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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.
— nytimes.com
Related on Archinect:Massive 'spine' skylight in Calatrava's WTC Oculus nears completionThere's a chance the Hudson is leaking into the WTC siteNYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputation View full entry
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.
— Wall Street Journal
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... View full entry
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.
— dnainfo.com
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... View full entry
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 [...].
— nytimes.com
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:NYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputationHow Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center... View full entry
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.”
— wsj.com
Previously:NYMag talks to Santiago Calatrava about his WTC Station, budget, reputationHow Cost of Train Station at World Trade Center Swelled to $4 BillionLegal Troubles Dog Famed Spanish Architect Santiago CalatravaPATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station View full entry
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.” — nymag.com
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.”
— nytimes.com
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... View full entry
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! — NY Magazine
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. View full entry
“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 — NYT
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... View full entry
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
— Better Out than In
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.
— newyorker.com
Previously: 1 World Trade Center Will Not Be 1,776 Feet After All View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — bldgblog.blogspot.com
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.
— news.blogs.cnn.com
