What do you think that upcoming designs of new WTC buildings, and the final look of new the complex will be like?

Here's my predictions...

FT:
Slope on roof of FT will go away in next redesign.
FT spire will be centered in next redesign.
Wind turbines will be in next redesign but will never be built.
When/if it gets built the Freedom Tower's latticework will be considered an eyesore.
Postcards/souviners of FT will sell slowly.
The 1500ft observation deck will either not be built, or be built and then close down after a few years.
An antenna will probably be on top of/included in the spire, but will reach no higher than 2000ft due to FAA regulations.
Unless the all parts of the FT, including spire AND antenna, top out at 1776 feet, as opposed to going higher than that, the LMDC will have some kind of marker on the spire at the 1776 foot line. The marker will not be very noticeable, and any connections between the FT and 1776 will be soon forgotten.
The FT will briefly be a WTB.
The FT will ultimately be little more than a footnote compared to greater buildings.

Spiral Buildings:
The spiral building designs will be more captivating than the FT.
50/50 chance of spiral building loosing their sloped roofs.
No more than one or two of the Spiral Buildings will be built. The sites of the other spiral buildings may be turned into parks or left as lowrise retail.
The spiral buildings will not have any tenants for a long, long time.

Transit Hub:
Calatrava's transit hub will be built and become a minor NY attraction.

Memorial:
The WTC memorial's fountains will be turned off in the winter.
Libeskind may get to design one of the small buildings surrounding the memorial; His building will be less captivating than his other designs.
The WTC memorial will ultimately be little more than a footnote compared to greater monuments.

Misc.
The new WTC buildings will accelerate the trend of constructing modern/futuristic buildings in NY.
Pataki will continue to say that the new WTC was democratically elected.
Libeskind will continue to say that the new WTC (especially the FT) is his vision, and that the buildings are the greatest ever constructed.

What do you think?

I Agree with what Izekiah has said, with the following exceptions and additions:

I think if the obervation deck does open, it will make enough money to keep itself afloat. Tourists won't know any better.

The F Tower will be mostly empty for years. More than a decade even. It will become a symbol of what the NWTC will really stand for: empty, crap-abstract (crapstract), and a disgrace.

I doubt all the spiral buildings will be built, as they won't find the 10Msqft of leases to fill them.

BTW It's not the FAA that the FT has to overcome. It's the fact that the US government owns the airspace from 2,000ft. They'd have to get approval from congress, which wouldn't be too hard, as who would vote down New York's WTC "replacement?"

here's what i think...

the freedom tower will wind up to be a huge disappointment to the already disillusioned new yorkers who have lost their faith and hope in the rebuilding process. they will ruthlessly mock freedom tower's obnoxious lattice and spire (esp the windmills, if they get installed) from day one to the point they regard metlife building like a saint. and it will receive largely negative reviews from architectural critics and regarded as the worst setback to the continuous growth and improvements in the world of skyscrapers. as for the observation deck, it won't be the same as the outdoor experience on the south tower, and it will only generate nostalgia among the tourists that have gone up the south tower before. but most important of all, it will serve as a symbol of defeat that will only confuse tourists when they visit that building.

as for the other buildings, at most one will get built along with the freedom tower. the other 3 will probably have to wait till past 2008 for their construction to get underway (the wait time will be even longer if bush gets reelected). if libeskind gets his say on their designs, they will be even worse looking than the freedom tower. but if their designs are largely left for other architects to decide, they will outshine the freedom tower on their architecture. but libeskind's spiral's definitely ruined at the rate of this rebuilding process.

as for the memorial, it will go down history as one of the lamest memorial design in the history of the u.s., and the new jersey and staten island versions of the 9/11 memorial will outshine their counterpart at ground zero.

i don't think the design's gonna get hosed down anymore, there's really nothing else to hose. all that's left are architectually ho-hum glass towers and cultural centers and 2 transparent pools with nothing but trees filling up the empty spaces (the only place where there's actually no dominance of banality is calatrava's transit hub, everything else is lame).

and at the end, the future will look back and treat pataki, silverstein, libeskind, and the lmdc like trash. and maybe one day in the future, this fruit of corruption will finally be tore down and the twins will resurrect again (hopefully in my lifetime)...

freedom tower will be disgusting

I made this for another thread.

http://img76.exs.cx/img76/2120/LatticeHorror.jpg

"It's like a horror movie"

The F Tower will be mostly empty for years. More than a decade even. It will become a symbol of what the NWTC will really stand for: empty, crap-abstract (crapstract), and a disgrace.
The PA and Governor's office intend to lease out 750,000sf of the FT. Still, the rest of the building will be empty for a long time.

I doubt all the spiral buildings will be built, as they won't find the 10Msqft of leases to fill them.

So far Silverstein has been building without tenants, and if he acquires the 3bn of Liberty Bond financing (our tax dollars!) that he wants he'll be able to do one or two of them.

BTW It's not the FAA that the FT has to overcome. It's the fact that the US government owns the airspace from 2,000ft. They'd have to get approval from congress, which wouldn't be too hard, as who would vote down New York's WTC "replacement?"

I think I remember reading somewhere that it was the FAA, but you may be right. In any event, the antenna will be a far cry from the 2400ft that FT cheerleaders on SSP were "predicting."

as for the other buildings, at most one will get built along with the freedom tower. the other 3 will probably have to wait till past 2008 for their construction to get underway (the wait time will be even longer if bush gets reelected). if libeskind gets his say on their designs, they will be even worse looking than the freedom tower. but if their designs are largely left for other architects to decide, they will outshine the freedom tower on their architecture. but libeskind's spiral's definitely ruined at the rate of this rebuilding process.

As I've said, Silverstein will probably build a spiral building or two with the Liberty Bonds. Libeskind won't have any say over them, as he's currently little more than a PR prop

i don't think the design's gonna get hosed down anymore, there's really nothing else to hose. all that's left are architectually ho-hum glass towers and cultural centers and 2 transparent pools with nothing but trees filling up the empty spaces (the only place where there's actually no dominance of banality is calatrava's transit hub, everything else is lame).

With Foster, Maki, and Nouvel designing the towers, they'll probably look reasonably okay, though not as exciting as Calatrava's terminal. However, that's assuming that those towers get built.

I think I remember reading somewhere that it was the FAA, but you may be right. In any event, the antenna will be a far cry from the 2400ft that FT cheerleaders on SSP were "predicting."

man, those FT cheerleaders must be half-crazed dood. it the antenna's really gonna reach 2400ft, then office floors and interior space would make up even less than half of the building's roof height (around 1100 ft, 1500ft observation deck does not count). and with its stretched spire/antenna, it's gonna look really horrible since it would make the occupied sections of the building look even shorter than it is now...

now that the rebuilding process's all screwed up, i hope foster and any other architect that's gonna wind up designing the spiral buildings will design them so well that the freedom tower will be placed in a bad light as compared to the rest of the complex.

as for the other buildings, at most one will get built along with the freedom tower. the other 3 will probably have to wait till past 2008 for their construction to get underway (the wait time will be even longer if bush gets reelected)

Let's keep politics out of this. Remember, it's politics that gave us the F Tower in the first place.

Let's keep politics out of this. Remember, it's politics that gave us the F Tower in the first place.

Ditto what STR said.

I made this for another thread.

http://img76.exs.cx/img76/2120/LatticeHorror.jpg

"It's like a horror movie"

david childs has nothing to do with it. if it wasn't for him, who knows what freedom tower may look now?

david childs has nothing to do with it. if it wasn't for him, who knows what freedom tower may look now?

What do you mean by that? David Childs designed the Freedom Tower, and proposed latticework atop a tall building, long before Beyer Blinder Belle released their concepts.

See this article:
http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/WTC/BlairKaminTribune.html

Seeing as how the concept talked about in that article was a twisting tower, I'd say that it eventually morphed into the current FT.

izeklah's right. libeskind never proposed a lattice for the freedom tower. before childs came in and kicked out a huge portion of his plan, libeskind had proposed a sky garden in a side tower attached to the freedom tower that soared above the roof of the building with a spire on top of it that reached 1776ft. after childs removed it, he kept the height of the tower with that nightmarish lattice, complete with a windmill and a carelessly positioned spire.

but im sure childs would've never thought of something like that if it haven't been for silverstein's foolish fear of heights. why did a coward like him even leased the wtc in the first place? if the attack happened before silverstein even got his hand on the site, then none of this probably would've happened, unless the port authority is also filled with height-fearing cowards like him...

oh well, libeskind's original plan and child's current revision both sucked anyways...

My thoughts and predictions....

Freedom tower

- Slope on the roof stays but won't be as visible, just from some angles.
- Spire will be thinner than shown now and will get thinner as it rises to it's tip. It'll remain offset (Libeskind won't allow this change) with an antenna rising from the spire at 2000 feet.
- For some reason I think we're going to see more lattice, leaning towards Childs sole version of the tower but not as drastic.
- Wind turbines will be built but not be as functional, they'll probably generate less power than anticipated.
- Lattice will be very expensive and troubles might arise when they're up to it during construction and when it's done.
- From afar, the lattice won't be as visible and sort of melt into the sky making the spire appear as if it's rising out of nowhere.
- 1500 foot observation deck will be eliminated citing costs and security fears.
- Observation deck will be built at around the 70th floor and so will a restaurant but they won't get a big company such as Windows of the World.
- Won't get tenants for a while excluding the PA and the state.
- Facade will appear duller than the renderings and won't be as reflective as shown.
- Will start a controversy among the architecture world for it's excessive elements boosting the height and because of it's design. I bet people are going to be asking something like, "why didn't they build the towers?"
- Will come to symbolize all the wrong in the rebuilding process, from competing interests to forced marriages.

Other WTC Towers

- The one by Foster will be the best tower in the complex.
- Will be restricted heavily in imagination in design because of the financial, retail bases, market demand and guideline constraints. (Could lead to some of these architects walking off the job)
- 2nd tower built will be around 900-1000 feet but that's the tallest it'll go.
- Total of 3 will be built. (not including Deustche bank site)
- Will attract greater tenants than the Freedom tower.

Calatrava Transit Hub

- Will be the best and most popular component of the site.
- It'll be an instant hit which potentially will make the Calatrava name a huge success in the city and cause him to do more projects in NYC.

Memorial

- Won't reach everyones high standards for a world class memorial.
- Will either be a success or failure, there's no in between here.
- Good point about the waterfalls Izeklah, that will cause issues probably.
- Above all, families will be extremely disappointed.

Other

- Redevelopment of the WTC site will be looked backed upon as a failure because of all the competing interests.
- Will be documented as good urban planning and overall placement of the structures.
- Ultimately it will be said that this mediocre plan was a product of a mediocre handled process.