Tuesday - November 12, 2013

Feels Less Than Honest

[May 14, 2013] Last week, a 40-ton spire was hauled up to the tippy-top of the new World Trade Center, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (well, maybe). Aside from raising the WTC to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, the spire will broadcast TV and radio signals.  [link which includes dizzying video looking down from that height.]

[today, November 12, 2013] New World Trade Center recognized as tallest building in US

An expert committee of architects has announced that New York’s new World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States at 1,776 feet.

The Height Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat announced its decision Tuesday morning in Chicago.

The committee is recognized as the final arbiter of building heights around the world. It had been weighing whether a design change meant the needle atop 1 World Trade Center is part of the actual building or merely the equivalent of a broadcast antenna.

The committee announced Tuesday that the needle was a spire, and therefore, a part of the actual building. Twenty-five members of the group met in Chicago on Nov. 8 to debate the height of the building.

The tower built on the site of the 9/11 attacks is a symbolically important 1,776 feet tall with the 408-foot needle. It would be 1,368 feet tall without it, shorter than the 1,450-foot Willis Tower in Chicago.

Pretty neat I guess, and of course the committee decided things this way. And it does kind of look like there are several little platforms around it with railings, although I doubt anyone in the public would be allowed up there. Besides, the energy from all the radio and TV signals would probably fry you. But if you can stand in it, or on it, then it’s not just an aerial, right?

Without the spire though, the new tower is exactly as tall as the old 1 WTC. The old one had 110 floors, with the top floor at 1347 feet elevation. The new one has 104 floors, with the top floor at 1,268 feet elevation. So the people-usable part of the new one is a bit lower, though somehow the roofs are at the same height. The last 100 feet at the top hide the HVAC and water systems, and the top of the open screening around them counts as the official “roof” *. I would have liked to see a new WTC that was solid building to 1776 feet, and then just under 225 feet of antenna on top for a symbolic 2001 feet 9.11 inches total height.

… a beacon at the pinnacle of the spire, 1,776 feet high, will be switched on and the 288,000 lumens of light emitted from it will be visible from 50 miles away, serving as a new visual marker for millions looking east from New Jersey, officials say.

According to the map, I ought to be able to see that beacon from here by looking to the ENE. I’ll have to try that, or perhaps find some higher open ground somewhere in the county.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/12/2013 at 12:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Architecture •  
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