One World Trade Center

February 23, 2015

The U.S. Trails Behind in the Global Skyscraper Race

New York is most certainly experiencing a skyscraper boom, but you may be surprised to find out that the number of supertalls going up in the city account for only a small percentage of what's going up globally. According to CBS News, just 20 percent of the world's towers are being built stateside, and of all the tall buildings completed last year, we had only four in the top 20 (One World Trade Center topped the list). So if we aren't number one in this race, then where is this new crop of towers creeping up?
Find out here
February 11, 2015

Experience the City’s Skyscrapers in Cartoons with The New Yorker’s Bob Mankoff

Condé Nast's move into One World Trade Center means more than just the offices of Vogue settling in downtown, but also some other 3,000-odd editors, writers and advertising folks that make up the publishing giant's empire. Amongst these magazines is, of course, The New Yorker. In this week's installment of the magazine's "Cartoon Lounge," cartoon editor and cartoonist Bob Mankoff takes a moment to commemorate the magazine's move into the supertall icon by musing over the skyscrapers that have appeared in The New Yorker since the city's 1920s building boom. From his office on the 38th floor of One World Trade, watch as he shares his favorite cartoons and his own experience of seeing the New York City skyline as a kid in Queens. This video is sure to make you smile!
Watch the video here
December 29, 2014

Real Estate Wire: The Times Supports the QueensWay; Port Authority May Sell One World Trade Center

The QueensWay gets a major endorsement. [NYT] Trinity Church has filed demolition permits for 68-74 Trinity Place, where they plan to erect a 46-story residential building designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli. [CO] The Port Authority is considering selling off its real estate, including One World Trade Center, to fund the agency’s overhaul. [WSJ] Collegiate School, the […]

December 19, 2014

New Photo Kiosk Lets You Take a Selfie with One World Trade Center

It's hard to get the perfect selfie when you're worried about holding the phone at the right angle and pressing the button without dropping it. So a new Financial District photo kiosk will come as a welcome relief to architecture-loving selfie-takers. The bright red "selfie station," sponsored by the Downtown Alliance, a lower Manhattan business improvement district, lets users take photos of themselves with One World Trade Center soaring in the background. Located at Albany Plaza at the corner of Greenwich and Albany Streets, the high-tech kiosk also lets visitors choose photo filters and email, tweet, or Facebook their selfie.
More details on the One WTC Selfie Kiosk
December 9, 2014

Don’t Forget, One World Trade Was Supposed to Be the Greenest Building in America

Since the opening of One World Trade Center just a few weeks ago, the world has been in an uproar over the design and the incredible cost of making New York's tallest tower a reality. But one feature that we all seemed to have forgotten was the promise that the tower would be the greenest building in America. A recent City Lab article looks at what went wrong, and why, in a race to meet contractual obligations to its anchor tenant, Condé Nast, the development dumped a major part of its plans to go green, currently leaving the building in a state of noncompliance.
Find out more here
December 3, 2014

How the Cost of One World Trade Center Compares to the World’s Most Expensive Skyscrapers

Don’t share this with Michael Kimmelman. The New York Times architecture critic who this past Sunday blasted the design of One World Trade for its excess will only find more fuel for his fire with this infographic visualizing the world’s most expensive buildings. The recently opened One WTC is not only the world’s priciest construction, but it outdoes its runners-up, Las Vegas’s Palazzo […]

November 26, 2014

World Trade Center Transportation Hub Gets Its Final Steel Rafter

Just weeks after One World Trade Center and the Fulton Center Subway Station opened their doors for business, the last of the 114 steel rafters was installed on Santiago Calatrava's long-overdue, majorly over-budget flying bird-looking transportation hub. This is just one of many steel components in the project; it’s made up of 618 steel pieces which weigh more than 12,000 tons. The rafters were supposed to be completed by August, but though they were three months behind schedule, the hub is still expected to open in late 2015.
Read more here
November 5, 2014

Daily Link Fix: Photographers Capture One WTC From Every Angle; Electronic Ballet Shoes Make Beautiful Patterns

Photographers Iwan Baan and James Ewing capture the completed One World Trade Center from every angle, and the results are stunning. See them all on designboom. Sandwiches are serious business. See if you agree with Refinery 29’s list of the ten most iconic New York sandwiches. Electric Traces are electronic ballet shoes that allow dancers to digitally […]

November 5, 2014

POLL: Can One World Trade Center Get to 100% Occupancy?

On Monday, anchor tenant Condé Nast moved into One World Trade Center. It was, of course, a significant day for many reasons, but it left a lot of people wondering if they would feel comfortable working in the 104-story tower. And since the building is currently only 58% leased, we want to know if you think One WTC […]

November 3, 2014

Today’s the Day: Condé Nast Moves into One World Trade Center

More than nine years after ground broke at One World Trade Center, the tower's first and largest tenant, Condé Nast, is moving in. Though the media company will not complete its move until January, the relocation actually began last weekend when 2,800 orange crates full of files, photos, and books were carted downtown from the media company's Times Square office. Today, 175 employees will start their days at One WTC, the first wave of the 3,400 employees at 18 magazines. And as the New York Times notes, the scene they're encountering is much different than when construction began nearly a decade ago. As the number of financial institutions has declined, tech firms, advertising agencies, and media companies have made the Financial District their new home, along with a residential population of 61,000.
More on the big move here
November 1, 2014

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

Do cemeteries affect real estate prices in New York? The answer might surprise you. It’s going to cost $32 to visit One World Trade Center’s observatory. But the views are pretty incredible. Did you check out the Village Halloween Parade last night? Find out the history of the famous festivity. If you haven’t already, wish […]

October 29, 2014

It Will Cost $32 to Visit One World Trade Center’s Observatory

On Monday we learned that tourism is predicted to bring in one quarter, roughly $53 million, of the One World Trade Center's annual revenue by 2019. And now the much-talked-about ticket price to visit the three-floor observation deck of the tower, known as One World Observatory, has been revealed. It will cost $32 for an adult to visit the observatory when it opens in the spring of 2015.
More details and renderings of the observatory ahead
October 27, 2014

It’s Expected That Tourism Will Bring in 25% of One World Trade Center’s Revenue

On Friday, news broke that anchor tenant Condé Nast will begin its big move in to One World Trade Center on November 3rd. And now we've learned that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, along with the Durst Organization, is predicting that one quarter, roughly $53 million, of the tower's annual revenue will be generated from tourism by 2019. The three-floor observation deck of the tower, known as One World Observatory, is expected to be visited by about 3.5 million people per year. Legends Hospitality LLC, the developer of the observatory, has not yet revealed what it will cost to visit the site, but it's expected to be on par with the Empire State Building, which received $101 million in 2013 from visits to its observatory (it costs $29 per person), 40% of its annual revenue.
Learn more about this prediction and the state-of-the-art observation deck here
October 14, 2014

It’s Official: 432 Park Avenue is NYC’s Tallest Residential Building

NYC supertalls all over town are weeping: 432 Park Avenue is officially the tallest residential building in the city as of today, topping out at 1,396 feet, and the second-tallest tower after One World Trade Center. Concrete on the highest floor of the Rafael Viñoly-designed building is being poured, probably as we speak, cementing (no pun […]

September 5, 2014

Museum of the City of New York to Premiere Documentary “Rebuilding the World Trade Center”

In advance of the 13th anniversary of 9/11, the Museum of the City of New York will be premiering the documentary Rebuilding the World Trade Center. The 62-minute film features footage shot over the past eight years by artist Marcus Robinson, documenting the work at Ground Zero through the eyes of the construction workers, "from the site managers to those who dug the building’s foundations and the ironworkers who assembled its steel frames." The film will premier at the museum on the evening of Tuesday, September 9th and will be followed by a panel discussion with New York Times reporter James Glanz. It will then premier nationally on the History Channel on September 11th at 6 pm.
More on the documentary and upcoming event
July 14, 2014

Checking in on the Progress at One World Trade Center in Photos

As many of you architecture buffs know, One WTC now rises a symbolic 1,776 feet, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest in the entire world. Designed by renowned architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, it also has a LEED Gold certification and is the most environmentally sustainable project of its size. After a temporary real estate slump, the 104-story, glass and steel building is now 56% leased, with big-time tenants like Conde Naste, Morgan Stanley, Legends Hospitality, and BMB Group. Eight years after construction began, One World Trade is at an exciting juncture with its tenants expected to move in by the end of the year, already beginning to build out their office spaces. The original crew of 10,000 has been reduced to 600, and we're checking in on what these remaining workers are up to.
Check out some amazing photos of the progress at One WTC
June 20, 2014

Combined Ritz-Carlton Condos Look to Set Record With $118.5 Million Asking Price

What’s better than getting $56.5 million for your 7,600-square-foot, five-bedroom duplex? Joining forces with your neighbor and adding in your second apartment to list the whole kit and caboodle for a record $118.5 million. At least that’s what Five Star Electric’s Gary Segal chose to do, according to the Wall Street Journal. Segal briefly listed his Ritz-Carlton duplex, which has two terraces and views of the Statue of Liberty and One World Trade Center, for $56.5 million last year before apparently getting shiny ball syndrome and taking it off the market. Who wants $56.5 million when you could get $7,600 per square foot? It appears his neighbor, financier Randall Yanker, agreed after putting his 4BR/5BA duplex up for sale earlier this year, asking $23 million, then lowering to $19 million, before ultimately taking it off the market.
Check out some photos of the three-condo combo here
March 24, 2014

Santiago Calatrava’s Winged ‘Oculus’ WTC Transportation Hub Takes Shape

It's unfortunate that Santiago Calatrava's original design for the WTC Transportation Hub got scrapped for a shrunken, more watered-down version. But the cost saving measures that transformed his beautiful "bird" into what some critics have dubbed as a "rack of lamb" didn't completely destroy the majestic spirit of the original design. Construction images recently released by the Port Authority of NY & NJ reveal that the Oculus is finally taking shape, emerging from its WTC site as something that could very well be quite iconic.
More incredible photos ahead