The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 161

Construction remains at a near standstill on the WTC Museum. The anticipated September 2012 deadline will be missed and it's looking like mid 2013 is the earliest that anyone should expect the museum to be opened. That's perhaps being optimistic considering the money involved and that the Port Authority and the Museum Board, which includes Mayor Mike Bloomberg are fighting over the development costs that differ by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even if both sides are able to work out a deal, there's no word on whether entry fees that could be as high as $25 per person will be imposed to help cover the $50-$60 million annual operating costs. As it stands, Congress appears completely unwilling to foot that bill, even though this was the site of the worst terror attacks in world history and more than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks (and subsequently falling ill and dying of injuries sustained from working on the Pile).

Within the next few days, a federal officials will rule whether certain cancers will covered under the 9/11 Victim Compensation Package for first responders who have suffered a variety of health ailments since working in the rubble of the Twin Towers.

Despite the problems with the museum, and even a small fire at 1WTC (Freedom Tower), President Obama will be visiting 1WTC on June 14 to see the progress at the site first-hand.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 159

Today, the Freedom Tower (1WTC) will regain the title of the tallest skyscraper in New York City. It will soar more than 1,250 feet above the street, eclipsing the Empire State Building.

Crowning the world's tallest buildings is a little like picking the heavyweight champion in boxing. There is often disagreement about who deserves the belt.

In this case, the issue involves the 408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof.

Count it, and the World Trade Center is back on top. Otherwise, it will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in Chicago.

"Height is complicated," said Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records.

Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and antennas that extend far above the roof.
Consider the case of the Empire State Building: Measured from the sidewalk to the tip of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark being surpassed by One World Trade Center on Monday.

Purists, though, say antennas shouldn't count when determining building height.

That's based on the measure of street to roof. It doesn't count antennas or pinnacles. By those measures, the Empire State Building will still be the tallest in New York City for at least another nine months or so at 1,454 feet - until the Freedom Tower's 409 foot antenna is completed. With the antenna, it would push the tower to 1,776 feet, rising above the North American record holder of the Willis Tower in Chicago (at 1,729 feet including its antennae).

Based on height to the roof, the Willis Tower would still be the tallest tower in North America, at 1,450 feet as compared with the 1,367 feet for the Freedom Tower. While the previous image shows an earlier incarnation of the Freedom Tower that was discarded in favor of the current design, the height will still top out at 1,776 feet.

Despite the ultimate height of 1,776 feet, it will still be nearly 1,000 feet shorter than the current world record holder - the Burj Kafila in Abu Dhabi, which has become the center of super-tall skyscraper construction and innovation in the past decade.

Six Years To 100 Stories

One World Trade Center is essentially at 100 stories (or it will be by next week). The two tower cranes are already above that level, and the steel is continuing to be erected on the tower as it nears preparation for the antenna/spire that will ultimately rise to 1,776 feet.

It's been a long and painful journey to this point, and the following video is a time-lapse of the construction from its inception:

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 156

1 WTC (the Freedom Tower) is poised to be the tallest building in New York City within the next two weeks. It's just a matter of time before the steel perimeter reaches its apex and work can proceed on the roof and antenna levels.

"The World Trade Center perimeter steel is up the 100th floor," said Foye, at a press conference following the authority's monthly board meeting today. "I think if not today, tomorrow, next week, shortly we're gonna be the tallest building in Manhattan, eclipsing even the Empire State Building."

The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall, according to the Skyscraper Museum.

The tower will eventually reach 1,776 feet, but that includes a roughly 400 foot high antenna mast.

Meanwhile, there's been little progress made on resolving the financing and construction of the museum complex adjacent to the tower. That means that the completion date will continue to slide later and later and will likely mean at least a 2013 open at the earliest. It should have been opened around 3Q 2012.

At the same time, work is proceeding on the podiums for 2 and 3 WTC, though no word has been given as to whether they will be built out to their anticipated heights or just built for the retail space on the lower levels.

4 WTC construction continues, though at a slower pace.

Infrastructure for Greenwich Street, which runs atop the 1/9 subway box continues to be installed, and it will be a matter of time before that critical project is completed.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 155

The Freedom Tower (1WTC) is approaching its topping out. The tower is probably a week or two away from completing the bulk of construction. While the tower's antenna would remain to be built, the rest of the tower would be in the process of being fitted out for occupation.

Meanwhile, the NYPD has come up with a new security plan that makes little sense and would do more to disrupt traffic in Lower Manhattan than one could possibly imagine. It goes to the very inanity of the master plan's intention to restore the street grid (which resulted in a reduction of space that could be dedicated for the museum and memorial).

The security plan would create vehicle checkpoints along all major thoroughfares leaning towards the Trade Center site.

The NYPD's controversial new security plan for the World Trade Center will place stringent vehicle checkpoints and barricaded secure zones on all four sides of the complex, locking down several neighboring blocks lined with residential buildings and businesses beginning as soon as next year, police revealed.

Residents were in an uproar after learning of the NYPD's preliminary plans — unveiled at a Community Board 1 meeting Monday night — that will not only close off all the streets running through the World Trade Center site but will also close portions of Liberty Street, Vesey Street, Church Street, Washington Street, Greenwich Street and West Broadway.

"Am I going to have to go through security ever time I try to get home?" asked Mark Scherzer, 60, who has lived at 125 Cedar St. for 34 years and would now be partially in a secure zone.
"We didn't sign on to be part of the Trade Center campus," Scherzer added. "It's very concerning."

Vehicles looking to access the restricted areas will have to detour through one of four checkpoints and will have to submit to a security screening before being allowed inside, police said.

Lt. David Kelly, who works in the NYPD's counterterrorism bureau, told Community Board 1 that the security measures are necessary to protect the new World Trade Center towers from a truck bomb.

The four entry points include: Washington Street, between Barclay and Vesey streets, for 7 World
Trade Center's loading docks; West Broadway, between Barclay and Vesey streets, for livery and private vehicles; Trinity Place, at Liberty Street, for tour buses; and West Street, at Liberty Street, for vehicles going underground to make deliveries or park, Kelly said.

At each entry point, vehicles will first pass through a credentialing zone, where drivers will have to show that they have legitimate business on the site, and then they will go through security screening, Kelly said.

While residents may be able to register their cars as trusted vehicles and circumvent some of the security, the NYPD has not yet determined the details, and it may be especially difficult for those who rely on cabs.

Kelly said the security would be more advanced than the measures now in place in areas like the New York Stock Exchange, where vehicles are checked with dogs and mirrors.

Currently, there's a security checkpoint on Broadway below Liberty Street, and that has a tendency to back traffic up past City Hall. Additional checkpoints would be an additional inconvenience and makes one question the need for a vehicle security center for vehicles actually entering the WTC site.

This plan would essentially create a vehicle-free zone in Lower Manhattan, which may be something that the Bloomberg Administration wants, but it creates all manner of problem for those living and working in Lower Manhattan. It would create undue hardships for those living in Battery Park City and would be a further cost on the NYPD budget.

Under this proposal, the security perimeter for the WTC complex would be moved further away from the 16 acres that comprise the site. We don't see this kind of security in Washington DC, where major streets remain passable without security checkpoints, even around the White House.

However, if the NYPD asserts a vehicle free zone, then why was a street grid so necessary for purposes of the master plan? That's a question that the Port Authority has to answer - and one that makes little sense.

Frankly, a vehicle free zone (prohibiting cars and thru-traffic trucks) around the World Trade Center site would be a welcome addition due to the amount of congestion. It would allow buses to run more efficiently through the area and reduce congestion and pollution.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 153

The cost for the Freedom Tower (aka 1WTC) is now expected to top out at nearly $3.8 billion dollars. That's $700 million more than the last estimate given, and billions more than the originally estimated cost for the tower. It now ranks as the most expensively constructed skyscraper in the world.

Much of the cost is due to the increased and enhanced security and safety measures built into the iconic structure at the World Trade Center site, but there are new problems to contend with.

It now appears that the loading dock for the tower wont be ready in time for it to open for business with Conde Nast and other tenants moving in to the building in 2014 and 2015. The plan was to have a loading dock with 15 bays for trucks to allow deliveries, but now the Port Authority will have to build a temporary dock and deliver items through one of the building's street level entrances. This will add additional costs to the overall total, and strains credulity of the Port Authority to deliver the building on time.

The Port Authority certainly can't deliver the building on cost and its explanations for the situation also raise troubling questions of their own:

All involved insist the dock delay won’t interfere with tenants moving into their space by late 2014 or early 2015 — or with leasing the roughly 900,000 square feet that remain up for grabs in the 3.05 million square-foot tower.

“Five bays are enough for everybody,” a source said — which begged the question of why 13 are planned.

Contrary to what’s been expected at all the new WTC towers, the temporary dock won’t connect to the underground Vehicle Security Center that the PA is building just south of the 16-acre WTC site.

Although all vehicles bound for the towers are supposed to be screened for bombs and other terrorist threats at the VSC, the NYPD — which is responsible for security at the WTC in “collaboration” with the PA — is said to have “no objection” to the above-ground dock, a source told us.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “The NYPD has had discussions with the [PA] on how to conduct screening in the interim until access to the security facility is completed.”

Commissioner Ray Kelly in the past strongly asserted the force’s role at the site — even requiring the redesign and relocation of 1 WTC seven years ago, when it was still called the Freedom Tower.

The loading dock will be on the tower’s east side. It cannot now be connected to the VSC for a simple reason: the temporary PATH station, immediately east of 1 WTC, stands in the way of the vehicle tunnel route. So one temporary facility begets another.

The route, starting at the VSC, turns east beneath Liberty Street, then north beneath Greenwich Street — and then west through what’s now the temporary PATH terminal toward 1 WTC.
The temporary PATH station can’t be dismantled until the huge, way-behind-schedule Hub is completed — which can’t happen before 2015.

So, the Port Authority has to build a temporary loading dock because the temporary PATH terminal can't be demolished until after the permanent hub is built. That means that delays with one part of the site creates a ripple effect across the entire site.

But much more troubling is the fact that the Port Authority sought to build a 15-bay loading dock but claims that 5 should be more than sufficient for the building's needs. That raises questions as to why 13 were needed in the first place - and the cost associated with all the additional space needed for the bays. That's space that could have gone for other purposes - including additional space for the WTC museum (which is behind schedule and construction has all but stopped as a result of a spat between the Port Authority and museum officials). Even after the temporary PATH station is deconstructed, a permanent docking area for 1WTC wont be ready until foundations are poured for the performing arts center that is planned for that site.

It's the same question I have raised numerous times over the temporary construction of the PATH hub. The temporary hub was built with three platforms and five tracks, but construction has meant that one of the platforms and two tracks were demolished to make way for the permanent alignment. Why was it necessary to spend the money on that excess capacity in the first place.

Once again, we see that the Port Authority cannot contain costs and its eyes are bigger than its pocketbook (which it can more or less pass on the added costs to commuters across the bridges, tunnels, and PATH system).

On the positive side, steel is now rising above the street on the site where 2 WTC is expected. It's still unclear whether the full tower will be built anytime soon, or whether it will be built as a stub for retail space with the office tower to be built later.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 152

Once again, rebuilding at Ground Zero is threatening to come to a screeching halt. This time, Larry Silverstein is warning that rebuilding of 3WTC, which was designed by Richard Rogers, would be capped at a stump of 7 stories, because he can't find tenants and wont build it out on spec.

The discussions with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the lower Manhattan site, are based on a 2010 agreement that required the developer to have private financing and an anchor tenant in place, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Meeting those conditions would qualify the project for financial support from the agency, as well as the city and state.

Finding one or more anchor tenants for at least 400,000 square feet (37,000 square meters), as required, has proved tougher than anticipated as New York’s financial companies reduce staff and cut back on their space needs. The tower, designed by Richard Rogers, the Pritzker Prize-winning British architect, is designed to have 2.8 million square feet, according to Silverstein Properties Inc.’s website.

Silverstein said in a statement today that he remains “100 percent committed and determined to build 3 World Trade Center to the top as quickly as possible.” The developer is “fully optimistic” that he can sign a lease in time to complete the tower in 2015, as scheduled, he said.

Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, declined to comment.

The plans are flexible enough that Silverstein could reverse the capping of the building should he meet the tenant and financing requirements, said the people familiar with the discussions.
Crain’s New York Business reported the talks on its website Sunday.

While Silverstein could resume construction, it would mean that the area around the WTC site would remain a construction zone for the foreseeable future, and that would further mean that access to the WTC memorial would be constricted due to the ongoing construction of the adjacent areas.

2 WTC, designed by Sir Norman Foster, will only be built to street level at this time, because of a lack of tenants for that tower. 2 WTC would be the second tallest building on the site, and that means that at this point, only two of the four skyscrapers would be completed within the next two years.

That follows numerous reports showing that the Port Authority is having all kinds of issues with one of its steel fabricators, involving cost overruns and change orders that threatens to derail topping out 4WTC. For the moment, steel deliveries continue, but that could change depending on the resolution with the fabricator.

Then, there's the whole mess with the ongoing fight between the Port Authority and the WTC Memorial/Museum Foundation over who owes who how much. Construction to finish the museum has ground to a halt, and the opening date has been pushed back into 2013 from its September 2012 projected opening date. The Port Authority is also falling further behind on construction of the PATH transit hub, to say nothing of the out-of-control costs associated with that project.

The Foundation is back in the news after the Record reported that the salaries of top officials soared in 2011. Those defending the salaries claim that they are in line with other nonprofits, though critics will note that these employees are making money off the terror attacks.

Seven other executives, whose offices overlooked last year's Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, made more than $200,000 at the non-profit, and its president made $378,000.

Some vocal Sept. 11 victims' family members have criticized the compensation as excessive and say the federal government should not hand over taxpayer money without requiring transparency and tighter financial controls.

The foundation is asking federal lawmakers to support proposed legislation that would provide the non-profit with $20 million annually to run the site, or about one-third of its operating budget.

Jimmy Riches, a former New York City deputy fire chief whose 29-year-old firefighter son died in the north tower, said the memorial foundation has become a "commercial enterprise" and he likened Gerner's contract to that of a professional athlete.

"Who is she, Kobe Bryant?" he said. "What they're doing is making money off 9/11. People donate money to 9/11, and they're lining their pockets with it. This is totally wrong, and I think it's disrespectful to people who died."

Foundation officials say the salaries are in line with similar institutions.

"The employee compensation we offer is both competitive and comparable to other similarly situated non-profits," Joe Daniels, the foundation's president, said in a prepared statement. "I couldn't be prouder of the commitment and professionalism of the memorial staff."

Considering that the Foundation continues having issues raising the necessary funds to operate, finding ways to reduce its costs and benefit structure would be in order. Yet, the organization is not taking those steps, and is instead looking for a handout to keep the salaries at their current levels.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 151

The Freedom Tower (1WTC) is now fast approaching 100 stories, and should top out at over 1,300 feet in the first quarter of next year.

The problems are elsewhere on the site - the WTC National 9/11 museum construction work has come to a standstill over money.

The Port Authority says the memorial and museum foundation owes it millions.

The foundation sees it exactly the other way around.

“You know, it’s hard to see us getting to a courtroom, but if it has to go there, it has to go there,” said Bloomberg on Thursday.

The mayor, who is also foundation chairman, added we have an obligation to make sure that the people who contributed something like $425 million have the memorial and museum built the way they thought it would get done.

Once again, we see the Port Authority fighting with those who are trying to get work done around the site. It's a fight over some $300 million in work that has to be completed before the museum can be opened to the public. Mayor Bloomberg claims that the Port Authority has cut off payments to workers, halting construction, and it would appear that the number of workers on site have declined sharply.

“Construction has come basically to a halt,” the mayor told reporters at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx, disputing the Port Authority's math.

“We don’t think we owe anything," he said. "In fact, we think that the Port Authority actually owes us something like $140 million."

Coleman refuted the mayor’s stop-work claim.

“We are in active negotiations with the city, but construction is ongoing at the Memorial,” he said.

An official familiar with the construction who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there is some work continuing on the site, but that the ranks of workers have dwindled from hundreds to several dozen.

The dispute has become so heated that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who revealed the cost hike during a radio interview Thursday, said the two sides could wind up in court.

It “is so bad they’re on the verge of litigation, believe it or not,” he said.

So, who owes who the money involved at the heart of the dispute? I can't really tell.

However, there's a looming mess over how the operating budget for the museum will be conducted and whether the museum will have to charge patrons for viewing the museum. It's my longstanding position that the museum should be free to all, and that costs should be recouped from tour bus and parking fees (as done at other venues such as Mount Rushmore).

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 149

While the Freedom Tower (1WTC) continues rising towards its ultimate height of 1,776 feet, there has been an ongoing issue about how the first 20 stories of the tower will be clad. Under the original design, prismatic glass would clad the exterior, but tests revealed that the glass would not react properly to explosions - it would cause huge shards, rather than turn into pebbles like other tempered glass.

So, the glass idea was scrapped and a replacement was sought.

The new plan still involves glass, but it's of a different type and configuration.

The new design for the exterior cladding on One World Trade Center features horizontal stainless steel panels behind vertical glass fins going up the 20 stories of the fortress-like base.

“They will reflect light during the day and the night and give the building’s base a distinctive look,” said Port Authority executive director Patrick Foye on Tuesday. “In the evening, the combination of the water and the lights on the memorial pools we think, frankly, will be picked up by the glass on the podium at One World Trade Center and it’s consistent with the overall aesthetic of the site.”

These glass louvers will allow backlighting to give a distinctive effect for the base, and hopefully lighten the base, which is comprised of concrete surrounding the lobby area to minimize the effects of a potential car or truck bomb.

The cost for the new glass is $37.2 million for engineering, fabricating, and installing the glass facade and the installation will occur in 2013 as the tower is being completed. The original design glass installation was to cost $80+ million, but no one has made an accounting for how much money has been spent on the original design.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 147

As 1WTC and 4WTC continue rising skywards, onlookers can look forward to a topping out on both skyscrapers in the first quarter of 2012.

Nearly 1,000 workers are now at work building what will soon be New York’s tallest skyscraper, 1 World Trade Center (WTC). The tower, under construction since late 2008, now stands 86 stories tall, on its way to topping out at 104 stories of steel in the first quarter of 2012.

Across the site, 4 WTC steel has reached the 44th floor, also set to top out in early 2012 at 64 stories. Already its sub-grade construction is more than 90 percent complete, with utilities and concrete pours steadily progressing on upper stories.

The construction update was presented to Community Board 1’s WTC committee by the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties this week. The Port Authority’s Assistant Director of WTC Construction Quentin Brathwaite reported several more rebuilding milestones, including that the Port’s work on the western concourse, also called the “east-west connector,” is expected to be complete by the end of this year. It then will be turned over to World Financial Center owner Brookfield Properties for finishing work that will tie into the new entry house at the Winter Garden.

At the WTC’s south end, Brathwaite said that excavation in the south bathtub for Vehicular Security Center (VSC) construction is proceeding at an accelerated pace at the 130 Liberty Street site. On the site’s west side, a new crane was recently installed to lift in oversized steel members that will form the substructure.

9/11: Ten Years Later

It was literally a bolt from the blue. The skies over New York City were a crisp bright blue with nary a cloud in a sky. It was a morning full of promise.

New Yorkers were heading to the polls to vote on the next mayor of the city. People were talking baseball and the upcoming football season. All while the region was stirring for the day ahead, al Qaeda's terrorists were already on board four jets bound for New York and Washington DC and had already overpowered the crews.

I was on a NJ Transit train with my dad when I first noticed something wrong at the WTC out of the corner of my eye; it was smoke coming from the upper reaches of the tower.

It was just around 8:45.

The world changed, and I didn't quite realize it.

People watching the morning news didn't know it either at first. But they would soon be glued to broadcasts that showed the horrors of the worst terror attacks ever perpetrated.

The damage done on that morning was nearly impossible to comprehend. In the mere blink of the eye, nearly 3,000 people were condemned to death and the World Trade Center would soon be reduced to a pile of rubble that burned for weeks on end. But the death rattle of the Twin Towers would continue for nearly two hours and victims trapped above the fires had to make the choice to stay and choke on the heat and smoke or jump to a certain death. All too many make that decision to jump. Firefighters on the ground also succumbed before the towers fell - falling debris hitting firefighters and fleeing people alike.

Victim Number One would be there to comfort those who fell. Rev. Mychal Judge of the FDNY was comforting fallen firefighters and office workers alike when he was struck and killed by debris. So many people inside the Department and around the City thought so highly of him that he was honored as the first victim of the attacks - so that he could comfort and aid all those many others who were murdered on that day - to guide them to Heaven.

All too many would unfortunately follow him - and not by their own choice.

Lower Manhattan was engulfed in smoke and debris as the towers fell. Emergency personnel, still choking on the dust that would swirl through Lower Manhattan for days and weeks to come, quickly moved to seek to help those who may have been trapped beneath all the rubble. They formed bucket brigades, moving debris a handful at a time. Occasionally, the remains of a victim would be discovered and crews would solemnly remove the remains.

There were moments of heroism all around, and not just from emergency personnel. MTA subway workers made important decisions independent of their superiors to evacuate passengers from areas around the World Trade Center saving countless lives in the process.

Emergency personnel would be at Ground Zero around the clock for weeks on end before officials would claim that the site had officially been cleared of remains. Many of them would later become ill from the effects of breathing in all the dust and debris that was pulverized by the collapsing towers, and it is one of the sadder chapters from 9/11 that we are still burying victims of the attacks to this day, including James Zadroga (even as some medical experts dispute that Zadroga died of exposure at Ground Zero.

People who risked their lives to save others and to help families who lost loved ones find remains of the victims are themselves victims of the attacks. The Zadroga Act isn't perfect by any means and it has come too late for some, but it's a start to compensate and aid families of responders who are suffering from all manner of ailments (but not cancer to this point) attributed to Ground Zero exposure.

We cannot allow petty political differences prevent the delivery of critical aid to these emergency personnel and those who selflessly strode into the unknown to help provide rescue and recovery from the debris of Ground Zero all while environmental agencies proclaimed the air was safe to breathe - it wasn't.

Even after the fires were being put out and officials claimed that the site had been cleared of remains, it turns out that victims' remains would be discovered months and even years thereafter on buildings surrounding Ground Zero including the rooftop of the former Deutsche Bank building. The death toll, which was once feared to be more than we could bear - in the tens of thousands, would eventually drop to around 2,742 at the World Trade Center. That count may rise once again as more and more emergency personnel working at Ground Zero succumb to ailments attributed to exposures at Ground Zero.

Efforts to quench the pile and enable crews to begin searching for remains was an all but impossible task in the immediate aftermath of the attacks since most of the water mains in the area were destroyed by the collapsing towers. That meant that the heavy lifting had to be carried out by FDNY fireboats supported by the John J. Harvey, a retired fireboat with a civilian crew. The Harvey, alongside the city's two active fireboats pumped water nearly continuously over the next several days as crews raced to repair fire hydrants to get more water on the fires. Just a few years earlier, the Harvey was set to be scrapped but for the new owners who restored the boat.

Since then, the City has received funds to buy new fireboats, and there are reports of teething problems since the two fireboats (The 343 - in honor of the 343 firefighters killed on 9/11 and the Firefighter II) were christened on September 10, 2010.

Thomas Franklin, the Record's photographer who caught perhaps the most famous photo after the collapse (the firefighters raising an American flag that harkened back to the famous Iwo Jima flag raising) has put together a series of photos and recollections of his own along with other photographers who were witnesses to history.



Video footage has encompassed nearly every aspect of the attacks, but every now and then new footage shows up that presents a different vantage of the attacks.

Even nearly 10 years after the attacks, new footage has come to light as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request for NYPD footage taken from a helicopter circling the World Trade Center in the critical moments before the towers collapsed. That video mirrors photos taken by NYPD Aviation Unit Detective Greg Semendinger, who took more than 300 photos (film and digital) during the course of the day. NIST released those photos in 2010 as part of another FOIA request.

More recently, FEMA released video taken on 9/11 and the rescue efforts beneath the fallen World Trade Center, including investigating tunnels, the PATH station, the shopping mall, and other areas for survivors or victims.



And then, just in the past week, new video has surfaced from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, showing the smoke plume from when Flight 93 crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers rose to fight off the hijackers and crashed the plane into the countryside rather than allow the terrorists to fly into their presumed target, which was either the Capitol building or the White House.



The National Flight 93 Memorial is being dedicated on Saturday and opening to the public on Sunday, after temporary memorials marked the spot where Flight 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers learned the fate of the other hijacked airliners and chose to fight than see another national landmark attacked.


Coming full circle, just this past May 1, 2011, the world learned that the United States finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. In a daring raid on a compound near Pakistan's military academy, US special forces killed bin Laden and captured a treasure trove of intel that will help the intelligence community and military plan further campaigns against the terrorists who did so much damage. 

Yet, all those events of this past May and the celebration and reflection pale in comparison to what happened on that fateful day and the nearly 3,000 people murdered across New York, Washington DC at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Here are remembrances of a few of those killed on 9/11, as written by my friend legalbgl for Project 2,996:
Captain Patrick J. Brown (2010).
Hagay Shefi (2009).
Alison Marie Wildman (2008).
Daniel Thomas Afflito (2007).

In addition to all the people who will be sorely missed, we also lost a cultural touchstone when the Twin Towers came down. From the moment they poked out over the surrounding skyscrapers and raced towards the sky, Hollywood used them as a backdrop on everything from a remake of King Kong to a montage/cut scene for the television show Friends. The following video shows a bunch of movies that included the towers in the fore- or background:

Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

(Special thanks to Donna Grunewald for her extensive list) http://wtcinmovies.tripod.com/chrono.html

Here's another video, from the movie Godspell, which concludes atop the still under construction WTC:


The band Depeche Mode even did a video Enjoy the Silence atop the outdoor observation deck at the WTC.

Even today, there are movies being released that reference the Twin Towers or use footage relating to the Towers.

Like all those killed on 9/11, the towers will be missed even if they were not the architectural gems that critics wished for. They were meant to be impressive and to impress upon the sky a sense of grandeur and permanence. What we had for 10 years was a profound sense of absence, and its successor with 1WTC will recapture only part of that.

We will have a new memorial and we will have new skyscrapers and architectural and engineering wonders at Ground Zero.

And yet, the site will always be tinged with sadness.

The skyline will never be the same.

Neither will our hearts, which are heavy with the loss and supreme sacrifices made on 9/11 by the rescue personnel who bravely rushed up the towers even as people were racing to get out of the towers or gasping as people were forced to jump to their deaths to avoid being burned alive in the fires that racked the towers.

For my prior year recollections and postings, see September 11, 2010, September 11, 2009,  September 11, 2008, September 11, 2007, September 11, 2006, and September 11, 2005.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 142

This is a photo of 4WTC getting its glass curtain wall along Liberty Street. The builders have built sidewalk sheds along the south side of Liberty following an accident where a piece of metal fell through safety netting on 4WTC and caused minor injuries to a pedestrian.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.1

Meanwhile, work continues on the Freedom Tower and it has now reached the point in steel erection where the 8 triangular segments are equidistant as the tower torques 45 degrees from above the pedestal base to the roofline.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.1

It's pretty remarkable how close the Freedom Tower appears to follow the mockups for the tower once this design was agreed upon, although the base will end up being a different design due to technical issues with the glass that was intended to be use to wrap the base.

Also, the Freedom Tower is now taller than 7WTC, which sits adjacent to the tower and was the first building rebuilt following the attacks. When completed, the Freedom Tower will be nearly twice as tall as 7WTC and other Lower Manhattan buildings as it becomes North America's tallest skyscraper.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 136

While construction is proceeding on the Freedom Tower and is now surpassing 7 WTC as the tallest of the buildings at Ground Zero (on its way to the ultimate height of 1,776 feet), it seems that there's a problem with the design element for the tower's base.

The Freedom Tower as seen from Liberty Street

The glass cladding, which was supposed to be able to absorb explosions and break apart into tiny bits, isn't acting as designed or planned. Instead, tests reveal that blast damaged glass turns into large shards that can cause grievous injuries. This means that the prismatic glass element will be scrapped in favor of another option.

The plan was to drape the base with 2,000 clear prismatic glass panels and welded aluminum screens to create, in the words of the architect, “a dynamic, shimmering glass surface.”

But the glass has proved difficult to manufacture at that scale. In trials, the refinishing required for the prismatic effect has left the glass brittle and prone to shatter. With the steel frame of the building now rising to the 65th floor, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has scrapped the idea and sent the architects back for yet another revision.

“As design moved to the testing phase, it became clear that the prismatic glass simply had too many technical problems to overcome and at a budget that was not cost effective,” said John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority. “We have been finalizing a design that will be far more practical while being both distinctive and magnificent.”

About $10 million had already been spent on the glass. David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who designed the tower and the prismatic glass covering, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Douglas Durst of the Durst Organization, which owns a 10 percent stake in the building and is in charge of leasing it, said the switch in plans should have no effect on the timetable for the building, scheduled to open in January 2014. The new facade is likely to be made of more traditional clear glass panels, possibly with granite elements to tie it into the surrounding plazas.

The problem with the glass illustrates the tension inherent in the entire $3.2 billion project: how to create a skyscraper that is at once iconic and defended against terrorism, while also containing costs.

Some of the issues arose in the manufacturing process, where the glass was tempered, treated, and processed to create the prismatic look. The problem is that all the manufacturing processes done created a brittle glass that broke into shards rather than bits.

Meanwhile, new safety precautions have been put in place at 4WTC (HT: Curbed NY), where a metal bar fell through safety netting and hit a 10 year old pedestrian on Liberty Street causing minor injuries.

Local residents and businesses have also suggested construction of sidewalk sheds to further protect pedestrians and those working in the area from falling debris (I'm among those who regularly walk in that area). It definitely makes sense to improve safety procedures to prevent further safety incidents such as this.

Freedom Tower and the 9/11 Memorial Through the Construction

This photo was taken from Liberty Street near where the former Deutsche Bank building once stood. It shows the plaza and grove of trees planted that ring the two footprint memorials that comprise the Reflecting Absence 9/11 memorial design. The Freedom Tower is now at or above the height of neighboring 7WTC and is fast approaching the height of the 7 Spruce (Frank Gehry's skyscraper) as the tallest in Lower Manhattan.

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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 135

Steve Cuozzo of the Post suggests retiring the name Ground Zero because of the connotations it possesses, and that we should again be calling it the World Trade Center (WTC). After all, Towers 1 and 4 are being built and are reaching to impressive heights, and the transit hub is well underway. The memorial's above-ground features are largely in place.

Freedom Tower as seen from West. St

I've used the terms mostly interchangeably over the years since 9/11 - headlining Ground Zero as part of my ongoing coverage of the fight to rebuild. In time I figure that people will again call it WTC; the Port Authority pretty much made the call to keep the WTC moniker when they reestablished PATH service in 2003 just months after the site was cleared of much of the debris. The MTA too calls it WTC. I guess that people of a certain age will also know the site as Ground Zero, while others will see it as WTC.

As for the 9/11 memorial, one of the key features is the presentation of the names of all those murdered by al Qaeda on that fateful day both here in New York City and those in Pennsylvania and Washington DC, as well those murdered in the 1993 WTC bombing that preceded the 9/11 attacks.

Start with a map.

In essence, that is what the National September 11 Memorial and Museum issued on Wednesday: a clear, navigable computerized guide to the location of every name inscribed on the bronze parapets that are being installed along the perimeters of the pools where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

It is the last critical design detail to be announced in a process that began more than seven years ago with the naming of Michael Arad and Peter Walker and Partners as architects of the 9/11 memorial. The memorial is to open to family members on Sept. 11 and to the public, by reservation, the next day.

Meanwhile, victims’ family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances — and the public, too — can find out for the first time exactly how the names are arranged. On the memorial’s Web site, they can also learn which names have deliberately been placed near others to denote what Mr. Arad calls “meaningful adjacencies.”

That adjacency might mean the victims were close friends or fond acquaintances, were related by blood or marriage or simply common interests, that they bowled together or dined together. It was up to victims’ relatives to make a request.

“Over 1,200 requests were made to bring that opportunity into the design,” Mr. Arad said on Wednesday. “All of them were met.”

“It really enriches the memorial,” he said. “It allows families’ and friends’ stories to be told.” He said the “river” of names, without other identification (like age or title or company affiliation), was meant to convey simultaneously a sense of individual and collective loss.

“It was important to not put the names in an arrangement that looked like the pages of a ledger,” Mr. Arad said. “To the naked eye, it looks random. But to those who know, and for those who bother to learn, it is anything but.”

Pains were taken in laying out the names to ensure that Person A would be next to Person B, while Person B would be near Person C. And so on. “It involved a combination of the most complex computerized algorithms and the most basic analog function of pinning something up on the wall,” Mr. Arad said.

Announcement of the names arrangement was not timed to coincide with President Obama’s visit to the World Trade Center on Thursday, said Joseph C. Daniels, the president and chief executive of the memorial and museum.

Instead, he said, the idea was “to communicate with families significantly ahead of time so they can start familiarizing themselves with the locations.”

The arrangement does not go nearly as far as some family members had hoped in specifying where victims were employed, on what floors they worked and how old they were. But it is a significant change from the purely random system once advocated by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is chairman of the memorial foundation.

In a compromise reached in 2006, victims were grouped by north and south tower, or by flight, with panels set aside for victims at the Pentagon and those who died in the 1993 attack on the trade center. A separate section was set aside for “first responders,” principally firefighters and police officers.

Ground Zero seen from livecam; WTC memorial and Freedom Tower visible

UPDATE:
The WTC Memorial CEO Joe Daniels has announced that access to the memorial will be provided through a free ticketing system available online.

Memorial CEO Joe Daniels said Thursday that the online ticketing system will be activated sometime in July.

The memorial will open to victims’ families on Sept. 11.

Once it’s open to the public, starting Sept. 12, priority will be given to visiting family members.

The memorial will be the first thing that opens on the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

It will be surrounded on all sides by construction activity.

Daniels said memorial visitors will be instructed to report to a location south of the site.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 132

The trees that will comprise the memorial grove are starting to bud and bloom. Installation of the memorial grove began last fall, and has continued through the winter as weather permitted.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion is starting to get glassed in.

The Freedom Tower is closing in on about half of its ultimate height of 1,776 feet, and it appears that the eight sides of the tower due to the inverted triangle sides is reaching its halfway point. Also, glass cladding has been erected on the first 15 floors that will be leased.

Freedom Tower as taken from within Ground Zero via Port Authority live cam

Another view of Ground Zero - as viewed from the Church Street side:

Construction is proceeding all throughout Ground Zero, and one can see the beginning of work on foundations for 2WTC, or the support structure that will go where 2WTC belongs when it is ultimately built (bottom right corner). Work on the transit hub is also continuing, and the large crane in the center of the screen is working on lifting the heavy steel used in that portion of the project.

With the 10th anniversary fast approach, other communities are looking to get their own memorials and commemorations underway, including in Weehawken, New Jersey. The Arizona 9/11 memorial continues to receive flack over its design and inclusion of various terms and phrases:

Legislation proposed for consideration by a Senate committee today would require removal of panels bearing 11 inscriptions that a supporter of the measure said are “offensive” and that detract from the memorial’s purpose in honoring those killed and injured in the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Instead of it being a true patriotic memorial to dead and wounded, other agendas were ... trying to arouse American guilt and other things that many of us believe should not be there,” said Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson. “This has been a long-standing problem and I’m proud to be a party of legislators (working) to get his fixed once and for all.”

Inscriptions that would be removed include ones that say “Foreign-born Americans afraid,” “Must bomb back” and “You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles.”

The state commission that raised private funding for the memorial and chose its design replaced two other inscriptions several years ago in response to criticism.

The inscriptions, which were submitted by the public, are etched into a steel visor that partially circles the memorial located at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza near the Capitol.

Billy Shields, a former Phoenix firefighters union leader who was chairman of the memorial commission, said the legislative proposal to change the privately funded memorial is outrageous.

“We had family members on our commission that had lost loved ones on 9/11. We had a broad cross-section of Arizonans — Republicans and Democrats — and we went out to the public when we changed it,” Shields said. “It was a process, and it would let all those people down and the process down to change it through legislation.”

The memorial was dedicated in 2006 on the fifth anniversary of the attacks and became an issue in the 2006 gubernatorial race between Democratic then-Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican nominee Len Munsil.

Meanwhile, the 9/11 Memorial Foundation has leased the commercial space on the ground floor of a recently converted condo building directly to the south of Ground Zero to act as a screening center for three years. That's apparently irked the building's residents, even though there is no more logical place to handle the screening as construction restricts access to the site from other directions.

Until the site is completed, everyone in the vicinity of the complex has to deal with difficulties and crowds, which can only be expected to grow as the memorial, museum, and other components of the site are completed.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 126

The installation of the 152 bronze memorial plaques bearing the names of the nearly 2,800 people who were murdered in the 9/11 attacks has begun.

Finally, the World Trade Center is beginning to bear the names of those who died there.

These exclusive photographs obtained by the Daily News show workers installing the first of 152 bronze panels at the 9/11 memorial where the twin towers once stood.

By the time the memorial opens this fall - on the 10th anniversary of the attacks - almost 3,000 names will be emblazoned there in a permanent tribute to their memories.

"It just gave me the chills that Jeff's name is up there, because 10 years doesn't make the pain go away," Christie Coombs said after seeing the picture of her husband Jeffrey's name there.

"The permanence of it is a really hard reminder," added Coombs, 50, who lives in Abington, Mass., with their three kids. "Seeing this hits home that this is forever, and his name will be read by millions long after I'm gone."

The names will be lit from below and heated during the winter to prevent snow and ice buildup and cooled in the summer to prevent the metal from burning the hands of the millions expected to visit the site annually.

Meanwhile, there will soon be an app that enables visitors to see the site as it was on 9/11 and point out various landmarks throughout Ground Zero.

While the Freedom Tower continues rising skyward, developers are courting businesses around the world to become tenants at the tower. Vantone, a Chinese company, has already signed a lease for 200,000 sf, and Conde Naste is also expected to take a significant chunk of space (up to 1 million sf), but the developers are again looking to China for tenants to fill the rest of the building, rather than government agencies, which would drive down the asking rents too much. As it is, the Port Authority is scheduled to take up the bulk of the space at 4WTC, which is rising on the southeast corner of the site.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 125

Today marks the end of the former Deutsche Bank building after years of delays, a deadly fire that resulted in two firefighters losing their lives when standpipes and other safety measures were not in place, and decontamination of the building that took much longer than expected.

The building had been damaged by falling debris from the South Tower on 9/11 and the LMDC took ownership of the property so that it could make room for the vehicle security center and another office tower for the WTC complex. It was an ongoing symbol of the failure to rebuild in a timely fashion.

Freedom Tower viewed from WTC Memorial

Good riddance.

Meanwhile, construction proceeds throughout Ground Zero and workers continue raising steel on the Freedom Tower/1WTC along with 4WTC, and Fiterman Hall is being built out as well. The Freedom Tower's glass cladding is being installed above the 25th floor level, and you begin to get a sense of how close the tower will resemble its sketches and elevation views.


The 9/11 Memorial and Museum construction continues as more trees are being planted in the memorial grove and the museum structures are being built out. The PATH transit hub is also underway.

Here's an overhead view of the construction at Ground Zero:

Freedom Tower at Dusk

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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 123

Video showing steel being erected at the 52nd floor level of the Freedom Tower (1WTC) earlier this month:



The Port Authority also released the 3d Quarter 2010 milestone report, and they claim to have hit 13 of 13 milestones. However, that includes readjusting the timeline for demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building and construction of the new vehicle security center at the South end of Ground Zero. Also, Greenwich Street, which runs diagonally through the site will be built in a phased schedule to coincide with the opening of 4WTC and moving North until it connects with Vesey Street once the temporary PATH entrance is demolished.