I guess it's a big project but maybe if there weren't soooo many years wasted in the design stages (not to mention money) I have a feeling that we'd have had the finished product by now. As it stands now it seems likely that at the tenth anniversary we're not going to have a beautiful building and plaza to memorialize the event. That's a shame considering that to put up a building like this really only takes a couple of years. Consider also that once completed, the tourism will generate incredible income for the city, and probably pay for the project in a fraction of the time they've wasted with the bureaucratic nonsense that's hindering construction. Whatever, at least it looks like it's too late to turn back, they're committed to this particular project and hopefully won't get bogged down yet again. It'll be a nice place to go see once it is done, and I imagine it'll be worth a trip there to see it when it is. I better start saving now. I can visit some old friends from school as well, my college was just west of Manhattan by only a few miles. I had a nice view of the Empire State Building and the Trade Centers from one of my apartments. It'll be nice to have something there on the skyline at the southern tip of the island again, it's looked kind of bald for entirely too long.
it truly is a damn shame that this is being politicised, compromised ,jeopardised,and just generally turned into a idealistic foil to wave in the faces of all the people that it has effected i am sure some one on the right will blame Obama for it not being done, yet all the while they put up roadblocks for every step that we as a nation must take . so here goes THE GOP sucks and will destroy eveything you and i have worked for
ReplyDeleteI think the economy tanking toward the end of the decade took the wind out of the sails of progress. I seem to remember reading, in or arround early 2007 that the target complete date would be early 2009 (main tower) and 2011 for the rest of the buildings. The last I heard the date for all the building to be complete was somewhere around 2014. WTC 7 is already open and being used. This is the one you see just to the right of WTC 1 in the picture above. BTW, it is a certified green building. I believe they were able to build that one first and quickly without bumping into much resistance from the design committee which has thousands of people who can not agree on the final design of the original footprint.
ReplyDeleteI agree, to open WTC1 on the 10th anniversary would be a rock solid goal and would be a definitive line from where everyone could simply move on (no disrespect to anyone). The buildings were only there for 29 years and they have been gone for 9. To wait any longer or allow further delay based on design disagreements has a bad odor of disrespect to it by its self.
Buildings are monumentally expensive to build. Occupants and owners have to pony up huge money up front with horrible impact to the return on investment with every delay. I would not be surprised if many of the financial entitys had to pull out because of all the delays...then they cant proceed without money.
Just to show how much the economy has to do with it, the Chicago spire project has been frozen indefinitely. All the cranes that are used to build buildings have been over in China and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE had huge cash going into the Burje Dubai project; but this hit a wall and set them back 2.5 to 3 years. In the end it was a private investing group that was able to throw enough money at the project to bring it to completion. I understand that that building is sitting half empty as well.
Ok, but after 9 years I want more than 16 fucking trees to look at. I'm quite sure that if the building had been a simpler structure, taller, basically just a monument with a lookout platform like the C.N in Toronto, it would have been much easier to complete. I remember in the beginning it was to be just a monument with a really bright light shooting straight up. That could have been done very quickly. But no, we have to leave the building up to people who need to make a profitable office building out of what should have remained a memorial. And these people can't scrape the money together. Believe me, as a memorial tower, it still would have been profitable. Does every square inch of NYC need to be dedicated to squeezing every ounce of profit out of the city that it can? The Empire State Building was built in 410 days back in the 1930's. Try to tell me that a memorial spire with a sky beacon and observation deck needs to take over ten years. Fucking retarded.
ReplyDeleteBTW the Burj Dubai wouldn't be sitting half empty if the UAE wasn't trying to develop the entire state of Dubai all at once. Those people are making a mockery of progress and looking like complete fools in the process. Now they're killing themselves by banning Blackberry service everywhere in their kingdom. What's next, harems and child rape? HAH!
ReplyDeleteCheck the top of my Blog for a recent picture of One World Trade Center
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they are really making progress. I just posted yet another picture and found a construction cam web site at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=New_Visit_EarthCam
They are well over 100 feet above street level.
Check out the 3D Google Earth link on the page of the link above. Zoom in on NYC; you will see the concept buildings. It takes awhile to load but all the surrounding buildings fill in and you can see how far they are. It appears that they have concrete to about 30 stories and steel to about 40. Much higher than I expected them to be. When I was in NYC in February of 2009 they had just broken ground and had only steel to about 7 stories.
ReplyDeleteVery nice... I didn't see any that high when I looked. Steel to 40 stories? Wow... you would think those pics would come up when Googling "Freedom Tower current progress". Maybe not. I can't do Google Earth, and I really miss it. It won't run on Mark's loaner comp I'm still using. Maybe they really can speed the whole thing up, get the shell finished in a year so at least it looks good at the tenth anniversary. Finish the inside later. Shouldn't have an inside at all in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the reason you can not find it under freedom tower is because they renamed it a few months ago. The "official" name of the building is "One World Trade Center". This happened at the point that the Chinese bought a controlling stake in the building.
ReplyDeleteDon't get all freaked! I am not posting completely accurate facts here. More accurately, when coming across the name change story it did mention that the Chinese bought a significant stock in the building. I do not want to convey that the Chinese own over half of it (though I can't say otherwise), or that they are the reason for the name change. In any event it is time to watch the last episode of Boston Legal again.