The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 226

Designs for the WTC continue evolving, including the new Tower 3, which is being designed by Richard Rodgers:

Here's the first look at the dramatic three-story lobby slated for World Trade Center Tower 3, with its glass-walled atrium overlooking a new section of Greenwich Street and the Santiago Calatrava- designed rail station just to the north.

Tower 3, which is being designed by British architect Richard Rogers, is one of three towers slated for the eastern edge of the World Trade Center, between Church Street and what will be a newly reopened section of Greenwich Street.

"It's a massive building with 2.4 million square feet of office space," said Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein.

"At 1,155 feet tall, it has 40,000-square-foot floors in the tower and four floors with over 50,000-square- foot trading floors in the base."

Silverstein envisions Tower 3, also known as 175 Greenwich St., as a corporate headquarters because of its large trading floors that are coveted by financial firms.

Of the three towers Silverstein is building between Church and Greenwich streets, Tower 2 and Tower 3 will have trading floors. Tower 4, at the southeastern corner of the site, will host the Port Authority, city government and private tenants.

Designs for the three towers is expected to be completed by July 1. The architects for the three towers have been working side by side in offices on the 10th floor of Silverstein's 7WTC.

Meanwhile, 7WTC hosted tests of a new telecommunications system to assist firefighters responding to high rise incidents. Firefighters and police were hampered by failures in the communications systems at the WTC complex on 9/11 and the FDNY and NYPD have vowed to make improvements.