[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/14/nyregion/14TOWE.html[/url]

7 World Trade Is Envisioned as a Gateway

May 14, 2002
7 World Trade Is Envisioned as a Gateway
By EDWARD WYATT

Providing the first public glimpse of plans to replace the destroyed 7
World Trade Center, architects for Larry A. Silverstein said yesterday
that the new building would be a transparent, "light-emanating shaft"
designed as a gateway to the planned World Trade Center memorial and other
buildings that are expected to be built there.
David M. Childs, a consulting partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, told a
meeting of two committees of the local community board that the new
structure would be the equivalent of 52 stories, significantly taller than
the previous building, and would have a soaring glass lobby opening onto
Greenwich Street to the east. The previous building was 47 stories and
opened onto Vesey Street and the trade center plaza to its south.
Mr. Silverstein said excavation of the site, which started last week, will
be completed by the middle of June. The Con Edison substation that will
take up much of the bottom part of the building will be finished by
September or October of 2003, though a portion of the station would be
operational by that summer. The entire building would be finished by the
end of 2005, he said.
The greater height of the proposed tower, at 750 feet versus the 616 feet
of the original building, will compensate for the smaller space that it
takes up on the ground. That area, known as the footprint, measures 34,000
square feet, compared with 44,000 square feet for the original, and was
designed to accommodate the restoration of Greenwich Street past the
building and possibly south through the trade center site.
Mr. Childs, speaking to members of Community Board 1, said that the
architects had not yet designed the building's skeleton, but they had
ideas of what it would look like. He said that it would be "as glassy a
building as possible," and, although it would have a concrete core for
elevators, would be "the inverse" of the previous granite and shaded-glass
structure.
Noting that Greenwich Street originally marked the edge of the island of
Manhattan, Mr. Childs said the new building "brings together two parts of
the city that were destroyed in the 1970's" by the Trade Center: the
street grid, with its view down Greenwich Street toward the southern tip
of the island, and the original water's edge, which was pushed westward by
landfill.
"We wanted to provide the city with a great shaft of light, creating those
open views that are so wonderful in New York," Mr. Childs said. Noting
that the architects might include some solar panels or alternative power
sources in the building, he added, "We want this to be a dramatic gesture
of the way we should design buildings, not only in this area but
throughout the country."
The bottom 115 feet of the building, equivalent to about ten floors of a
commercial office building, will contain the Con Edison substation that
was destroyed in the collapse of 7 World Trade, Mr. Childs said. But the
exterior of that part of the building would be covered with a lattice of
artistically designed metalwork.

-- continued --

The remainder of the exterior would be a sort of "glass sleeve" that might
drop down over part of the bottom floors, integrating the two parts, Mr.
Childs said. He said he envisioned the project as similar to "the great
obelisk leading into Luxor." The glass portion would extend upward over
the top 42 stories. The entire tower would include about 1.65 million
square feet of commercial space, about 15 percent less than the 1.93
million square feet of space in the previous building.
The community board does not have any authority over the project, which is
on land leased by Mr. Silverstein from the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey. As such, the building does not need to conform with city
building or environmental codes. But the community board will be making a
recommendation about the project to the Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation, which along with the Port Authority, has jurisdiction over
the redevelopment of the trade center area.
By restoring Greenwich Street, a triangle of land will be created, bounded
by Barclay and Greenwich Streets and West Broadway. Madelyn G. Wils, a
director of the development corporation and the chairwoman of the local
community board, encouraged Mr. Silverstein to consider converting that
space to parkland, adding to the open effect the new building will have on
the area.
Mr. Childs said that was being considered, although a truck ramp into that
portion of the site would in all likelihood remain there at least through
the reconstruction. But he added that the design could provide for
Greenwich Street either to be used for cars or only for pedestrians.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

BTT - For those that didn't see it. The long re-building process for the WTC has begun.
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USA! USA! USA!

warlord,

The link is for 'members' of the NY Times.  If there are any pics, you'll have to post them here..... since if one clicks on the link, it goes to the subscription page.....

What about the SAM batteries and the 20mm gatling guns? [>:/]

I had to reg'd to get articles from the NYTimes. It is no big deal, just put in a userid/password & email address. I haven't any junk emails from they so far. I went back to the website, and there are zero pix, sorry.