BIG gets a shot

holy crap

this is what will play inside the elevator to the top of WTC1.

happening right now.

two windowwashers are dangling off the side of 1WTC. one of their wires broke.

these photos are pretty dramatic. here's a live feed.

the weather report

Lightning strikes One World Trade Center as the sun sets http://t.co/D1I7krAaNj via @Lucas_Jackson_/@reuterspictures pic.twitter.com/RULzeiQ08d

— NBC News Pictures (@NBCNewsPictures) July 3, 2014

holy moly.

have y'all been hearing about those guys who turned themselves in this week for basejumping off WTC1 last year? here's their helmet cam video. nothing happens til around 2:30 when everything happens. mostly just creepy!

nErD aLeRt!

toot toooOOOooOoOooootttTtt!!!

guess who's finally 1776 feet tall!!

boring.

NASA answers all your questions about that Russian meteor

I'm not some kind of paranoid freak, but I do believe that WTC tower 7 was a controlled demolition and I find it very difficult to believe that two space rocks happened to arrive within hours of each other. via

BRANDY! SHOW ME THE NOTE!

the view from a robot penis

(via)

WTC1 just keeps getting worse and worse

What the city ended up with as a replacement to the original World Trade Center towers is safe and bland, and while you might have thought it couldn't get any worse, it will.  In an effort to save 20 million dollars, The Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have decided to discard the steel and fiberglass shell, designed in collaboration with sculptor Kenneth Snelson, encasing the broadcast antenna atop Tower One.  The Durst Organization has claimed that maintaining and repairing the antenna enclosure would be too difficult and expensive.  Architect David Childs said:

“We are disappointed that a decision has been made to remove the sculptural enclosure at the top of 1 World Trade Center...Eliminating this integral part of the building’s design and leaving an exposed antenna and equipment is unfortunate. We stand ready to work with the port on an alternate design that will still mark the 1 World Trade Center’s place in New York City’s skyline.”

Not only will this change take away the only mildly interesting element of the design, it will also likely negate WTC1's status as the tallest building in the country since the unclad broadcast antenna will not be classified as a spire, and therefore cannot be included in the total height of the structure according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.  The Council will wait to make a final ruling on the height of the structure until it is complete on 2014, but if they ultimately decide the antenna cannot be considered, the total height of Tower One will be 1,368 feet (see below, C2E).

Here's what some idiot commenters over at the Wall Street Journal had to say:

 

While someone at the New York Times insisted it's not too late to get back on the right track and just rebuild replicas of the original towers in the two remaining empty lots.

[NYT]

christmas freedom

c2e.

sounds like they might have figured it out : WTC1

The architect of 1 World Trade Center has finally devised a way to clad the concrete base of the tower in shimmery glass. The breakthrough comes after technical problems forced designers to abandon an earlier glass-sheathing plan last spring, sources said.


Architect David Childs had wanted to encase the 185-foot-tall base in prismatic glass panels to disguise the thick, windowless fortified concrete that is one of the tower's signature safety elements. The idea was to have it not look like a bunker. The massive concrete base means that office space in the 1,776-foot tower doesn't start until the 20th floor. The challenge then was to create a facade that suggested movement, life and light where none existed. However, the panels of prismatic glass, which were designed to reflect light, were not only difficult to make: As it turned out, they also shattered easily. 


 Now, sources said the base will be covered with glass louvers that are set at different angles on the base and lit from behind, creating an inviting atmosphere that would also reflect the nearby memorial honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The glass is treated so it would pebble instead of shatter in case of an explosion, much like a car windshield does in a severe accident.

Read more

that reminds me...

ctm

read this

youve probably read an article much like this before, but with the memorial opening shortly it is an interesting time to pause and consider the history of the massive costruction site / graveyard / symbol / office building / masterplan / real estate downtown.

9/11 memorial

you can now reserve passes to visit the 9/11 memorial, which opens this year on the 10th anniversary. click.

freedom fridayz

it's july 4th weekend. michele bachmann is making a strong showing in the polls. hugo chavez has cancer. glenn beck has his own tv network? (wtf) it's high time we get a freedom tower update!

Look who's the tallest building downtown now! Who's on top, and who's on bottom now?

statue of liberty!

conde nast : nightmare tenant

Conde Nast spent millions when it hired Frank Gehry to design its cafeteria in its current headquarters at 4 Times Square -- but the big bucks spent on its upcoming move to 1 World Trade Center will be used for something a little bit different.

The glitzy publishing giant is spending up to $1 million for a huge ventilation shaft that will poke through the façade of the north face of the glass tower at 1 WTC so that the Condé Nast cafeteria can have its own exhaust outlet, rather than tie in to the central flue used by the rest of the tenants that will run up the center of the building.
...
Originally, Condé Nast wanted to blast through the shortest distance and out the southern wall, which some sources felt would have marred the aesthetics of the sheer glass façade overlooking the memorial.

The vent will be huge, about one story high and up to 25 feet wide, and would be visible from the ground. Sources said that originally PA Executive Director Chris Ward was going to nix the special exhaust vent, but eventually agreed to let Condé Nast have a special vent. However, it had to be on the north side, which will point toward Midtown. (via)

just ridiculous.

freedom fridayz

because monday is just as good.

here's a current skyline pic. with arrows for guidance.

red - frank o. gehry's beekman tower - get your curvy rental now!

blue - cranes of the rising wtc tower 4

orange - freedom tower aka 1 wtc - gettin real close to the top of the skyline and only half the floors are done

so that's where it went!

the world trade center construction workers found my old-old-wooden-ship and my shoe that i misplaced in the 18th century!

On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future World Trade Center hit a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells.
...
By Wednesday, the outlines made it plain: a 30-foot length of a wood-hulled vessel had been discovered about 20 to 30 feet below street level on the World Trade Center site, the first such large-scale archaeological find along the Manhattan waterfront since 1982, when an 18th-century cargo ship came to light at 175 Water Street.


The area under excavation, between Liberty and Cedar Streets, had not been dug out for the original trade center. The vessel, presumably dating from the mid- to late 1700s, was evidently undisturbed more than 200 years.

thx guys! i'll come by and get those after work!

how emBEARassing.

the new york times city room section invited graphic designers to submit ideas for the new world trade center (tower 1) logo. along with some really bad serious submissions, it looks like they got their fair share of smart-ass responses. ctm.

nErD aLeRt!

will you look at that stupid thing?

when are they going to build the new world trade center?
The steel framework for the south core of 1 World Trade Center has reached more than 100 feet above Vesey Street. The north pool of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is taking visible shape. And by the end of the month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey expects to have placed an order for 22,000 tons of steel to build the World Trade Center Transportation Hub.