Walking Tour to World Trade Center area Part III: One World Trade Center (section I)
Someone saids, there is only two life stages people stay at, one is suffering / feeling pain, another is feeling bored. When I heard about it for the very first time, I was a little bit confused. But after he explained it, I totally agreed with him. Most of our life time, we are either in struggling or bored. When we feel happy, we just feel it in a very short time period, and we even can’t always remember the happy moments, but the painful ones. After a looong time / years and years, the painful memories are still stuck inside our bodies. And they attached us randomly through our life time. They are also triggered by some new experiences such as new things, people, feelings, so you feel the pain again and again. The pain is endless…
I think the people who lost their loved ones in the September 11 attack, they still feel so painful in nowadays. Specially when the yearly date September 11 approaching. This day reminds them the lost, and refreshes their memory of pain.
This year 2021 which I am living in, it has been 20 years since the attack happened. Twenty years, it is short or long, I think it’s question without answer. It is short because the event seems happened yesterday. It is long since a lot of things could happen or change in 20 years. As I am writing this article at this moment, I just want to write about the story about One World Trade Center.
As I am reading some resource on the internet and seeing the picture of the twin towers, I just so emotional. I think it’s because I used to see an old picture of my cousins were in front of the twin towers. It is like they were part of your life, and now they just disappeared what made you feel so sad/maybe pain at some point.
One World Trade Center is also called Freedom Tower and 1 WTC. It is located at 285 Fulton Street, Manhattan, New York City. It’s designed by architect David Childs (other designer, Hill International) . Its architectural style is Contemporary Modern. It’s the tallest building in the United States, and in the Western Hemisphere. In the world, it’s the 6th tallest. Its construction began on 4/27/2006. It topped-out on 5/10/2014, and opened on 11/3/2014. One World Observation opened on 5/29/2015. It’s 1776 feet tall. Its height (in feet) is a deliberate reference to the year (1776) when the United States Declaration of Independence was signed. It has 94 floors (plus 5 floors under the ground). And with the top floor, it numbered 104.
The One World Trade Center complex includes the 5 high-rise office buildings and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum which is located at a place where the original Twin Towers stood.
The Twin Towers were the centerpieces used in an urban renewal project to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. This project was spearheaded by David Rockefeller and planned by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Architect Minoru Yamasaki had the idea of building twin towers. The World Trade Center was at the Radio Row site which was located in the lower west Manhattan. The Port Authority bought the Port Authority Trans-Hudson which was used to transport commuters from New Jersey to Lower Manhattan in order to satisfy the New Jersey government.
The twin towers were designed in framd tube structures what gave the tenants open floors unobstructed by walls or columns. The elevator system was designed in express and local elevators and sky lobbies. The construction and design of the towers also used many other innovative techniques such as slurry wall and wind tunnel. The Islamic architecture was used in the building’s design by Yamasaki.
The North Tower (the new One World Trade Center is located at the place where The North Tower used to be)was starting to be constructed in August 1966. In October 1971, the 1st tenant moved into it. In the 1970s, 4 other low-lever buildings were built. They were part of the World Trade Center complex. In the mid-1980s, the 7th building was built. After the 7 WTC (World Trade Center) ws built, the WTC had 7 buildings in total, but the well known one was the main twin towers (1 WTC was the North tower, 2 WTC was the South Tower. Each of them was over 1350 feet high. In 1973, in a press conference, people asked Yamasaki, “Why it’s two 110 stories buildings, but not one 220 stories building?” Then he answer, “I didn’t want to lose the human scale.” I think Yamasaki’s answer was interesting and it had a deep meaning.
In October 1971, 1 WTC was topped out, and it became the tallest building in the world. It surpassed the Empire State Building which had held the record for 40 years. In 1978, a 360 feet tall telecommunications antenna was added to the top of the roof of the North Tower. The highest point of the North Tower reached 1728 feet. However, in May 1973, the Sears Tower (Willis Tower. 1450 feet tall) was built in Chicago. It surpassed the North Tower. The number 110 for the WTC towers was surpassed when the 163 floors Burj Khalifa was build. It opened in 2010.
Floors 7, 8, 41, 42, 75, 76, 108 and 109 were set aside for the mechanical floors. All other floors were for tenants. There was 40000 square feet space available for each floor. For office space, the North and South towers had 3800000 quare feet in total. And the 7 buildings totally had 13400000 square feet for office space.
Consolidated Edison (ConEd) supplied electrical service (13800 volts) to the tower. The electricity first passed the WTC Primary Distribution Center (PDC), then it was sent up to the electrical substations what ware located on the mechanical floors. These substations lowered the primary voltage of 13800 to 480/277 volts what were further lowered to 208/120 volts for general lighting and power services. The emergency generators what were located in the sublevels of the towers and on the roof of 5 WTC also served the complex. The 110th floor of the North Tower was the house of television and radio transmission equipment. The roof of the North Tower had many transmission antennas (included the 360 feet center antenna mast). It was rebuilt by Dielectric Inc. to support DTV in 1999. The center mast had the television signals for most of New York City television broadcasters and 4 NYC FM broadcasters. The broadcasting equipments were moved to the Empire State Building after the September 11 attacks of 2001.
There were 5000 people worked in the towers on a typical weekday, and 140000 visitors passing throug. The complex had its own zip code, 10048. In 2000, the restaurant named The Windows on the World which was located on top of the North Tower reported $37 million revenues. It was the highest grossing restaurant in the US. Just like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the Chrysler Building, the Twin Towers was known worldwide. It appeared in TV shows, movies, postcards, and many other machandise.
