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3 more WTC tower designs unveiled

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:35 PM EDT, September 7, 2006

Architects unveiled the designs for three office towers at the World Trade Center site Thursday, including a skyscraper topped by four shining diamonds that would light up lower Manhattan at night.

The buildings, designed by architects Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki, will join the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower around a transit hub and facing a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Foster said his tower's diamond panels would be positioned to incline toward the memorial as a sign of respect. "The top of the building is cut in such a way so that it responds to the perspective of that park," he said. "Wherever you are ... and you look at this tower, it will tell you where the memorial park is."

The towers, commissioned by developer Larry Silverstein, have wider floors -- eight specifically for financial trading -- on the lower levels and major plans for shops would replace the former mall at the trade center. They would extend two streets that did not exist at the former twin towers.

The towers, angular and descending in height in a semicircle around the memorial, would return more than 6 million of the 10 million square feet destroyed on Sept. 11. Construction is planned to begin in 2007 or 2008 and all are scheduled to be finished by 2012.

"These are some of the most stunning buildings you will see anywhere in the world," said Gov. George Pataki, who joined the architects at a news conference at the recently completed 7 World Trade Center . "It does respect the sanctity of this entire site." The largest of the planned buildings -- and the last scheduled to begin construction -- is a 78-story tower with a roof sliced into four diamond shapes and pointing toward the former twin towers.

It is designed by Foster, who uses the diamond pattern in the new Hearst Tower in Manhattan. The diamonds would be turned on at night, and would not have an observation deck as is planned for the Freedom Tower. Four trading floors, a 65-foot-high office lobby and major retail space is planned.

Rogers proposed a slender, 71-story tower with crisscrossing beams up and down the sides, a 180-foot-tall lobby and five trading floors. The building would offer three separate widths for its office floors and is topped by four 100-foot spires at each corner.

Rogers said he wanted his building to be as slender as possible "to send a stronger feeling of reaching upward." Maki's 61-story tower, sporting two different elevations, would be clad in a perforated, aluminum metal that would make it the lightest-colored of the three buildings. "Glass itself doesn't give too much luminosity, but metal does," he said.

Maki's building would have a restaurant and bar with panoramic views of the memorial. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, has committed to move to the building, which would begin construction first.

Officials had hoped to jump-start development of the site by focusing on retail plans and dividing responsibility for building five towers -- one is still planned for just across from the site -- between Silverstein and the Port Authority.

The Freedom Tower, the memorial and a permanent transit hub are currently under construction at the site. A performing arts center is planned, although there is no construction schedule, budget or released design for it. The city agreed Thursday morning to take over planning for the center, saying it would help ensure that it gets built.

The Freedom Tower's design underwent a major revision last year because of security concerns. Officials said the architects for the three new towers have met with police to hash over those concerns, so no major changes to the designs are expected.

Officials said that out of respect for the victims, none of the retail shops will face the memorial.