plane,” he says, adding that tight security on aircrafts means the odds of
anyone emulating the attack that destroyed the Twin Towers are very slim
indeed.
Even so, the building’s developers are offering tenants an extra carrot. The
rate for the lower two thirds of the building is $75 per square foot per
year, but the city and state of New York are offering incentives that reduce
that figure to $69.
Larry Silverstein, the property developer who owned the lease on the World
Trade Center complex in 2001, has recouped his money from the insurers. It
now falls to the publicly-funded Port Authority, which long ago gave up hope
that this would be a money-spinner, even in the medium term.
If it was fully occupied, at market rate, One World Trade Center would garner
around $120m a year, and take around 35 years to recoup the costs of
construction.
But, as one of the workers on site says, that’s hardly the point. “This
building wasn’t built to make money. It was built to demonstrate something
to the world.”
Peter Forchetti heads Pleasant Village Estates Inc., a construction and development company headquartered in New York. Learn more about Mr. Forchetti and his firm here.
