The Freedom Tower

From Project Rebirth.com
“Ambitious plans are in the making. As the most visible structure to rise from the redeveloped World Trade Center site, the Freedom Tower has been hailed by its creators as a new civic icon, an immensely visible example of the landmark architecture that will ultimately dominate the site. The design of the tower – which was unveiled to the public last winter at Federal Hall, only blocks from its future site – reveals an elegant and radiant structure, both torqued and tapering as it rises toward its apex, 1,776 feet above the streets below.

While desire for architectural innovation appears palpable, it is equally matched by the demand – from project critics and proponents alike – for safety. The structural integrity of the tower must ultimately serve to reassure not only its designers, but the thousands of visitors, employees and tenants who will find themselves inside. If the tower is to both satisfy the demand and quell the concerns of the public, it must at once be a vivid example of contemporary architecture and a benchmark of safety and security.

After 9/11, more than 18,000 commuters climbed aboard New Jersey transit commuter trains when the World Trade Center PATH stations below the WTC were destroyed. A report by the Alan Voohees Transpottation Institute at Rutgers says they’re still riding the NJ transit.
The study said most of the additional 18,000 passengers who stuffed themselves onboard NJ Transit commuter trains after 9/11 are still riding them, even after World Trade Center PATH service was restored in December 2003.

“The levels of travel to Penn Station New York is the same as it was, 43,000 people, as it was at the post-9/11 times,” Robins said. “The evidence is it will increase,” according to the Asbury Park Press.
“Those future increases will be driven by continuing development on the west side of Manhattan, which will bring in more people who work in the city and live in suburban New Jersey, he said. Already, the system is stressed, Robins said.
“The study also makes the case for building the proposed second set of Hudson River rail tunnels and related improvements to Penn Station to handle the future influx of passengers, he said.
“The level of 43,000 people is permanent, and it’s a stress level,” he said.

Ground Zero developer Silverstein Properties had an opening three weeks ago. It was a design studio on the 11th floor of 7 World Trade Center, a collaborative team put together by Larry Silverstein.
It’s a design studio that overlooks Ground Zero. The sign on the door says “Foster Maki Rogers. Foster designed Tower 2. Rogers is the architect of Tower 3. Maki is designing Tower 4. All of the buildings are tied together in one or more ways, particularly when it comes to security or the transportation hub being built by the Port of Authority.
The team was pulled together from Foster & Partners, Maki & Associates and the Richard Rogers Partnership; for Adamson Associates, the architectural firm coordinating the entire project; for W.S.P. Cantor Seinuk and Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the structural engineers; for Jaros, Baum & Bolles, the mechanical and electrical engineers; and for the Port Authority.
Once a month, firm representatives on this ad hoc design team report directly to Silverstein.

The French blog, The La Rochelle Times, is a self proclaimed source for investigative journalism.
Here’s their scoop:
“The Freedom Tower, set to replace the Twin Towers of the former World Trade Center, will be protected by a state-of-the-art electro-magnetic shield dubbed the “Liberty Forcefield.” Construction on the new skyscraper has only recently begun, delayed by the pesky victims’ families who want a memorial to commemorate the nearly 3,000 victims of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The project is now underway, over-budget and behind schedule, but nevertheless set for completion by 2012.”
The bloggers didn’t say how the forcefield works nor did they identify their sources, typically a requirement in American journalism circles.

The largest foundation pour in New York City since the construction of the original Twin Towers at the World Trade Center is underway.
Construction workers at Ground Zero began pouring concrete at Ground Zero last week. Forty years ago, the pouring of concrete for the Twin Towers was the largest excavation site in the city.
The foundation for what construction workers call the “east bathtub,” a four-foot thick wall of concrete that goes seventy feet below bedrock that goes a third of a mile around the site of three new towers and a transit hub that runs between Church and Greenwich streets.
The old bathtub was on the Westside of the site. In the new project, the Westside is where the World Trade Center Memorial and Freedom Tower.

The master planner for reconstruction of the World Trade Center plans to give a lecture on ways that architecture, memory and historical catastrophe are related. Daniel Libeskind, the architect for the Freedom Tower is also the designer of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Libeskind will give his lecture on March 1 at Indiana University Bloomington at the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union. A simultaneous Webcast will be held at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. In the Architecture Building.
“In addition to his superb sense of design, the mark of Daniel Libeskind’s brilliance as an architect lies in his ability to configure historical memory in concrete and compelling ways,” said Alvin Rosenfeld, director of the Institute for Jewish Culture and the Arts and founder of the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program at IU Bloomington. “His justly praised Jewish Museum in Berlin is one expression of his ability to fuse history, memory and structure, and it is certain that his design to rebuild the World Trade Center site in New York City will at least equal his achievement in Berlin.”

The US Navy has launched a new warship, the USS New York. It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center and is the fifth in a new class of warship designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists.
The USS New York will carry a crew of 360 crewmen and 700 Marines who can be delivered to combat areas by helicopters and assault craft.

 The World Trade Center scrap steel was melted down in a foundry in Amite, Louisiana, and used to cast the ship’s bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003. Foundry operations manager Junior Chavers said when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the “hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning for all of us. They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”

The ship’s motto is: “Never Forget.”

The World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response tells the history of the World Trade Center, the September 11 attacks, the rescue efforts, the evidence recovery operation at the Fresh Kills landfill, and the public response to the September 11th events. The traveling exhibition includes many objects, images, videos, and interactive stations documenting this tragic chapter in New York and America’s history, from the State Museum’s comprehensive collection.

A major long-term exhibition about the World Trade Center and the attacks of September 11, 2001 is available to the public in New York and to teahers around the country. The exhibition includes many objects, images, and video ands computer stations documenting this tragic chapter in New York and America’s history.

Teachers interested in this exhibit can take advantage of the traveling exhibition from the New York State Museum Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation at Fresh Kills. It is available now and includes fifty rare photographs and 40 objects. This tour makes this tragic New York story available to teachers and their students across the country

Anthropologists shifting through debris from Ground Zero found 39 more bones this week at a Brooklyn facility.
Forensic anthropologists hand searching through soil and debris samples found the fragments which were dug up from a road at the World Trade Center. The find yesterday was the largest since utility workers found 80 bones in an abandoned manhole.
The city of New York has earmarked $30 million is this second recovery effort and it is expected to take at least a year.

There may be hope yet that a new round of DNA testing of human remains found recently at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center site will produce better results.
The Associated Press is reporting that scientists have begun a second round of testing in the hope of obtaining better genetic material, said Ed Huffine, vice president of Bode Technology Group of Lorton, Va. Huffine is the lead scientist trying to identify thousands of human remain samples found at Ground Zero.
“We have to find which methods work best for the bones,” he told the AP. “We’ve only tried one method so far” but initial tests did not yield strong enough DNA to match the material to identified victims. But Huffine said they are using a new method and he says the new tests are yielding stronger result.
More than 1100 victims of the 9/11 attacks remain unidentified.