Rising Above Ground Zero, Tower Slowly Takes Shape
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Already 314 feet
tall, 7 World Trade Center is designed to reach 52 stories and 750
feet. A view from an upper floor shows some of the planned 1.7 million
square feet of office space.
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By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Correction Appended After two and a half years of absence, there is a towering presence at ground zero. That
skyscraper of muscular concrete and sinewy steel on Vesey Street is not
just overlooking the World Trade Center site, it is part of it.
Building No. 7, the last tower lost on Sept. 11, 2001, is the first to
be rebuilt. Its emergence has surprised out-of-towners and even New
Yorkers who have not been to Lower Manhattan in a few months. Now
314 feet tall, the building is destined to reach 52 stories and 750
feet. It will be sheathed in sheer, water-clear glass, with a kinetic,
sculptural, stainless-steel wall by James Carpenter Design Associates
around the Consolidated Edison substation at the base. In a
speech today, Gov. George E. Pataki is expected to announce that power
will start flowing through the substation by the end of the month.
After the speech, he will visit 7 World Trade Center. (Mr. Pataki
may also soon announce a chairman for the World Trade Center Site
Memorial Foundation, which will oversee the creation of the memorial
and the cultural center. One prominent name mentioned among the
possible candidates is Sanford I. Weill, chairman and chief executive
of Citigroup and chairman of Carnegie Hall.) The governor's visit
to 7 World Trade Center may be a tonic for the developer, Larry A.
Silverstein, who has been fighting with his insurers over the main
trade center site. He holds 99-year leases on both parcels from the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. On Monday, a federal
jury whittled Mr. Silverstein's total possible insurance claim to $4.68
billion, about $2.5 billion less than he sought. As his potential
proceeds have shrunk, doubts have grown about Mr. Silverstein's ability
to complete four more office buildings around the site, after the $700
million 7 World Trade Center and the $1 billion- to-$1.3-billion
Freedom Tower, for which financing seems assured. But Mr.
Silverstein is no stranger to skepticism, since there were ample doubts
last year that he would build 7 World Trade Center. "I kept
hearing and hearing that," he recalled in an interview Monday. "When I
finally announced we had bought $60 million worth of steel, they still
didn't believe. I think people finally changed their minds when the
building reached 15 or 16 floors, and they said: 'You know what? He's
doing it.' " The structure is to pass the 615-foot mark in
October, marking the moment when the new 7 World Trade Center exceeds
the height of its shorter namesake, also built by Mr. Silverstein,
where Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had his emergency command center. This
will occur around the 20th anniversary of the first groundbreaking. Tishman
Construction Corporation, which built the first No. 7, is building its
replacement. Elio Cettina and Mike Pinelli are among the Tishman
executives involved in both projects. And a number of ironworkers are
reprising their roles, too, said Jack Klein, a vice president of
Silverstein Development. Seven World Trade Center is to be
finished in late 2005 or early 2006, with 1.7 million square feet of
office space. Apart from his own company, Silverstein Properties, Mr.
Silverstein does not yet have tenants. But in the time-honored
tradition of developers, he said there was "considerable interest,"
particularly now that there is a tower to see. Already visible
inside the tower is a hallmark of what is supposed to be its great
durability and safety: a concrete core around the elevator shafts and
fire stairs, two feet thick in most places. The stairways are ample,
five and a half feet wide, and the landings are deep enough to fit a
person in a wheelchair while others pass on the stairs. "A
firefighter carrying gear could walk up while people are walking down,"
said Nicholas Holt, an associate partner at Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill, which designed 7 World Trade Center, working with the
structural engineers at the Cantor Seinuk Group. (They are also Mr.
Silverstein's architects on the Freedom Tower.) The surprisingly
spacious lobby, sandwiched between two banks of Con Ed transformer
vaults, is framed by steel-jacketed columns five feet in diameter.
Outside, Greenwich Street will be recreated as a driveway for taxis and
limousines but not as a through street. Across the street, Mr.
Silverstein will build a 12,500-square-foot public park designed by Ken
Smith. The principal art in the lobby will be a 12-foot-tall wall
of glass and light-emitting diodes by James Carpenter and Jenny Holzer,
an artist known for using epigrams in her work. "What we did insist
upon was the choice of the words," Mr. Silverstein said. "I wanted
something uplifting, positive; that talked about renewal, talked about
America, talked about freedom, talked about what our values are about."
Correction: May 6, 2004, Thursday
An article yesterday about rebuilding at ground zero
gave an outdated title for Sanford I. Weill, a possible candidate for
chairman of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Foundation. Although
Mr. Weill remains chairman of Citigroup, the chief executive officer is
now Charles O. Prince.
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