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9/11 memorial evolves yet again

Officials unveil another design for the Freedom Tower, this one calling for a lighted spire and many, many glass panels.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 29, 2006

NEW YORK - The latest design of the skyscraper being built to replace the World Trade Center covers its 20-story concrete base with thousands of glass prisms and tops it with a lighted spire meant to resemble the Statue of Liberty's torch, the lead architect said Wednesday.

Other details of the latest design for the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower include landscaped plazas, sweet gum trees on cobblestone plazas and a fountain with a glass base.

Architect David Childs unveiled the new details of the design at a ceremony of the American Institute of Architects inside 7 World Trade Center, the skyscraper Childs also designed that sits across from ground zero.

Construction began this spring on the Freedom Tower, after a redesign more than a year ago to address concerns that it wouldn't be adequately protected from truck bombs. The building was moved several feet back from the street and made smaller, with a footprint the size of one of the twin towers'.

Some derided the windowless base that security officials sought, saying it resembled more of a bunker than an office building. Architects had originally thought that shimmering metal panels would cover the bottom of the building, but they recently decided on 13-foot-high panels that combine triangular glass prisms.

The prisms would create a "wonderful, light, sculptural and I think artistic" effect and make the building appear more open, Childs said.

The glass panels are still being developed.

Security experts have approved of the new panels, which are designed to shatter into tiny particles so they wouldn't cause severe damage, designers said.

Childs said the spire, enclosed in a white fiberglass sheath that a sculptor is helping to create, would make it more visible from a distance and turn it into a landmark similar to the spires on the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.

Daniel Libeskind, the original architect of the Freedom Tower, initially designed the spire to be off-center on a twisting building meant to resemble the Statue of Liberty. The spire was moved to the center and remains there, but the new design calls for a pedestal, housing satellite dishes and antennas, that more closely resembles the statue's torch.

The tree-lined plazas would be on all four sides of the building; one entrance would take an estimated 5-million annual visitors to an observation deck, while another would go straight to restaurant space on the higher floors. Visitors could also enter from an underground concourse that connects to more than a dozen train lines.

With a 50-foot-high lobby and 69 floors of office space, the Freedom Tower is scheduled to open in 2011.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 07:13:04]