Britons unveil 'new World Trade Centre'
The three towers should be completed by 2012
Also In The News
|
Hundreds of scientists are gathering for the seventh day of the British Association for the Advancement of Science's (BA) annual festival of science. |  |
Friday, 08, Sep 2006 12:04
Just days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the US, two British architects have unveiled their vision for a new Manhattan skyline.
The original twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were destroyed when two planes were flown into them in 2001 and debate has raged as to how best to rebuild the site.
But yesterday three renowned architects, including Lord Norman Foster and Lord Richard Rogers, came together in New York to reveal their designs for three towers that will be built on the site of Ground Zero.
The designs, also dreamt up by Japan's Fumihiko Maki, will see three towers take up the entire length of the east side of the World Trade Centre site, while the landmark Freedom Tower will occupy centre stage.
A transportation hub has already been built, as well as a small tower at 7 World Trade Centre, but the main redevelopment of the site has still not got out of the planning stages.
But the vivid images of the future skyline revealed at a special unveiling yesterday, attended by New York governor George Pataki, New York state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and site developer Larry Silverstein, are designed to bring hope to the city.
The three new towers "will form a descending spiral toward" the September 11th memorial garden and will also include 6.2 million square feet of office space and half a million square feet of retail space.
"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," Mr Pataki said.
He added: "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 an entirety that will be even richer in its beauty and more extraordinary in its entirety than the sum of its parts."
Lord Foster's tower will be a 78-story building on 200 Greenwich Street and will rise to 1,254 feet, containing office and retail space. It will dominate the skyline with a sloping roof split into four diamond shapes.
"The crystalline top of the tower respects the master plan and bows down to the Memorial Park commemorating the tragic events that unfolded here," the British peer, who also designed the Swiss Re tower, or Gherkin, in London.
"But it is also a powerful symbol of hope for the future."
Lord Rogers, whose tower will be 71 storeys high (1,155 feet), also used the diamond symbolism, and uses a structural load-sharing system of diamond-shaped bracing for his design on 175 Greenwich Street.
Mr Maki's angular 61-story tower will take its place on 150 Greenwich Street and has been described as "minimal, light, cool in colour and ephemeral, changing with the light of day".
The new designs are due to be completed by 2012, which will be 11 years after 2,749 people died on the site of the original World Trade Centre.