Construction Underway on all WTC Towers
Rendering courtesy Silverstein Properties
NEW YORK — Ten years after Sept. 11, construction on all the World Trade Center buildings is underway.
“Today, for the first time since 9/11, every part of the new World Trade Center is under construction,” said Larry Silverstein, President and CEO of New York-based real estate development and investment firm Silverstein Properties. “Today, more than 3,000 construction workers shape millions of tons of concrete, steel and glass into iconic buildings that will soon reclaim New York’s skyline.”
The Memorial is on schedule to open on the 10th anniversary this Sunday.
One World Trade Center, designed for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, has reached over 80 stories and is now the tallest building in Lower Manhattan, he said. Four World Trade Center is 50 stories high, and like One World Trade Center, will top out in April of next year.
Foundation work on 2 World Trade Center, designed by Norman Foster, and 3 World Trade Center, designed by Richard Rogers, is complete and each building has reached sidewalk level.
The buildings will open in 2013. Work on the transit hub is also underway.
Silverstein said despite initial skepticism that Lower Manhattan could return as a business district, development is underway.
Planned to be a “model 24/7 live-work mixed community,” Silverstein said the firm officials worked to restore the skyline without waiting generations to see it finished.
The "Memory Foundations" Master Plan by Daniel Libeskind involves turning half the site into public space and reintroducing Manhattan’s historic streets through the site in order to ensure the World Trade Center connects seamlessly to the surrounding neighborhoods.
“The plan called for the entire site to be top-tier from an architectural and sustainable design standpoint, and added new public elements like an iconic transit gateway to lower Manhattan, a performing arts center, and a livelier retail streetscape,” he said. “It also ensured that we could rebuild the core of Downtown’s office district, which had been destroyed by terrorists.”