The Battle For Ground Zero, Part VI

Fulton Transportation Hub Downsized

Considering how much the Governor and other elected officials have wanted to improve transportation options and improve linkages between disparate modes of transportation, the MTA is downsizing the Fulton hub.

The egg-shaped glass hub, designed to connect 12 subway lines, was hailed as "The Grand Central of Downtown" when it was unveiled last year.

But now that dome is going to shrink noticeably, officials said.

An underground walkway that will connect the sprawling station to the World Trade Center site is also going to be smaller.

A planned link between the R and W lines at the Cortland Street station and the E line at the World Trade Center will be scrapped completely.

What's not getting smaller is the cost of the project and the amount of time it's going to take to build it.

Construction is running behind schedule and the projected cost is now tens of millions of dollars over its original $750 million price tag, officials said.

The cost of the hub is being funded by the federal government, which set aside $4.55 billion to improve transportation in lower Manhattan after 9/11.

One of the reasons the hub was considered important was the link between the R and W along with the E lines. These lines, among the oldest in the City, were originally built by competing transit companies to serve Lower Manhattan. Linking those lines would improve service dramatically. Now? Not gonna happen.

And if you're wondering why costs are skyrocketing, it's simple. The more delays you build into the construction, the more it will cost you. If the City ever decides to do the linking project in the future, it will not cost $100 or $200 more than the current estimates, but $500 million or $1 billion or more. That's a great way to save money.

New Freedom Tower Design Unveiled
Well, they came out with the revised tower on schedule. That's a start. Now, what about the design itself. The newly designed tower looks vaguely familiar. That's because it is now a cross between two of Beyer Blinder Belle's designs for the WTC which the public rejected. Libeskind's master plan was supported initially because the buildings looked quite striking and Libeskind had used flashy graphics to sell his plan. The new building is not much more than a cross between the Memorial Garden proposal and the Memorial Plaza. Those original plans were scrapped, because [f]eedback from a 4,000-person public meeting found the plans too unimaginative and too cluttered with office buildings. I've been saying for some time that the Libeskind master plan suffers from the same problem. Trying to get too many office buildings into a space that needs the openness for the memorials demands building fewer buildings, but to keep the office space requirement means bringing back some form of twin towers.

Here's how the Times describes the new design:

The new design for the 82-story signature building at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan calls for an almost impermeable and impregnable 200-foot concrete and steel pedestal, clad in ornamental metalwork and set at least 65 feet away from Route 9A, the heavily trafficked state highway that runs along the west edge of ground zero.

This enormous pedestal would overlook the Sept. 11 memorial. Above it would be a tapering tower of glass - some panes laminated and several layers thick - with 69 office floors topped by a restaurant, indoor and outdoor observation decks and an antenna within a trellis-like sculpture that would bring the structure's total height to 1,776 feet.

Route 9A is West Street. The antenna is now centrally located, instead of being offset to one side as Libeskind had originally envisioned. The tower uses alternating triangles that taper the structure from a square base to an octagon at its apex below the start of the antenna. The redesign has pushed back completion of the tower to 2010 at a minimum.

UPDATE:
The LMDC has more background about the Tower's redesign. A design sheet has some of the key features for the revised tower.

The program is organized as follows: Rising from the plaza level, an 80-foot high public lobby is topped by a series of mechanical floors; together these form the 200-foot-high building base. Sixty-nine office floors rise above the base to 1120 feet elevation. Mechanical floors, two floors to be occupied by the Metropolitan Television Alliance, restaurants and observation decks culminate in an observation deck and glass parapet that mark 1362’ and 1368’ respectively – the heights of the original Twin Towers. An antenna supported by a cable structure rises to a final height of 1776’.

Each floor would be roughly 12 feet high, so take the 280 foot base (nearly 30 stories itself), plop an 828 foot tall office building on top and you get the culmulative space for offices. Above the 1,120 foot elevation, you would have empty space until you reach the observation deck.

UPDATE II:

The strengthened structure, as proposed in the original design, will exceed city fire code requirements and include extra fireproofing, as well as biological and chemical filters in its air supply system.

Other safety features from the original design will include extra-wide emergency stairs, a dedicated staircase for firefighters, enhanced elevators housed in a protected core, and "areas of refuge" on each floor. Stairs, communications, risers, sprinklers and elevators will be encased in 3-foot-thick walls.

Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials were to discuss the redesign at a midmorning press conference.

"The redesigned Freedom Tower speaks to the government and private sector's deep and abiding commitment to rebuild New York City to the highest architectural, environmental and safety standards," said World Trade Center site developer Larry Silverstein.

Is that the current NYC building code or the revised building code? Does anyone seem to know the answer to that question? Was that question even asked. One of the questions that continues to swirl around the NIST report is that the WTC did or did not meet building codes when built. The Port Authority says it does, but NIST isn't so sure and some families say that it didn't because the Port Authority was exempt from building codes.

However, the security measures that are contemplated sound like a tremendous improvement over the fireproofing and fire protection measures in any other buildings found in the US, let alone in NYC. Newark Star-Ledger link

UPDATE III:
Here come the reviews. And they're mixed. This one suggests that Trump got half of his wish. I think Trump got 1/4 of his wish since the office building part contains about 1/4 of the office space of the original Twin Towers despite the height and bulk of the building.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy.