Archinect - News

Calatrava's WTC Oculus continues to leak

2019-09-26T14:07:00-04:00

Few things are as embarrassing for an architect than having a building you’ve designed spring a leak.

Unfortunately for Santiago Calatrava, that is exactly what's happened at the World Trade Center Oculus, a $3.9 billion transit hub built to memorialize the September 11th terrorist attacks. The transit center and subterranean mall contained within the hub are topped by a sculptural pavilion that is itself capped by a 355-foot skylight. The skylight, made up of a dozen glass panels that are designed to open mechanically every year to mark each anniversary of the attacks, has been leaking since at least 2017.

In 2018, according to The Wall Street Journal, a rubber seal that runs along the length of the roof ruptured as the skylight was opened for the annual remembrance ceremonies. Officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have spent over $50,000 since attempting to repair the tear, and plan on spending at least $200,000 more to seal the entire skylight with a waterp...

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.

What goes down, must come up?

2017-12-19T12:10:00-05:00

Dan Becker, president of the Safe Climate Campaign, told E&E News that "a sewer problem at HQ headquarters has resulted in poop exploding out of water fountains."

In a somewhat unusual, and fitting turn of events, the EPA's offices are beginning to speak up and not necessarily in the most conventional way. The building itself has found its mode of most eloquent communication by using sewer plumbing inadequacies to flood the Washington offices with black, excrement-filled water that is emanating from water fountains throughout the building.

Considering the EPA's persistent urge to do away with Obama-era protections aimed at providing drinkable water to Americans, it seems only fitting for the EPA to find themselves in its current predicament. As they say, you have made your bed, now lie in it.

Leaked government draft report finds that U.S. is already impacted by climate change

2017-08-09T14:30:00-04:00

A draft government report on climate says the U.S. is already experiencing the consequences of global warming. The findings sharply contrast with statements by President Trump and some members of his Cabinet, who have sought to downplay the changing climate. The document, which was leaked ahead of publication and reported by The New York Times on Tuesday, says Americans are seeing more heat waves and rainfall as a result of climate change.

The draft report confirms previous assessments that global warming, as observed over the past decades, is indeed caused by human activity, and climate change is already showing affects on the United States' weather and economy.

"That statement is directly at odds with statements from Trump and key Cabinet members," NPR reports. "The head of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has said there is "tremendous disagreement" on the impact humans have had on the climate. And in June, Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from so-called Paris agreement on climate change, which is the main international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Click here to read the draft of the climate change report in full.

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:

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: