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One World Trade Center, abbreviated as 1 WTC and sometimes called by its previous name Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 104-story supertall skyscraper is being constructed in the northwest corner of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, occupying the location where the original 8-story 6 World Trade Center once stood. The building is bounded to the west by West Street, to the north by Vesey Street, to the south by Fulton Street, and to the east by Washington Street. Construction on below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the building began on April 27, 2006. The tower's steel structure topped-out on August 30, 2012, and work is currently underway on its spire.

At the time of its completion in late 2013, One World Trade Center will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m) in reference to the year of American independence.f It has been the tallest building in New York City since April 30, 2012. On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the building would be known by its legal name of One World Trade Center, rather than the colloquial name, Freedom Tower. The new World Trade Center complex will also feature three other high-rise office buildings, located along Greenwich Street, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers once stood. The construction is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex during the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.


History

Following the destruction of the original World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was much debate regarding the future of the World Trade Center site. Proposals began almost immediately, and by 2003, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation organized a competition to determine how to use the site. Public rejection of the first round of designs, the "Preliminary Design Concepts," led to a second, more open competition in December 2002, in which a design by Daniel Libeskind was selected. This went through many revisions, largely because of disagreements with developer Larry Silverstein, who held the lease to the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001.

Criticism was leveled at the limited number of floors that were designated for office space and other amenities in an early plan. Only 82 floors would have been habitable, and the overall office space of the entire rebuilt World Trade Center would have been reduced by more than 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) in comparison with the original complex. The floor limit was imposed by Silverstein, who expressed concern that higher floors would be a liability in the event of a future terrorist attack or other incident. Much of the building's height would have consisted of a large, open-air steel lattice structure above the roof of the tower, containing wind turbines and "sky gardens." In a subsequent design, the highest space that could be occupied became comparable to the original World Trade Center, and the open-air lattice was removed from the plans. In 2002, former New York Governor George Pataki faced accusations of cronyism for supposedly using his influence to get the winning architect's bid picked as a personal favor for his friend and campaign contributor, Ron Lauder.

A final design for the "Freedom Tower" was formally unveiled on June 28, 2005. To satisfy security issues raised by the New York City Police Department, a 187-foot (57 m) concrete base was added in April of that year. The design originally included plans to clad the base in glass prisms to address criticism that it looked uninviting and resembled a "concrete bunker." However, this later proved unworkable, as preliminary testing revealed that the prismatic glass easily shattered into large and dangerous shards. As a result, it was replaced by a simpler facade consisting of stainless steel panels and blast-resistant glass.

Contrasting with Libeskind's original plan, the tower's final design tapers octagonally as it rises. Its designers stated that the tower would be a "monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna." Larry Silverstein commented in 2006 on a planned completion date: "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center, more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was." On April 26, 2006, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a conceptual framework that enabled foundation construction to begin, and a formal agreement was drafted on the following day, the 75th anniversary of the 1931 opening of the Empire State Building. The tower's construction began in May with a formal ceremony that took place when the first construction team arrived. The building's topping out occurred on August 31, 2012, and it is expected to be completed in late 2013.

In 2009, the Port Authority changed the official title of the building from "Freedom Tower" to "One World Trade Center," stating that this name was the "easiest for people to identify with." In May 2011, detailed floor plans of the tower were displayed on New York City's Department of Finance website, resulting in an uproar from the media and citizens of the surrounding area, who warned that the plans could potentially be used for a future terrorist attack. In April 2012, with the tower's structure nearing completion, the owners of 1 WTC began a public marketing campaign for the building, seeking to draw in visitors and additional tenants.


Architecture and design

Many of Daniel Libeskind's concepts from the 2002 competition were later discarded from the tower's design. One World Trade Center's final design consisted of simple symmetries and a more traditional profile, intended to bear comparison with selected elements of the contemporary New York skyline. The tower's central spire draws from precedents such as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, and is also visually reminiscent of the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, rather than being an off-center spire intended to echo the Statue of Liberty.

The building's footprint is a 200-foot (61 m) square with an area of 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2), nearly identical to the footprints of the original Twin Towers. The tower rises from a 185-foot (56 m) windowless concrete base, designed to protect it against truck bombs and other ground-level terror threats. Originally, the base was intended to be clad in decorative prismatic glass, but a simpler glass-and-steel façade was adopted when this proved unworkable. The current base cladding design consists of angled glass fins protruding from stainless steel panels, similar to those on 7 World Trade Center. LED lights behind the panels will illuminate the base at night. Cable-net glass façades on all four sides of the building for the higher floors, designed by Schlaich Bergermann, will be consistent with the other buildings in the complex. They measure 60 feet (18 m) high and range in width from 30 feet (9.1 m) on the east and west sides (for access to the observation deck) to 50 feet (15 m) on the north side, and 70 feet (21 m) on the south for primary tenant access. The curtain wall was manufactured and assembled in Portland, Oregon, by Benson Industries, using glass made in Minnesota by Viracon.

From the 20th floor upwards, the square edges of the tower's cubic base are chamfered back, transforming the building's shape into eight tall isosceles triangles, or an elongated square antiprism. Near its middle, the tower forms a perfect octagon in-plan, and then culminates in a glass parapet whose shape is a square oriented 45 degrees from the base. A 408-foot (124 m) sculpted mast containing the broadcasting antenna – designed in a collaboration between SOM, artist Kenneth Snelson (who invented the tensegrity structure), lighting designers and engineers – is secured by a system of cables, and rises from a circular support ring which will contain additional broadcasting and maintenance equipment. At night, an intense beam of light will be projected above the spire, being visible over 1,000 feet (300 m) into the air above the tower.


Height

The roof of the top floor of One World Trade Center is 1,368 feet (417 m) tall, including a 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m) parapet; this is identical to the roof height of the North Tower of the original World Trade Center. The building's antenna/spire complex will bring One World Trade Center to a pinnacle height of 1,776 feet (541 m), a figure symbolic of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence. If the antenna is included in the building's official height, as defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), One World Trade Center will surpass the 1,671-foot (509 m) height of Taipei 101 to become the world's tallest all-office building. Additionally, the tower would become the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, surpassing the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) in Chicago. However, its roof height will still be 83 feet (25 m) shorter than the Willis Tower. At the time of its completion, One World Trade Center would be the third-tallest skyscraper in the world, behind the Burj Khalifa and the Abraj Al Bait. One World Trade Center will also become the 6th-tallest freestanding structure in the world. The Chicago Spire, with a planned height of 2,000 feet (610 m), was expected to exceed the height of One World Trade Center, but its construction was canceled in 2009 due to financial difficulties.

After the changes in the design of One World Trade Center's spire were revealed in May 2012, questions have been raised as to whether the 408-foot (124 m) structure will still qualify as a spire and thus be included in the building's official architectural height. As the building's spire will no longer be enclosed in a radome as originally planned, it may instead be classified as a simple antenna which, according to the CTBUH, is not included in a building's official height. Without the inclusion of the antenna mast, One World Trade Center's official height would be its roof height of 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the third-tallest building in the United States, behind the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel & Tower, both located in Chicago. Additionally, while the building would become the tallest in New York City upon completion, it would be surpassed in 2015 by the under-construction 432 Park Avenue, which is expected to rise to a height of 1,398 feet (426 m). One World Trade Center's developers have disputed the claim that the spire should be reclassified as an antenna following the redesign, with Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman reiterating that "One World Trade Center will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.” The CTBUH has announced that it will wait to make its final decision as to whether or not the redesigned spire will count towards the building's official height until after One World Trade Center's completion in 2013.


Special Operation Forces memorial

On October 19, 2012, a life-and-a-half scale bronze monument commemorating U.S. Special Operations Forces in the first few weeks of the War in Afghanistan was rededicated in front of the building. The base of the statue bears the sculpture's title, “America’s Response Monument.” The statue is sub-titled De Oppresso Liber, which is Latin for ‘to liberate the oppressed’, the motto of the Green Berets. A piece of steel from the World Trade Center is embedded in the base.

The monument is dedicated to the actions of the servicemen and women of America’s Special Operations who responded to the 9/11 attacks, including the Special Operations forces who were able to help remove the Taliban from power in a few weeks, an operation that had been expected to take months or even years. The statue was dedicated by General John Mulholland, Lieutenant general and Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Army Special Forces Command. In an uncommon move, the bronze statue was positioned facing so the soldier atop the horse is keeping a watchful eye as he looks back over his shoulder at the World Trade Center and its tenants. Soldiers representing the United States Army Special Operations Command attended the ceremony.

The statue is the first publicly accessible monument to special forces. The land for the monument was donated by a private Wall Street firm. The statue's entire cost of over $750,000 was paid by hundreds of private citizens.