VIDEO: Watch the World Trade Center Oculus Get Built in 65 Seconds
Time-Lapse Courtesy of EarthCam
When we talk about Santiago Calatrava’s $4 billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub, there’s always the inevitable mention of how long (12 years!) it actually took to get the project up and running and built. Which is why this stunning time lapse is all the more fitting to mark the Hub’s opening today at 3:00pm. The webcam experts at EarthCam teamed up with the project contractor, Skanska USA, to capture all 42 months (June 2011-December 2014) of construction progress for the famed and notorious winged oculus and condense it into a 65-second video.
The flying bird-looking oculus (which some critics have likened more to a rack of lamb or dinosaur), houses the Hub’s main hall and PATH train platforms. The structure is made of 618 steel pieces that weigh more than 12,000 tons, including the 114 steel rafters that provide its iconic shape. The entire hub will amount to 800,000 square feet and provide connections to 11 subway lines, as well as the PATH and Battery Park City Ferry Terminal. It also links up with the World Trade Center Memorial Site, WTC Towers 1, 2, 3, and 4, the World Financial Center and the Winter Garden.
As previously reported, the Port Authority originally declined to hold an opening ceremony for the Hub due to how delayed and over budget it was, but they’ve now said they’ll schedule an event later this spring.
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Will go down in history as one of the most innovative architectural
works in NYC or anywhere for that matter, Worth every penny.