The Freedom Tower

Complaints about the design and security of the Freedom Tower have resurfaced in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s apparent decision to back the project.
The latest rumblings come from Guy Nordenson.
Nordenson worked on the project four years ago with architect David Childs when Childs was the principal architect on the first version of the Ground Zero project. There have been numerous versions since those early years.
Nordenson says the current tower bares no resemblance to the original, a fact anyone who has been watching this project unfold is already aware of but Nordenson says the new design looks like a “gigantic glass paperweight with a toothpick stuck on top”… or he is quoting an unnamed critic of the existing design … but adds this design is going up “without any sense of orientation or any recognition of its place in the skyline. This is a shame, especially considering what the same architects showed they were capable of next door, in the elegant new 7 World Trade Center building.
“But it is understandable: not only were the architects rushed by Mr. (former Gov.) Pataki, but after the ordeal of the first design’s development and rejection, it seems natural that Mr. Childs would reach for a simple geometry the second time around. The result, unfortunately, would be second rate in Chicago, Dubai or Shanghai, and should not be the symbol of New York City, let alone freedom.”

When Eliot Spitzer was running for office, he made it clear that if elected, he would spend some of his first days in office taking a second look at the Freedom Tower project at the World Trade Center. Now that Spitzer is governor, he’s changed his mind.
“Too bad,” says Time Magazine, “his short lived misgivings probably represented the last chance to rethink a building so big, bland and bunkered it could have been ordered over the telephone by Stalin.”
Its not clear what that means, but the magazine says that if the Freedom Tower had been put on hold, “who knows, that might even thrown a wrench in plans for the three oversize towers that developer Larry Silverstein intends to raise along the border of the 9/11 memorial.
Its not clear what turned Spitzer’s head but I can tell you it wasn’t some notion that he’d hurt some feelings or worse. Eliot Spitzer is no George Pataki. Or more specifically, Pataki is no Eliot Spitzer so don’t expect the new governor to become a cheerleader for the World Trade Center projects just because his predecessor was one. Its just not his style, so lets look a little deeper this time. Eliot’s no fool.

It may have a patriotic name – The Freedom Tower – but if the most talked about building project in America is going to go up as planned, it will be built because the money to build it is available.
Over the last five years, it has been an up and down battle over whether the insurance companies who insured the Twin Towers will pay up. There has been an on-again, off-again problem with corporate and bureaucratic tenants occupying the tower. The recurring problem of finding new remains at the building site have all contributed to the questionable occupancy of this building any time soon.
So far, the Freedom Tower has been the center of all kinds of controversy, including questions over whether it will be able to attract tenants. So far, that’s a big if even while the money changers are debating the issue. There are no private tenants who have signed up in significant numbers to fill the 1,776 foot building. There’s lots of speculation that concerns the attractiveness of any lower Manhattan real estate. But there don’t seem to be any lines forming at Ground Zero to occupy the Freedom Tower.
But today, this teaser was put up on the Wall Street Journal’s website:
“The Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Manhattan still isn’t much to look at — a handful of beams rising from the pit roughly to ground level. But this week has brought the welcome news that private-equity funds and other investors are asking if its owner might be willing to sell the building that is supposed to replace the fallen Twin Towers …”
Stay tuned. This could change everything.

New Gov. Eliot Spitzer last year put a damper on all the enthusiasm surrounding construction of the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower by saying he planned to take a closer look at design plans for the project. At the time, Spitzer was vying for the top job in New York State., Now that he has it, the Associated Press says the governor has scrapped plans to reevaluate the project.
In a story that ran on BusinessWeek.com, the news magazine says Spitzer is impressed with the way tenants are renting 7 World Trade Center and demand for office space in lower Manhattan is growing too. The New York Times chimed in saying the Freedom Tower is becoming a more attractive investment.
So things may be looking up for a building that just a few months ago had no tenants. It is still uncertain who will occupy the building after a rash of criticism about state, federal and city agencies claiming to want premium space in the new building. Municipal and state employee unions have complains about agencies opting for space their members do not want to occupy.
Well, time will tell all. Time will tell.

Private investments are being sought by the Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey in the Freedom Tower, according to Commercial Property News.
News sources says the agency plans to sell the right to develop one of the office buildings at the redevelopment project at the World Trade Center. In a report, the News said the agency is seeking private funding and hedge funds. The news is predicting there will be no shortage of interested investors.
“People are recognizing that long-term Class A office space is a very scarce commodity, and demand has been rising,” said Eric Deutsch, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York. “Ultimately, at its core, (Freedom Tower) is a Class A, modern office building that could be built-to-suit, or could be built for multiple tenants,” Deutsch told CPN today, “and it could be incredibly valuable for both investors and users.”

This most def falls into the category of splitting hairs. The AP is running a story about a new building muscling it’s way “to the top of the city skyline” buildings going up.
“At just under 1,000 feet, the Comcast Center in downtown Philadelphia will be the tallest building in the city and the highest skyscraper between New York and Chicago when construction is completed early next year.
The unfinished building has already muscled its way to the top of the city skyline.
But what’s less apparent is that within its walls, the tower will contain many safety features that reflect the lessons of Sept. 11 and that are making their way into new skyscrapers in cities across the nation.”
These features include a concrete core that is built all the way to the top of the 975-foot building… hiding inside are elevators and stairwells, a sprinkler system, electrical and communication lines inside this core of the buiiilding.
“he new features address weaknesses found by an investigation of the World Trade Center disaster on the part of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology,” the AP said.

Emi Endo, a Newsday staff writer calls the most talked about construction project in America the “iconic, birdlike World Trade Center. She says the soaring cost of the transit hub at the center of all the hub bub is driving up the bottom line. That bottom line keeps growing as the legal troubles over how all of this will be paid for grows as the financials for each project at the World Trade Center grows too. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is currently looking at ways to cut costs for a budget that is now somewhere between $2.2 and $2.5 billion.
In a letter this week, Port Authority executive Tony Shorris told chairman Anthony Coscia that contractor Phoenix Constructors now projects costs of between $2.7 billion and $3.4 billion,’ Endo wrote “We have notified Phoenix that costs so substantially above the original budget for the Hub are simply unacceptable, and we will need to consider a range of options for completing the project,” Shorris wrote.

A European insurance company is saying now it may not be able to pay the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey money owed for the World Trade Center disaster.
Royal & SunAlliance USA may not be able to pony up the $250 million claim owed to the PA and Freedom Tower developer Larry Silverstein. The amount of money is when stacked against the multi-billion cost to rebuild the World Trade Center. Nevertheless, the New York Post says the $250 million may slow down construction further and may result in the scaling back of the Freedom Tower

This is worth the ride: Just click:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2aw0sTfRBg

Some one is calling for an old fashion gubernatorial intervention.
New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo says Gov. Spitzer should liberate us all from the chaos surrounding the construction of the Freedom Tower. The world isn’t yet convinced that the buildings going up at Ground Zero are places of business.
Cuozzo says “Spitzer needn’t outright kill the “iconic” edifice that’s now the PA’s to build and rent. He doesn’t even have to meddle directly in its design (as his predecessor did, with disastrous results).

But the Freedom Tower needs a caring intervention - which means putting it on hold. Not forever.”
Cuozzo says Spitzer needs to halt things until two office buildings going up at Ground Zero are leased first. These buildings will add new zest to the project and send a signal to the world that Ground Zero is more than the site of a world class disaster. It will tell the world to come back to a place where they can again do business – World Trade class business.