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I agree with the OP.
Unfortunately, NYC is paralyzed. We got to a time when moving a stone takes years. So much politics, so many interventions. By the end, we cannot do anything anymore. People criticize the freedom tower, but today, 8 years after, it is still not there. Maybe in 2014...As the economic realities change, every day the project comes under new scrutiny. Not many know, but the neighboring towers (only 50 floors high) were once again delayed because of misunderstandings between the port authority and Larry Silberstein. If we wait a few more weeks, someone may say that the whole project is not feasible and it will be postponed once again.
100 years ago, working with bare hands, people completed the huge subway system, including digging under the river in a few short years. Today, the 2ed avenue line, already 20 years in process (and discussions) was postponed to.... 2017
In the 1930s, the Hoover dam (at the time the largest engineering project in the world) took only 4.5 years to complete. Today, renovating the facade of a building in the city takes as long as that (with all the disturbance to the neighbors and traffic). Sad.
It's funny, but the original World Trade Center was criticized for not fitting in with the rest of New York's skyline. Now everyone gets so nostalgic for it. I was always a member of the former club; I didn't like the towers at all. I hope that whatever gets built looks radically different.
I'll second that nomination! Not because I think "Freedom Tower" is lame, but because I think there's been a tendency to get all sappy about what happened on September 11, 2001. Yeah, it was godawful. But it happened, we survived, and now it's time to look ahead rather than behind. What I would like to see is the "New York City Tower."
First of all--it's not really named the Freedom Tower. Pataki gave it that name, but the building is known by its address: One World Trade Center. There will be four towers, of graduated height, to lead the eye down in a spiral to the reflecting pools of the memorial where the original towers stood.
One WTC is well above street level now. Four is rising. Two and Three are still being fought over by Silverstein and the Port Authority--Silverstein wants the PA to guarantee financing and the PA's stance is that public money shouldn't finance a private entity.
Construction at the site has been going on since 2006 and is ongoing six days a week. About 600 people are working on site every day. Maybe I'm too close to it, but I'm amazed at how many people seem to have the impression that nothing is happening down there. The tourists sure know--they are there in droves every day taking photographs.
First of all--it's not really named the Freedom Tower. Pataki gave it that name, but the building is known by its address: One World Trade Center. There will be four towers, of graduated height, to lead the eye down in a spiral to the reflecting pools of the memorial where the original towers stood.
One WTC is well above street level now. Four is rising. Two and Three are still being fought over by Silverstein and the Port Authority--Silverstein wants the PA to guarantee financing and the PA's stance is that public money shouldn't finance a private entity.
Construction at the site has been going on since 2006 and is ongoing six days a week. About 600 people are working on site every day. Maybe I'm too close to it, but I'm amazed at how many people seem to have the impression that nothing is happening down there. The tourists sure know--they are there in droves every day taking photographs.
People think "nothing" is going down there because as recently as the early 70s you'd almost see the shell of much of the building after 3 years of constant work. What is there isn't even 1/10 of the final project.
People think "nothing" is going down there because as recently as the early 70s you'd almost see the shell of much of the building after 3 years of constant work. What is there isn't even 1/10 of the final project.
But it's not as if they are just building a building.
Wow, a verb and a gerund in the same sentence.
But also, in this case, the construction starts 60 feet below street level. That's not usual for construction where you are just putting up a building or two. First they have to build the permanent PATH station, which as you may recall, is the reason the WTC was where it was in the first place, while keeping the temporary station open and active. And the Memorial is the street-level roof of the PATH station, and call me crazy but it's difficult to build a roof before you build what's underneath it. There have also been major technical difficulties with the underpinning with minipiles of the No. 1 subway line box, which will have Greenwich Street built over top of it, and through which trains are running also.
One of the engineers has likened the site to pickup sticks--what you do on one side of the site will affect other parts acres away from it. The chiller plant that will provide HVAC to the entire complex had to be done first, for example.
Of course some of the delay has simply been due to the politicians who have been falling all over themselves trying to get a hand into this project since 9/11 and who usually have no clue about the details and problems of the construction itself but just make promises they can't possibly deliver.
they should build an exact replica of the Empire State Building.
Absolutely not! Why in the name of heaven would anybody want to make a copy of such an iconic building? I could possibly understand that if you were talking about some other city. But the city where the Empire State stands? What was in your morning coffee?
Not from New York so I feel this decision should be left up to the people that lived through 9/11 up close, but I think the idea of a Freedom Tower sucks. I believe there should be a memorial for the victims of the 9/11 attack but this Freedom Tower gives me the blues. I'd like to think (and I don't think I'm alone) that the best move would be to rebuild the Twin Towers the way they were before as a symbol of Mod cut: language Al Queda" Maybe make them a little taller or a little more glossy but I think America really needs to see the World trade Center back in the NY skyline. I remeber visiting NY when I was a child and going to the Statue of Liberty and looking at the Twin Towers and all their majesty. It just said New York. It said you're in the Big Apple baby. I'm not sure if the Freedom Tower will (Lord willing if it ever gets completed) make that same statement. Ultimately, this is a decision for New Yorkers and I was wondering what New Yorkers think.
I agree. Make them square and twin like before only better, they should really resemble the real twin towers.
Athena is the Greek goddess of architecture. What do you you get when you give her drugs. The ugly Freedom, I mean Communist, Tower. There are a few things wrong with this. First, the design if a white guy was chosen over the design of an African-American in NYC. I thought the north was all for civil rights. Second, the base is not grand and does not let in light (small, low ceiling, like the inside of Penn Station but with small windows (a jail cell lobby). Third, no outside observation deck, and we should have another revolving restaurant. Also, instead of building an ugly ass spire to make it 1,776 ft tall, can't we just add more floors, make it square, add a hotel, and do it again.
TWIN TOWERS II!!!!!!!!
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