Results tagged “tower3”

A week and a half ago, it was revealed that the Port Authority was considering scrapping three of the planned towers at the World Trade Center site. Towers 2 and 3, designed by Sir Norman Foster and Sir Richard Rogers respectively, would instead be transformed into 4-5 story "stumps" (Tower 5 would be abandoned for now). Today, the Post shows renderings of the stumps, which are given the more marketing friendly term "retail podiums."

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that the Port Authority may consider to scrap three of the planned towers—Towers 2, 3 and 5— at the World Trade Center site, due to costs, delays and the economic downturn. Now the Post throws out the idea that the PA may actually opt for building luxury hotel and apartments at Tower 5, which seems "a stronger bet than holding out for a commercial tenant, now that JP Morgan is out of the picture." And Globe St. suggests that the PA only wants to delay Tower 2 and 3 construction until the real estate market is better (and needs millions more square feet). The PA and WTC developer Larry Silverstein have been at odds over Ground Zero plans, with the developer asking for more financial help and the PA unwilling (thus far) to pitch in any more. Silverstein Properties president of WTC properties Janno Lieber said, "The Silverstein team has not wavered on rebuilding the World Trade Center, and we never will." [Via Curbed]

Last Friday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, "Seven years and eight months after the attacks, I am fed up with the stalling and exasperated with the current state of the World Trade Center project," outlining that two of the towers must be completed by 2014 and urging developer Larry Silverstein to take on more of the risk, with help from the Port Authority. Now, the Daily News reports that the Port Authority is proposing a drastic change to the plan that would reduce the square footage from 10 million to 5 million:

The sources say the agency's new vision for the site calls for scrapping one tower that would have been taller than the Empire State Building and nixing two others that would have dwarfed the nearby Woolworth Building.

Continue reading "Three WTC Towers May Be Scrapped From Ground Zero"

You may recall that the original Freedom Tower design had to be scrapped (because the NYPD thought it was too susceptible to attack) and redesigned with a concrete base. Now the Daily News' I-Team takes up concerns law enforcement officials have with "security weaknesses" in the new towers at World Trade Center.

Better late than never: The Port Authority turned over part of the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein. This parcel of land is where two of the five planned towers will be built.