After stalling for years, the $243 million World Trade Center Performing Arts Center started to make headway in recent months, and now Silverstein Properties have revealed the official renderings. With the help of billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman's $75 million gift, the 90,000-square-foot marble cube designed by REX will both stand out as an impressive piece of cultural architecture and co-exists with the other structures on the WTC complex. — 6sqft

Perelman recently stepped down as Chairman of Carnegie Hall after butting heads with staff and other board members and pushing for the institution to present more pop music. He hopes to fulfill this at the World Trade Center, stating, “I would hope it is the first venue of choice for the Bruce Springsteens and the Bon Jovis and the Yo-Yo Mas and the Lang Langs, and at the same time it’s a place where we could have produced a “Hamilton” project or where we could produce a new ballet.” — 6sqft

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. — Curbed NY

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... — the Los Angeles Times

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. — The New York Times

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. — ny.curbed.com

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. — capitalnewyork.com

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. — bloomberg.com

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. — 6sqft

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

He has coined a punning term, BIGamy, to describe his own up-for-anything style. He rejects the idea that an architect must adhere to a single personal aesthetic, which enables him to be cheerfully flexible in meeting the demands of corporate clients. Ingels’ creative impulse to say yes to everything, even contradictions, often leads him into hybridism. — wired.com

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

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