Archinect - News

New renderings leak of Foster + Partners' upgraded redesign for 2 World Trade Center

2022-02-16T19:12:00-05:00

A revised version of one of the world’s most high-profile architectural projects by Foster + Partners is now being circulated online as new renderings have surfaced that depict the firm’s upgraded Two World Trade Center design.

The London-based firm was added back onto the development team in January 2020 after developers Silverstein Properties officially nixed a concept from Bjarke Ingels Group that had been on the docket since replacing Foster's original design in 2015. Since then, Silverstein has been in pursuit of the anchor tenants necessary to provide the confidence to commit to the entirely-private development.

Rendering by Visualhouse

The final piece of the renewed 16-acre World Trade Center site will now stand some 1,350 feet above the Oculus and 9/11 Memorial site and quartet of other office towers designed David Childs, Richard Rogers, Fumihiko Maki, and Kohn Pedersen Fox, respectively. The foundation of the building has already been completed, givi...

Activists in NYC call for affordable alternatives to KPF's 5 WTC

2022-01-24T18:04:00-05:00

The fight for affordable housing in New York City has come to one of Lower Manhattan’s most important developments in recent memory.

An online petition organized by the New York Review of Architecture and Citygroup has been circulating that appears to call for a 75% increase in the number of affordable units in the 900-foot 5 World Trade Center. The document, titled 100% Affordable, pressed developers to do away with the current plan, which designates 300 of the development’s 1,200 rental units for tenants earning less than 50 percent of the median income, in favor of a more progressive scheme that would prioritize 9/11 survivors and frontline workers in an alternative to the recently-approved KPF design.

“This is not an abstract, pie-in-the-sky call for ideas,” the group’s statement reads. “This call is structured around the actual approval process for the tower. The developers backing the current proposal claim that this degree of affordability is untenable given the enormous con...

A look back at Archinect on September 11th, 2001

2021-09-11T20:02:00-04:00

I was staying at a friend’s apartment in the heart of Hollywood on the evening of September 10th, 2001. I had to wake up unnaturally early the next morning to move my car to avoid getting a parking ticket. I vividly recall the eery feeling squeezed into the tiny old elevator as I descended the building with more neighbors than I would have expected to be awake at that hour. Nobody said anything. I could tell something was off. The moment I got into my car the radio quickly caught me up. In fact, it was right at the moment the second plane hit the towers… a little after the 6 am deadline to move my car out of the streetcleaner’s way. I don’t remember re-parking my car or returning to the apartment, but I clearly remember spending the next many hours jumping between the television, my phone, and my computer, taking in the horror and working it out with friends, family, and colleagues in real-time.

Screenshot of Archinect from September 2001

Archinect was only 4 years old at that time....

BIG-designed WTC tower booted for Foster + Partners revamp

2020-01-16T16:01:00-05:00

Back in 2015, Foster + Partners' design was shelved for a more favorable by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). At the time, it looked like News Corporation and 21st Century Fox were slated to lease the building but backed out a year later. "Now that BIG’s quirky tower of stacked boxes has no takers, the old Foster design is being 'significantly modified to be more reflective of contemporary needs and taste,'" said developer Larry Silverstein, according to the New York Post.

Norman Foster's original proposal for Two World Trade Center via 2015

Foster's initial design didn't fit the needs for the two media giants, which prompted the redesign by BIG, which focused specifically on the needs of these tenants. As tenants fill up the existing towers, Silverstein's next focus will be acquiring tenants for Tower 2, which he's suggested might begin construction without first signing some. But, as the New York Post reports, "if he wants a tenant first, a new Foster design might be just the thing to...

Santiago Calatrava's Greek Orthodox church at World Trade Center site to restart construction

2020-01-07T16:26:00-05:00

Two years after a lack of funds halted construction of a marble-clad Greek Orthodox church at New York's World Trade Center site, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Greek Orthodox officials announced plans Thursday to resume construction with the goal of finishing the rebuilding by the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The troubled Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center appears to have received the blessing from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after the project fell victim to acute cost overruns and had to eventually halt construction in December 2017.

Rendering of the proposed church. Image: Santiago Calatrava/Greek Orthodox Church in America

Under the leadership of the newly formed Friends of St. Nicholas organization, church leaders aim to finish the building by September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

"The new entity has been formed to ensure that the sacred space is completed as expeditiously as possible and can begin welcoming visitors from around the world," explains a statement issued by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America after Cuomo's meeting with Archbishop Elpidophoros on Thursday. "The Friends of St. Nicholas will aim to resume construction with a two-year target to complete th...

Final World Trade Center Site Will be Sold Soon

2019-06-07T16:22:00-04:00

Two state agencies that had been embroiled in a yearslong impasse over how to develop the last site at the World Trade Center appear to have resolved their differences and are planning to bring the parcel to market. The Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. have reached a deal to release a request for proposals in the coming months for 5 World Trade Center

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) head Holly Leicht explained in a meeting that "after quite a lengthy period of time of negotiation, we executed a memorandum of understanding with the Port, the LMDC and the city to move forward on an RFP for Site 5, which will be our last major site to develop," adding, "The reason for the appraisal now is because there's a base value the Port wants to get for the land."

Though the site is currently zoned exclusively for commercial development, LMDC will accept proposals for either commercial or residential uses for the site. The group is expected to issue a Request for Proposals for the site over coming weeks.

Skylight at Calatrava's WTC Oculus reportedly leaking

2019-05-13T13:29:00-04:00

The skylight that crowns the spiky, $3.9 billion World Trade Center Oculus has sprung a leak. A rubber seal that runs along the spine of the retractable skyline is believed to have ripped during its opening and closing on the 2018 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Some $30,000 by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was spent this winter to repair the tear using black strips of Flex Tape, but the skylight at the massive transportation hub and shopping mall leaked again on May 5," Curbed summarizes the WSJ's account.

The Santiago Calatrava-designed—and not entirely uncontroversial—Oculus opened to the public on March 3, 2016 and has had repeated leaking issues during construction.

Calatrava-designed Greek Orthodox church at World Trade Center site runs into funding issues, halts construction

2017-12-18T15:33:00-05:00

Construction at the site of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox National Shrine at Ground Zero in New York City has been halted by the main construction company because the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has defaulted on payments, according to a letter sent by the company to its subcontractors working at the site.

Image: Greek Orthodox Church in America

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America acknowledged the payment issues and responded in a statement: "In light of recent financial difficulties at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and in order to make certain that all operations and funds are being correctly managed, this difficult yet necessary step has been taken. The Archdiocese is confidently hopeful that construction will recommence in the very near future and has been assured by Skanska —the construction company responsible for building the church— that they are looking forward to the rescinding of this temporary suspension to continue working together in cooperation with the Archdiocese for the completion of the building project."

Image: Greek Orthodox Church in America

3 World Trade Center celebrates topping out

2016-06-24T13:12:00-04:00

In a ceremony packed with construction workers, news crews, and real estate folk, the final bucket of concrete made its way to the top of 3 World Trade Center, marking the topping out of this 1,079-foot supertall tower. The 80-story building was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and spans 2.5 million square feet. Once complete in 2018, it will be the fifth tallest tower in New York City.

↑ Silverstein Properties Chairman Larry A. Silverstein (right) and Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Executive Director Pat Foye at the topping out ceremony signing the final bucket of concrete.

↑ This rendering shows what the completed 1,079-ft tower will look like.

"It looks like a dove. Or a carcass": Christopher Hawthorne on Calatrava's Transportation Hub

2016-03-23T13:25:00-04:00

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey...has been so chastened by the cost overruns and construction delays that it declined to hold even a modest ribbon-cutting. When a bureaucracy turns down a major opportunity to pat itself on the back, you know things have turned sour. Turned acid, really. Still, everyone seems to agree that the main hall, which stretches beneath a glass and white-steel roof and which Calatrava calls the Oculus, is beautiful. But I didn't find it beautiful...

"...at least not in the way that Calatrava's finest work, fluid and precise, often is. I found it structurally overwrought and emotionally underwhelming, straining for higher meaning, eager to wring some last drops of mournful power from a site that is already crammed with official, semi-official and indirect memorials."

For related coverage of Santiago Calatrava's $4B "elaborate headstone in the crowded ground zero graveyard," as Hawthorne calls it, check out these links:

$4 billion later, Calatrava's eye-candy transit hub opens

2016-03-03T12:56:00-05:00

The hub opens on Thursday, or at least a part of it is opening, including most of the main hall, or Oculus, as it’s called. And at first blush, Mr. Calatrava’s architecture can almost — almost — make you forget what an epic boondoggle the whole thing has been. That virgin view, standing inside the Oculus and gazing up, is a jaw-dropper.

For a blow-by-blow of how Santiago Calatrava's transit hub came to be, check out Archinect's previous coverage:

Port Authority officially confirms March opening date for WTC Transportation Hub Oculus

2016-01-19T13:21:00-05:00

Sure, the news was all but confirmed, but today the Port Authority made it official: The transit org announced that the World Trade Center Transportation Hub—anchored by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's Oculus—will officially open in "the first week of March," per a press release. [...] What that actually means for commuters: There will finally be a link between the World Trade Center PATH station and 11 NYC subway lines, along with the East River ferries.

Read the Port Authority's announcement in full here.

The WTC Transportation Hub previously in the Archinect news:

Rupert Murdoch suddenly pulls out of 2 World Trade Center deal

2016-01-18T17:48:00-05:00

Rupert Murdoch has dropped his plans to relocate 21st Century Fox and News Corp. to 2 World Trade Center. In a statement issued Friday afternoon, World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein declared himself “disappointed” by the news. [...] In June, the two media companies signed a letter of intent with Silverstein to occupy 1.5 million square feet for 30 years at a 2 World Trade Center designed by architect Bjarke Ingels.

2 WTC previously in the Archinect news:

2 World Trade Center receives $9M rent assistance from Port Authority to expedite project

2015-12-15T13:14:00-05:00

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved subsidies to help expedite the construction of lower Manhattan’s 2 World Trade Center [...]. Developer Silverstein Properties Inc., which leases the sites for 2 World Trade Center and two other towers from the Port Authority, would receive a rent break that amounts to $9 million over the life of the lease [...]. The agency had previously maintained that 2 World Trade would be built entirely without public assistance.

Previously in the Archinect news:

REX Revealed as the Architects Redesigning the $200M WTC Performing Arts Complex

2015-11-20T11:22:00-05:00

Since July, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) has been working with an anonymous architectural firm to hash out a new concept for the Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, and now, nearly five months later, the Performing Arts Center board has finally released the name of the lead architect: Brooklyn-based studio REX led by Joshua Prince-Ramus, a former protégé starchitect Rem Koolhaas.

Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mall

2015-11-16T15:54:00-05:00

A persistent water leak is among the problems that have delayed the opening of the mall, which was supposed to be operating by now, to the first half of 2016. It is the latest setback to bedevil the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the $3.7 billion rail terminal that will also house Westfield’s $1.4 billion shopping center. [...] The latest twist involves water penetration around the construction site of 3 World Trade Center, an office tower abutting the hub, which began in late summer.

Related on Archinect:

Changes to WTC Performing-Arts Center announced yet again

2015-11-06T12:21:00-05:00

The [Lower Manhattan Development Corp's] latest take envisions a roughly 80,000-square-foot building, rising three to four stories aboveground, where new works of theater, dance, music and digital art would be produced, said the center’s director, Maggie Boepple. Over the past few months, center officials have been working with consultants and an unnamed architectural firm to revamp the plan.

The new plan for the center won't be formally unveiled until the next board meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. However, this smaller, less expensive version is still expected to function as a "a gathering place for downtown residents" according to Catherine McVay Hughes, chairwoman of Community Board 1.

For Archinect's coverage of the WTC PAC, do check out:

• Frank Gehry’s Design for the WTC Performing Arts Center Gets Dumped by Officials

There's a chance the Hudson is leaking into the WTC site

2015-08-25T13:31:00-04:00

An underground leak has been discovered within the World Trade Center complex — and officials fear the seepage may be coming from the slurry wall that separates the newly rebuilt Ground Zero site from the Hudson River [...] They fear that the slurry wall may not have been properly insulated, allowing water to seep through it, sources said. [...] The wall’s emotional significance was immortalized when a portion was left exposed inside the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

The Port Authority of New York maintains that there aren't any known issues with the slurry wall, but that engineering and construction officials were called in to follow up on workers' reports that they heard water rushing "behind the walls of lower concourses of the complex".

More news on and around the WTC site:

Massive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completion

2015-07-20T14:35:00-04:00

Santiago Calatrava said the roof would open. And evidently it will. On Friday morning, a 5,700-pound glass panel was hoisted into place as a 355-foot-long operable skylight took final form in the Oculus pavilion of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, designed by Mr. Calatrava. Another panel went up in the afternoon. Those are among the last of 996 pieces of blast-resistant glass to have been installed at the Oculus since March 15. The glazing should be finished on Monday [...].

Here are some more photos of the skylight's construction progress in the past few weeks (courtesy of WTC Progress).

More about the WTC Transportation Hub in the Archinect news:

Calatrava: "I have been treated like a dog."

2015-05-20T14:30:00-04:00

In the U.S., he isn’t getting asked to compete for new projects at all, he said, amid criticism of the rail project’s delays and costs. [...] These overruns and years of delay have taken a toll on Mr. Calatrava’s reputation, with local press and some observers painting him as an architect prone to overruns—a point he believes is quite unfair. “It has not been easy for me,” he said. After living in the city for 12 years and feeling pride in the city, “I have been treated like a dog.”

Previously:

NYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputation

2015-03-12T13:41:00-04:00

Calatrava told me that it wasn’t his job to monitor the budget. “It is very difficult,” he said. “I have never estimated anything in this project, because there was a whole team, maybe 25 people, working the whole time on cost estimation and cost control. But I kept looking at those fellows and telling them this is like geology: You only know what you have under your feet when you excavate.”

How Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center Swelled to $4 Billion

2014-12-03T14:20:00-05:00

The current, temporary trade center station serves... only 10,000 more than use the unassuming 33rd Street PATH terminal in Midtown Manhattan. In fact, the hub, or at least its winged “Oculus” pavilion, could turn out to be more of a high-priced mall than a transportation nexus, attracting more shoppers than commuters. The company operating the mall, Westfield Corporation, promises in a promotional video that it will be “the most alluring retail landmark in the world.”

Apple 2 campus taking shape, NCARB names names, and cities sell out: News Round-Up for September 2, 2014

2014-09-09T18:04:00-04:00

Friday, September 5:

Beijing public transit commuters can now pay fares with empty bottles: Beijingers can insert a recyclable bottle and receive equivalent rebates in train fares or mobile phone credits.
Community Bus Stops Transform Brazil: Thousands of Brazil's bus stops are unmarked, leading fed-up residents to install their own signage under the Que Ônibus Passa Aqui? (Which Bus Stops Here?) program, one of the world's biggest community projects.
Town Becomes a Beer Ad, but Residents Don’t Feel Like a Party: Crested Butte, Colorado, population 1,500, was outfitted for a three-day party to publicize Bud Light, with 1,000 partiers vetted and shipped in by Anheuser-Busch. The town's Mayor agreed to host the party to the tune of $500,000, in part to help boost the town's mostly tourist economy during the difficult "shoulder" season between summer and winter.
Gehry's Revised Eisenhower Memorial Loses Two Controversial Tapestries, But Concerns Remain: Nitpicking continues over the Memori...

Atop Tower One aka 1 World Trade Center

2014-01-06T13:41:00-05:00

It’s okay that all this impeccably tailored corporate design glosses over the past and hides the saga of destruction, dismantlement, and rebuilding. The site is becoming so blessedly normal!

With Four World Trade Center open and One World Trade Center nearly complete, Justin Davidson recently visited the WTC to survey the results of almost a decade of politics, wrangling and construction and took with a visit to the top.

NYC's Liberty Park comes into view

2013-11-25T11:34:00-05:00

“They have taken what could have been a barren rooftop and turned it into much needed public space for the community...Because it’s elevated, it’s out of the flow of the street...There’ll be a sense of calm". - Catherine McVay Hughes, chairwoman of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan

David W Dunlap reports that although plans for Liberty Park have been mostly unknown till now, last month images of St. Nicholas Church and Liberty Park appeared on the website of the architect Santiago Calatrava, who is designing the church. The park was rendered in sufficient detail that it was possible for the first time to understand its basic design. The principal designer is Joseph E. Brown, a landscape architect who is the chief innovation officer at Aecom.

Banksy's unpublished NYT op-ed declares new WTC is the biggest eyesore in New York

2013-10-27T23:21:00-04:00

Today’s piece was going to be an op-ed column in the New York Times. But they declined to publish what I supplied. Which was this... - Banksy

Daniel Libeskind's World Trade Center Change of Heart

2013-08-29T17:36:00-04:00

1 World Trade Center, the iconic Ground Zero skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower, this summer became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by some measures. It’s not, however, the building that Daniel Libeskind, the site’s master planner, conceived of over a decade ago. [...] But as the opening of 1 World Trade Center approaches, a curious thing has happened. Libeskind has quietly transformed into one of the site’s most ardent boosters.

Previously: 1 World Trade Center Will Not Be 1,776 Feet After All

Editor's Picks #315

2013-05-14T08:00:00-04:00

News
Robin Pogrebin reported that following wide-ranging protests, the Museum of Modern Art has selected the design firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to re-examine it’s planned expansion including whether to keep any of the existing American Folk Art Museum. Scott Gustafon was somewhat relieved "I believe that Tod Williams and Ricardo Scofidio are old friends, so this is a step in the right direction" and Lian Chikako Chang deadpanned "Pretty sure that DSR can handle staggered floorplates". Added Darkman "There is room behind the museum... you could install very gradual ramps or something. Additionally, i'd like to see the facade brought out to the sidewalk to open up the building--not sure how to do that though... ha. Or replace with semi-transparent glazing in the same pattern and shape. Would be cool to see it glow".

Bustler.net showcased Parabola Chair by Los Angeles-based architect and product designer Carlo Aiello, winner of the 2013 ICFF Studio Award. The chair will be e...

Beautiful photo of sky cranes at WTC site, by BLDGBLOG's Geoff Manaugh

2013-05-08T12:34:00-04:00

When I walked out to get breakfast this morning, clouds had obscured all but the topmost workings of the 1 World Trade Center site, visible through our living room window—a strange vision of machines, pulleys, cranes, and gears sort of hovering in the sky, like something out of Archigram by way of Hayao Miyazaki.

One World Trade Center to become NYC's tallest building...today!

2012-04-30T13:28:00-04:00

More than a decade after a terrorist attack brought down New York's twin towers, their under-construction replacement will become the city's tallest building on Monday. The placement of a column of the 100th floor will bring the colossal new steel structure of One World Trade Center tower to a height of 1,271 feet – surpassing the frame of the Empire State Building, which is currently New York's tallest skyscraper, by 21 feet.