Wednesday - June 28, 2006

New Freedom Tower Design

Well, they removed the first attempted cornerstone and shipped it off to parts unknown. Now they’ve gone back to the drawing board and come up with an all-new design for That Which Shall Replace The World Trade Center. It’s still called the Freedom Tower and it looks a bit better than the last crappy design they came up with. Something seems to be missing though. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Hmmmm. Finger. Now there’s a thought.

Oddly enough, the base will be protected from truck bombs by “a series of thigh-high rectangular slabs on the site’s perimeter—resembling tombstones”. That doesnt’ quite cut it either. I prefer dragon’s teeth made from pure titanium with razor sharp edges and laser guided 50mm cannons. Now you’re talking FREEDOM! So tell me ... what do you think of the new design. Good? Bad? Mundane? Garbage? Don’t hold back ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The redesigned Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, planned to become America’s tallest building, will be a monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna, the architects said on Wednesday.

Symbolic of the Declaration of Independence, the reworked 1,776-foot centerpiece of the World Trade Center site unveiled by architect David Childs will have a base sheathed with rolled, heat-treated glass over concrete.

The new design uses a high-tech laminated safety glass, which if attacked by a truck bomb would shatter into falling pebbles, not break into flying shards. The exterior glass to be used is rolled with molten metal and the design features a vertical triangular rib motif, echoed throughout the building and on the antenna. 

The tower will be surrounded by groups of steps leading to the entrance, serving as a public plaza and security buffer zone. A series of thigh-high rectangular slabs on the site’s perimeter—resembling tombstones in an artist’s rendering—will guard against truck bombs. The antenna, to be used by radio and television broadcasters, has been given a more sculptural feel by Kenneth Snelson, a sculptor best-known for his Needle Tower, installed in New York’s Bryant Park in 1968.

The antenna raises the building from 1,338 feet—the height of the original World Trade Center’s 110-story twin towers—to the full 1,776 feet. Unlike most other glass-clad office buildings, the Freedom Tower will appear clear because they will remove the iron, which tints glass green, Kenneth Lewis of architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill told reporters at a preview.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/28/2006 at 03:06 PM   
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