Buildings
Redesigned Freedom Tower Will Be Sleeker, Safer
(archrecord.construction.com - June 28 2005)
By Sam
Lubell
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| Images
Courtesy Skidmore, Owings and Merrill/ Dbox |
After having about six weeks to rethink
its plans, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill today unveiled an
uncoiled, slenderer, and safer design of the 1,776-foot-tall
World Trade Center Freedom Tower. The tower’s original
design, the centerpiece of redevelopment at Ground Zero, had
been ordered back to the drawing board by New York Governor
George Pataki on May 4, after the New York Police Department
noted security concerns, particularly relating to the building’s
vulnerability to truck bombs. The new tower is much more reminiscent
of the original twin towers and New York landmarks like the
Empire State Building.
Most of the tower’s design changes
stem in some way from the need to set the building back from
West street, to its west, to limit vehicular access. The new
tower will be set back about 90 feet from West Street, 65
feet farther than the original Freedom Tower. To accommodate
this setback, the structure will be built on a 200x200 square
footprint instead of the original plan’s parallelogram-shaped
base. The square-based tower will no longer twist, but will
be chamfered back from its corners, creating eight tall isosceles
triangles. Maintaining the original building’s torque
with a square base would have been awkward, notes SOM spokesperson
Elizabeth Kubany. The newly-situated building will also be
about 20% slimmer than the original iteration, with a 40,000
square-foot ground floor plan versus the original 50,000 square-feet.
Because its amount of office space will remain the same, the
thinner tower will have 69 office floors versus 60 in the
original plan. Above these will sit an observation deck and
a restaurant, and finally a now-centered 400-foot spire secured
by a system of structurally-redundant guy cables. The new
spire, still in development, will be created through a collaboration
with several engineers and artists. The spire’s design,
says lead designer David Childs, FAIA, is meant to evoke the
torch of the Statue of Liberty. Its centering was necessitated
for cable support, and because of the strict requirements
of the Metropolitan Television Alliance (MTVA). The original
design’s system of latticework cables and wind turbines
has been removed. While security played the biggest role in
such design changes, many speculate that aesthetic and monetary
concerns were also instrumental.
Another key security enhancement for
the building is its new 2.5 to 3-foot-thick concrete base,
which will cover 80 feet of lobby space and 120 feet of mechanical
and exhaust systems. To enliven and minimize what could be
a bunker-like aesthetic here, the base will be sheathed in
a gridded pattern of titanium and stainless steel, which,
says Childs, will allow the light to glitter off its surface.
Clerestory windows at the base’s apex will allow some
natural light into the open lobby, notes SOM principal Jeffrey
Holmes. To connect the newly set back tower with the street
life around it, the building will have entrances on all four
sides, and will include landscaping by Peter Walker, who is
working with Michael Arad on the World Trade Center Memorial.
It remains unclear whether nearby Fulton and Vesey street
will be open to vehicular traffic. Like the original Freedom
Tower, the building will contain a concrete core throughout,
although that core will now be slightly narrower. Low iron
glass will clad the rest of the building, like the original
scheme, but will be thicker.
New York Governor Pataki, who admitted
that he had never heard of the word “chamfered”
before the redesign process, said that he liked the new Freedom
Tower better than the old one, noting it “simpler and
yet more elegant.” He was joined on stage by World Trade
Center Master Planner Daniel Libeskind, who, despite his initial
battles with Childs, praised the architect’s new design
as not only better than the first iteration, but very close
to his original vision of a “slender, crystalline tower.”
The new plan, points out Holmes, took advantage of a master
plan and design guidelines that, while not formally released,
had been further developed. Hence while Libeskind did not
work directly on this project’s design, his guidelines,
says Holmes, played a larger role.
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More than the first Freedom Tower, the
new building is more reminiscent of other New York skyscrapers,
particularly visual icons like the original twin towers, the
Empire State Building, and the Chrysler building. The building’s
massive, centered antenna, recalls not only the great spires
of the Empire State and Chrysler, but the World Trade Center’s
original North Tower. Its footprint will be similar in size
to the original towers’, while the height of the occupied
space— 1,362 feet at the observation deck and 1,368 feet
at a glass parapet, will equal the heights of the original
twin towers.
“The height evokes a powerful memory,”
notes Jeffrey Holmes, a senior partner at SOM. Holmes notes
that the height match wasn’t intentional, but was quickly
discovered, and pinpointed, as the height of the tower increased.
He notes that the design’s other similarities to the
twin towers and other local landmarks were “not a starting
point,” but that the firm is very “conscious of
the engagement of that history.”
Construction of the Freedom Tower is
expected to begin in early 2006, with a topping out by 2009.
The building is expected to be ready for tenants by 2009.
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