1 World Trade Center

An architectural landmark for New York City, 1 World Trade Center (WTC) will soar a symbolic 1,776 feet skyward to become America's tallest building. Designed by David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 2.6-million-square-foot building will include office space, an observation deck, world-class restaurants, and broadcast and antennae facilities.

In April 2006, Silverstein Properties, as original developer, began construction on the Freedom Tower. In an agreement reached in fall 2006, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over as developer of the project. Tishman Construction Corporation is construction manager.

In February 2006, the Port Authority board unanimously approved $2.9 billion of funding for 1 WTC construction, allowing $500 million dollars in construction contracts to proceed. Starting in December 2006, contractors poured 3,000 cubic yards of concrete to prepare the tower's core and foundation and began bolting massive 25-ton, 35-foot steel columns into the foundation that will ultimately form the building's perimeter. Since March 2007, contracts have been about halfway completed, a second crane has been installed, and work continues on the foundation and structural steel.

Rising from the plaza level, a 50-foot-high public lobby will be topped by a series of mechanical floors; together these will form the 186-foot-high building base. Sixty-nine office floors will rise above the base to an elevation of 1,120 feet. Two television broadcast floors, mechanical floors, two restaurants, and an observation deck will be built atop these, topped with a metal-and-glass parapet marking 1,362 feet and 1,368 feet - the respective heights of the original twin towers. A communications platform ring will rise above the parapet, and a 408-foot, cable-stayed antenna, designed in collaboration with artist Kenneth Snelson, will crown the project.

The building will use the latest green building technologies including renewable energy, interior daylighting, reuse of rainwater, and recycled construction debris and materials. The below-grade concourses will include approximately 55,000 square feet of retail space and connect to an extensive transportation and retail network that includes 13 subway lines, PATH commuter trains to New Jersey, and possible future train connections to Long Island and the airports.

Safety

The building will incorporate advanced life-safety systems that exceed New York City building code requirements and create a new standard for high-rise buildings. In addition to structural redundancy and dense and highly adhesive fireproofing, the building will include biological and chemical filters in the air supply system. To assume optimum egress and firefighting capacity, extra-wide pressurized stairs, multiple backups on emergency lighting, and concrete protection for all sprinklers and emergency risers will be provided, in addition to interconnected redundant exits, additional stair exit locations at all adjacent streets, and direct exits to the street from tower stairs. All of the building's life-safety systems - egress stairs, communication antennae, exhaust and ventilation shafts, electrical risers, standpipes, and elevators - will be encased in a core wall that will be three feet thick in most places.

This building is being designed to facilitate emergency response with enhanced emergency communication cables and will include a dedicated stair for use by firefighters. These safety measures can be used in conjunction with enhanced elevators, housed in a protected central building core, which will serve every floor of the building. In addition, protected tenant collection points will be located on each floor. To satisfy security concerns, the building's setback distance from West Street (Route 9A) was increased from 25 feet to an average of 90 feet in June 2005.

These safety features will sit on top of a base (clad in glass prisms) that includes the building's lobby, which will feature 50-foot ceilings. The 102-story building will feature a main lobby entry on Fulton Street for office tenants, with additional entrances on the West and Washington Street sides for observation deck visitors and restaurant diners, respectively.