This is the project to be built on the site now occupied by the Deustche Bank Building.I've put it as a 40 plus stories since I've read some other sources wich says it will have in fact more than 40 stories.A moderator can edit that later when new data comes available.

Friday, June 15, 2007


MAJOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION COMMITS TO TRADE CENTER LEASE

JPMorgan Chase to Build Investment Banking Headquarters

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6738/3034727sj7xb0.jpg

Governor Eliot Spitzer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today announced a $300 million agreement with a leading financial services firm to lease and develop office space at the new World Trade Center complex.

Under the agreement, JPMorgan Chase will move its investment banking headquarters into the new tower to be built at Site 5. The new offices will serve as the base of operations for approximately 7,000 employees.

“JPMorgan Chase's commitment to locate its investment banking headquarters at the World Trade Center represents another step forward in revitalizing Ground Zero and ensuring that New York remains the financial capital of the world,” said Governor Spitzer. “By joining other major financial institutions downtown, JPMorgan Chase is demonstrating that Lower Manhattan is well on the road to recovery. Coupled with last month’s announcement of the $2 billion settlement of outstanding insurance claims, we continue to see real progress at the site.”

Mayor Bloomberg said: “After 9/11, people were saying that New York was on its knees, but with record low unemployment, lower taxes, lower crime rates, better schools and a better quality of life, there’s no doubt that New York is a place where major companies want to locate and do business. The resurgence of Lower Manhattan has made it a particularly attractive area and today’s announcement by JPMorgan Chase sends a message to the world that New York and Lower Manhattan have come back stronger than ever.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents the community surrounding Ground Zero, said: “JPMorgan Chase's announcement is a victory for Lower Manhattan, but it’s about more than economics. I believe that we have a national and a moral obligation to respond to the hatred and the destruction of September 11th by building a stronger, safer, more prosperous Downtown than had existed before the attacks.”

JP Morgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said: “JPMorgan Chase is proud of our deep roots in New York City and New York State, and we're pleased to be announcing a project today that will be critical to our firm's long-term future. We are also proud to be taking a leadership role in supporting Lower Manhattan and helping to revitalize the World Trade Center area.”

Port Authority Executive Director Anthony E. Shorris said: “Over the past several months we’ve made tremendous progress at Ground Zero, and the agreement to bring a world-class company to the site will help us continue to build on this momentum and deliver on the promise of a rebuilt and renewed World Trade Center site.”

Site 5 is currently the home of the former Deutsche Bank Building. The 41-story skyscraper was significantly damaged during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Earlier this year, the state revised the agreement with the contractors deconstructing the building to obligate them to maintain a workforce of more than 350 on the site and to provide a significant financial incentive for them to bring the building down on schedule to make way for redevelopment of the site. Since that time, the top six floors of the building have been removed, and floors continue to come down at the rate of approximately one floor per week.

Under the agreement, JPMorgan Chase will pay the Port Authority $290 million for the development rights for Site 5. The lease for the site, which is subject to approval by the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners at their meeting next week, will run for 92 years beginning in July 2008. JPMorgan Chase plans to build a 40-story, 1.3 million square foot skyscraper on the property.

JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) accessed existing economic development funds such as the World Trade Center Job Creation & Retention Grant Program, which was created to stimulate the redevelopment of downtown. The company will receive up to $20 million when it reaches full employment in Lower Manhattan. By being the first employer to commit to the World Trade Center site, JPMC also accessed the previously created and funded World Trade Center Rent Reduction Program.

Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said: “This agreement will bring substantial value to the Port Authority and play a critical role in renewing Lower Manhattan. It represents another significant milestone since the Port Authority entered into a global agreement in September last year for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. And it will allow the Port Authority to continue to focus on the enormous responsibilities we have undertaken at the site – building a memorial to honor those who died on 9/11, a major transportation hub, and the Freedom Tower.”

Daniel Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding, said: “There’s no question that New York is the financial capital of the world, and there’s no question that a world class financial services leader like JPMorgan Chase belongs here. We’re pleased that JP Morgan Chase decided to keep their roots firmly planted in the City, and that we were able to work together to come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial.”

Patrick Foye, Chairman Empire State Development Corporation/Downstate said: “This agreement by JPMorgan Chase is a bold sign that we’ve reached another crucial turning point in the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. It shows a renewed faith in the Lower Manhattan market and it will help draw more investment and create even more jobs.”

Today’s announcement comes three weeks after the state announced a $2 billion settlement of all outstanding insurance claims arising from the destruction of the World Trade Center. The agreement, the largest in regulatory history, ended almost six years of legal battles between Silverstein Properties and seven insurance companies and removed the last major obstacle to funding development at Ground Zero. Earlier this year, Governor Spitzer announced that funding was secured for the construction of the Freedom Tower and that the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners had approved nearly $1 billion in construction contracts.

Source:www.renewnyc.com (http://www.renewnyc.com/displaynews.aspx?newsid=28c1ef35-51e3-4aa1-93bd-09a9eb43a391)

It fits in so well. I love it no matter what some idiots say. People judge too fast. I wish they made more renderings. From this angle, it would look great with its slanted roof:
http://wtc.com/images/popup/img_downloads/enlarged_img/197000-pu.jpg

Yeah. Need a better rendering of it. Can't really evaluate the design from that small picture.

I like it. It has grown on me since I saw it a few days ago. Fits very well. But Ebola, just because people don't agree with you or don't lik the design, dosen't make them an idiot

:banana: :cheers: :cheers: :banana: Thank you JP Morgan Chase for not leaving New York!
We were never at the bottom after 9/11 only maybe for two weeks

Maybe King Kong can use it when he has to go to the bathroom. :rofl:

Maybe King Kong can use it when he has to go to the bathroom. :rofl:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

To me, it really doesn't look like what everyone says it looks like. It's obvious that this tower is at least 215m tall, maybe as much as 275m; it, with the help of the cantilever, completes the spiral perfectly! Seeing these buildings all at once will be unlike anything else. I love the entire complex because every building is so postmodern; they all stick out well.

Extraordinary design!!!!

Seems like the sloping roof design from Liebeskind has influnced a lot of the towers surrounding the ground zero.
The Foster's and yet again, this one.

He must be happy nontheless eventhough his towers design werent chosen to get built. but the substanciate elements are....:)

love the project and ope we will see it growing soon!

New Chase building revealed
by patrick arden / metro new york

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/9421/30680643ta3.jpg

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/5264/site205uz2.png

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3210/200706chasecontextwj7.jpg


JUN 22, 2007

GRAMERCY PARK. How do you fit a 60,000-square-foot floor on a 32,000-square-foot building site?

The answer was revealed yesterday by the Port Authority in a series of sketches for JP Morgan Chase’s new 42-story headquarters at the World Trade Center. The tower, with seven cantilevered floors extending past the building’s footprint and over a park, will go up on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building.

Those stories are necessary to accommodate Chase’s trading operations, explained Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris, and will need 50,000 to 60,000 square feet. They will also hang over St. Nicholas, the tiny Greek Orthodox church that had been destroyed after the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Shorris viewed the design as an opportunity for St. Nicholas.

“It will actually offer some interesting opportunities for lighting and making the church an even more splendid contribution to the community,” he said.

Chase has agreed to pay $10 million for the privilege. That money will be split between the church and the planned memorial. Church officials did not return calls for comment on the design yesterday; parishioners have reportedly raised about $4 million to rebuild at the site, which will be part of a planned park.

Shorris stressed that Chase’s payment to the church was not “about the cantilever,” and the cantilevered stories will allow for the reduction of the tower’s size, reducing shadows the building will cast over the memorial.

Chase is paying the Port Authority about $300 million for a lease that will expire in 2100. In return, the financial firm expects to reap tax subsidies worth “north of $200 million,” in the earlier words of Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The tower will also include retail space.

The building’s design, as envisioned by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, is not final. But, Shorris said, “There had to be a cantilever somewhere.”

source:metro (http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/New_Chase_building_revealed/9099.html)

omg what an unbalanced skyscraper

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06262007/business/beer_belly_tower_on_diet_business_steve_cuozzo.htm
BEER-BELLY TOWER ON DIET

JPMORGAN CHASE HQ ARCHITECT EYES TRIMMING TRADING FLOORS

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06262007/photos/business033.jpg
HANGOVER: The planned new JPMorgan Chase HQ faces the Ground Zero towers: Is that a "beer belly," or the roof of a "great outdoor room?

June 26, 2007 -- THE architect of the planned new JPMorgan Chase tower near Ground Zero left the door open yesterday to slightly reducing the size of its giant, elevated trading floors cantilevered over a new St. Nicholas Church.

"The size of the cantilever is one of those things still being studied," Gene Kohn of the Kohn Pedersen Fox firm said of controversial images released last week.

But, he emphasized, it will still be a "cantilever of some dimension" and there's no alternative to designing the Liberty Street building immediately south of the World Trade Center site any other way.

Kohn took polite exception to my description last week of the protruding block of trading floors facing the 9/11 memorial as a "beer belly." (Readers likened it to a "kangaroo" or "electric chair.")

"Things like that have a way of sticking," he said.

I was referring to the project's ungainly shape, which Kohn acknowledges is "unusual." The tower will be 32,000 square feet at the base, swell to between 52,000 and 56,000 square feet from floors 12-16, and slim down above that.

The trading floors, starting at 190 feet above ground, will hover over a patch of land about two-thirds the size of a city block - an overhang like no other building in New York.

They also gesture ambiguously toward Ground Zero: Does the protrusion compatibly relate to the site's quartet of architecturally arresting towers, or does it fight them?

Kohn noted that, at 42 stories, the JPMorgan Chase tower is much smaller than the buildings inside Ground Zero, crowned by the Freedom Tower at 1776 feet. And he defended its "preliminary" design, pointing out that the rules of the game left him no choice.

In 2004, the state, city and Port Authority agreed to rebuild the Greek Orthodox church on the northern part of the block bounded by Liberty, Greenwich, Albany and Washington streets.

The original church, destroyed on 9/11, stood on the block immediately west, where a new Liberty Park will be built.

Kohn was constrained, having to design a 1.3 million square-foot building with five trading floors of nearly 60,000 square feet each that could not be on or close to the ground.

"We were given this assignment with the church planned just north of the tower. What do you do with trading floors of this size? We can't put them at grade, because the church is going to be there.

"So cantilevering is the only way to go. We weren't given any other option."

With a ceiling formed by the underside of the trading floors, Kohn saw the chance for "a great outdoor room. You'll still see sky and daylight, like an atrium without walls on three sides" that will serve as a "a great porch facing the memorial."

Locals feared the tower would cast shadows on the church and the new park. With no way to avoid overhanging the church, Kohn tried to turn the disadvantage into an advantage - "Here was a location suitable to its scale, where we can light it and frame it properly."

As for the park, Kohn said, "A lot of people were concerned the cantilever would create additional shadows on it." But, he said, extensive studies of the sun's path year-round showed it actually won't do that.

Kohn said his firm drew up the tower's rough contours months ago, but held up work on such crucial issues as facade materials and detail until the bank and PA signed their $300 million deal.

Among many questions now is how to "express" the cantilevered floors, which are sloped on the north side to make them bigger as they go higher.

"For example, will they be trussed?" Kohn mused - meaning a pattern of diagonal exterior braces like those in Richard Rogers' Tower 3.

"Given the challenge, we think we can do a wonderful piece of work, and we're excited JPMorgan wants to be part of it."

steve.cuozzo@nypost.com

I really like this tower,, very unique,

I'm not sure if I really love it , but one cool feature is you can look at the cantilevered part as the lower part of the "J" and upper part of the "P" for the "J.P." in the JP Morgan. Just something to think about.

certainly what i would call "interesting"...

Apparently, this is not the final design.

Personally, I like it but as the case is with most proposals, the facade could make or break it.

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3397/3068064311wq5.jpg
Now that's just funny, if you hate or love it.

Different.

I thought WTC 5 was going to be a hotel. Besides JPMorganChase already have a world headquarters at 270 Park Avenue.
The old World Trade Center had a hotel and I don't see a hotel in the new World Trade Center. Without a hotel, the new World Trade Centre will suck eggs.

This new skyscraper next to WTC Tower 5 is a hotel, I think:

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9845/southofnycwtcfw1.jpg

This new skyscraper next to WTC Tower 5 is a hotel, I think:

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/9845/southofnycwtcfw1.jpg

This better be a frickin' hotel.

In case it is, it should have more than 900 rooms. If we need to incorporate it into the WTC complex, it should be named Nww World Trade Center Tower 6. (We don't have a WTC 6 in the new complex)

Also, Larry is building a tower with over 60 floors at 99 Church street, which is close to 7WTC. It may have a hotel. I think there will be plenty of hotel space.

^^What is the name of that building?

But we can't have two 6 WTCs in the same complex!

This better be a frickin' hotel.

In case it is, it should have more than 900 rooms. If we need to incorporate it into the WTC complex, it should be named Nww World Trade Center Tower 6. (We don't have a WTC 6 in the new complex)


It's part hotel and part condominium and is located south of the WTC site.

Port architect: Park near JP tower won’t be paradise

By Josh Rogers

The “so-called park” slated to be built near JPMorgan Chase’s new World Trade Center headquarters will get enough sun but not many visitors, the architect leading the project told Downtown Express this week.


A. Eugene Kohn, a founding partner of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, said he expects few people to climb up to the one-acre park on Liberty St. because it will be 17 to 20 feet above street level in sections, and it will be over a noisy delivery truck entrance to the W.T.C.


“It’s more of a visual park,” Kohn said in a telephone interview Monday. “It’s not likely to be used much — that’s my guess although I could be wrong.”


Kohn’s architectural firm has produced the preliminary renderings of the $2 billion Chase building, has conducted shadow studies of the park, and has worked extensively with the Port Authority, which owns the W.T.C. site and approved the 92-year lease with Chase last week. Kohn has not been picked yet to design the Chase building, but he is a likely candidate, particularly since Chase referred questions on the building to him.


The 1.3-million-square-foot building will be at the Tower 5 site at the World Trade Center and will replace the former Deutsche Bank building, which was badly damaged on 9/11 and is currently being dismantled. Six or seven trading floors will jut out from the building about 200 feet over the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which will be rebuilt adjacent to the park. Depending on the number of trading floors built, the office tower will be between 670 and 740 feet tall, at least 60 feet shorter than it could have been without the cantilever addition. According to Kohn’s studies, the cantilever will add shadows to the church, but not the park. There will be shadows in the park from the rest of the Chase building as well as other existing and planned buildings.


The park’s shadows will be greatest at 3 p.m. in the summer, and at noon in the fall and spring. Kohn said there would be even more shadows in the colder winter months.


The church will have “a great outdoor room,” which along with the park will get enough sun, Kohn said. “There’s air and light on all sides of the park,” he said. “It gives a very nice sense of space to the church.”


As part of the deal, Chase will donate $10 million to be divided between the memorial across the street and the church.


Father Alex Karloutsos, a spokesperson for the Greek Orthodox Church in New York, said that in general, the church is grateful for all donations, but he had “no reaction” to the multi-million-dollar gift from Chase or to the investment bank’s plans to build over St. Nicholas.




Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee, said it is important to make sure the park does not get slighted. “Open space is precious Downtown and the little we have, we have to preserve,” she said.


The probability that the Port’s vehicle security center would raise the park over the street level has been known for a few years, but Hughes said she has not heard anything about that for awhile and she hopes to get more details soon.


Kohn said the Liberty St. pedestrian bridge from the World Financial Center is likely to lead into the park. When asked about this, Hughes said it sounded good in theory so long as the bridge does not cut out a big piece of the park.


The park has not been designed yet and construction is not likely to begin before 2011, when the Port hopes to have the vehicle security center and tour bus garage finished under the park.


Even though the trading floors will hover near where trucks will enter the W.T.C., Kohn said the New York Police Dept. thinks the building’s safety has been enhanced by moving the larger floors up. “They like the fact that trading floors are so far up,” he said.


JP Morgan’s lease with the Port is expected to begin by Sept. 1 2008, when the New York-New Jersey agency plans to turn over an empty office tower site to the bank for construction. The date is an acknowledgement of something that officials with other agencies have been unwilling to admit — that the Deutsche project is unlikely to be finished on time at the end of this year. Chase could finish its building by the end of 2012.


The demolition of the contaminated Deutsche building has been delayed many times for a wide range of reasons, most recently because of work safety violations including a large pipe that crashed into the 10/10 firehouse next door, injuring two firefighters. If the pattern of multi-year delays continues at 130 Liberty, Chase has an out — the bank can walk away with $1 million from the Port if it does not get all of the government approvals needed to begin building by Dec. 31, 2010.


Under the deal’s terms, Chase will pay the Port $300 million for control of the site The bank will get about $240 million worth of tax and other benefits from the state and city.


Gov. Eliot Spitzer said all but $20 million in the incentive package were “off the shelf” benefits, available to any firm which signs an early lease at the W.T.C. Many of the subsidies were part of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s “Marshall Plan,” passed in Albany two years ago.


Spitzer, Silver, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Port leaders joined Chase C.E.O. Jamie Dimon two weeks ago to announce the deal.


“We’re proud, we’re going back home,” Dimon said, noting that both Chase and a financier named J.P. Morgan began near Wall St. “We feel great about it.”


“We have proven once again that Downtown Manhattan is the epicenter of global capital,” Spitzer said.


The governor even suggested the cantilever would improve the open space, which he described as “an all-weather park. Beneath it there’ll be some opportunity to play chess or play ball in the park when it is pouring in the surrounding area because the cantilever will provide cover.”


When told of that comment, a skeptical Hughes said, “I’d like to have a wind and rain analysis.”

Josh@DowntownExpress.com

One vote from me!

It's like a modern day Flat Iron building. Wonderful. I love it.

:ohno: So they are gonna create a park which will be almost always in the shadow (especially on the important part of the days) and which nobody will use. wonderful.

I'm not a big fan of the building anyhow, only the cantilivered piece looks sorta okey. Maybe it will change if we get better renderings.

great concept, but physically overshadowing a park and a church is a little strange.

Like such towers

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/10/2007-07-10_wtc_demo_company_fined_37g-2.html
WTC demo company fined 37G

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By GREG B. SMITH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, July 10th 2007, 4:00 AM

The contractor demolishing a Ground Zero tower where a large pipe fell from the roof has been hit with $37,500 in fines for unsafe work conditions, the Daily News has learned.

The John Galt Corp., a Bronx firm with no prior experience taking down office buildings, was cited last week by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration for 12 violations at the 130 Liberty St. job site.

The building was ruined during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and its removal is key to reconstruction of the site. The state hired Galt to dismantle the 40-story tower floor by floor.

The job is a year behind schedule and $15.7 million over budget. In May, work was temporarily halted when a 15-foot pipe fell from the 35th floor and pierced the roof of a nearby firehouse.

OSHA began investigating the pipe incident but expanded its probe after the building's neighbors and The News raised questions about other incidents at the site.

Last week, the agency revealed that its investigators found more problems.

After a May 10 inspection, OSHA alleged that scaffolding collapsed and injured two workers on the 25th floor when it was improperly moved.

OSHA also charged that on June 6 - three weeks after the pipe incident - investigators discovered employees working next to unprotected edges on the 36th and 37th floors.

The new citations follow OSHA's decision last January to fine Galt $1,600 for similar unsafe conditions. This second round led to much higher fines totaling $37,500.

Galt executives did not return a call seeking comment.

Joel Shufro, executive director of the nonprofit job safety group, the N.Y. Committee for Occupational Safety & Health, said the nature of the violations worries him.

"These are serious hazards," he said. "This is a prominent project, which is being watched closely. That there are such basic problems indicates that this is a job that's not being monitored closely enough and not being run in a proper manner."

The News also learned that on July 3, the city issued a partial stop-work order after more allegations of unsafe demolition surfaced. Work resumed July 6, documents state.

On June 14 - a month after the pipe fell - a resident alleged more debris dropped off the building. The city inspector showed up a day later and found no evidence to corroborate the claim, but neighborhood residents have repeatedly complained about falling objects at the site.

Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for the agency that owns the building, the Empire State Development Corp., said, "We've insisted throughout the deconstruction that the contractors comply with all safety regulations."
gsmith@nydailynews.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

why cant they just demolish the building with explosives and stuff?

why cant they just demolish the building with explosives and stuff?

That would damage the structures of the buildings around Deustche Bank,I suppose.

I thought it had more to do with the toxic amounts of mildew, asbestos, and the like?

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_218/paradisisnot.html
Volume 20 Issue 9 | July 13 - 19, 2007

Paradise is not lost, W.T.C. architect tells C.B. 1

By Skye H. McFarlane

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_218/allsnotlost.gif
Architect A. Eugene Kohn’s rendering of the JPMorgan Chase tower planned near a park at the World Trade Center site.

Liberty Park will be a paradise after all, architect A. Eugene Kohn has decided.

Kohn’s optimism — and some reassuring shadow studies — have assuaged some of the community’s fears about a proposed cantilever that would jut out over the park from World Trade Center Tower 5. However, on Monday night, community members and another area developer continued to express worries about pedestrian access and retail along the dense strip of Cedar St. that will house Tower 5, Liberty Park, a vehicle screening and parking facility, and a new home for the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.

“It has attracted a lot of interesting and rather explicit names,” Kohn joked while describing his design for Tower 5 to Community Board 1’s World Trade Center Committee. JPMorgan Chase made a deal with the Port Authority last month to lease the building for 92 years, but the deal was contingent upon Chase being able to build floors large enough for trading operations — a function that Kohn called “part of the D.N.A. of banking.”

Kohn’s firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, was hired by the Port to produce a preliminary design for what a slender tower with large trading floors would look like. The resulting seven-floor cantilever led to community worries that the park and the church, which will sit just north of the Chase tower, would be plunged into permanent shadow. The building has been called the “Tower of Darkness” by the real estate blog Curbed.com. Other online pundits have used less-printable monikers, comparing the cantilever to a certain part of the male anatomy. Kohn said Monday he hopes that the community will grow to appreciate the unique design and see it, as he does, as “handsome.”

Shadow studies done by Kohn’s firm show that while the park will be in shadow much of the day, the shadows come mostly from other buildings in the area. Because the cantilevered tower will be shorter than the straight tower originally planned for the site, the cantilever would actually reduce the shadows cast on the World Trade Center memorial at certain times of the day and year.

While addressing the shadow question in an interview with the Downtown Express two weeks ago, Kohn said he doubted whether anyone would use Liberty Park anyways, since it will be situated 20 feet above street level, atop the entrance to the vehicle screening center. After those comments stirred some anger in the community, Kohn said he took some time to reassess the park and its possibilities. He even created a design mock-up for the park and the church, which he showed to the community Monday night.

“The more we looked at this, the more excited we got about the design,” Kohn said, pointing out how the park could take advantage of its great views of the memorial and its direct connection to the Liberty St. pedestrian bridge and the World Financial Center. For the church, Kohn imagined sweeping staircases leading down to street level and inviting pedestrians in, like the Spanish Steps or the grand duomos of Italy. In Kohn’s design, the church and the pedestrian corridor would stay bright and cheery thanks to lights shining down from the underside of the cantilever.

“I probably spoke too soon in the paper and I was probably misquoted somewhat,” Kohn said, stressing that he never used the word “paradise.” Downtown Express used the word in the headline, but did not report that Kohn or anyone else said it. “In any case, I take it all back. The park will be a paradise.”

However, Port Authority representatives at the meeting stressed that Kohn’s designs are only proposals. The Greek church has yet to produce any design plans and Chase has yet to hire a final architect for Tower 5, although Kohn is widely thought to be a front-runner. The Port Authority will design Liberty Park and the surrounding streetscapes sometime in the future. None of the new Cedar St. amenities can be built until the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. is dismantled — a process that has been fraught with delays and safety problems.

Andy Jurinko, a long-time resident of 125 Cedar St., applauded Kohn for designing a Tower 5 building that would be markedly less bulky and ugly than the Deutsche Bank tower that it will replace. Residents were also pleased to hear that Chase may seek a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

“I think the design looks kind of fun…it will give you a sense of security and shelter,” said Jurinko, who makes his living as an artist. Jurinko said he would love to view the new World Trade Center site from atop the cantilever, where Kohn has designed a landscaped plaza. He said that Chase could even charge a fee for such an experience, like the viewing areas at the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Plaza do.

Kohn was also enthusiastic about opening the plaza over the trading floors to the public, but he acknowledged it will be a decision for Chase to make.

Some community members remained unconvinced, fearing that even if the cantilever did not cast extra shadows on the park, it would stick out like a sore thumb amongst the more streamlined World Trade towers.

“It still doesn’t work for me,” said board member Allan Tannenbaum, shaking his head as he glanced at the rendering.

Board members also expressed concerns that the Chase tower would house just a single retail space — a Chase bank branch.

“I think it’s a great achievement for the economy that you’ve gotten Chase down here,” said board member Tom Goodkind. “On the other hand, you’re sitting here in front of a group of residents who need public amenities like retail stores and grocery stores and public parks.”

Marc Ameruso said that the board needed to bring Chase and the Greek church to a board meeting to discuss their more specific plans, since items like lighting under the cantilever and stairs along the church site would be crucial to the pedestrian experience.

“Street life is important. We don’t want to go back to something that didn’t work before,” Ameruso said, referring to the sometimes-labyrinthine nature of the old W.T.C. complex.

The developers of 130 Cedar St., which sits due south of the future Liberty Park site, echoed the residents’ worries about pedestrian flow and street life on Cedar St. After it is decontaminated and stripped of its façade, which was heavily damaged on 9/11, 130 Cedar St. will be rebuilt as a Club Quarters hotel with three public retail spaces.

Chris Colbourne, the project’s spokesperson, said that he thinks two of the retail spaces will be restaurants. He said that he would seriously consider the community’s request that the final retail space contain some sort of local amenity, such as a supermarket. Colbourne added that he hopes the Port Authority will take care to make Cedar St. appealing and accessible to pedestrians at street level, not just atop Liberty Park. He showed board members a sketch of what the street might look like if the park dropped straight off into a wall to the vehicle security center, without any steps, ramps or street plantings.

“We hope it doesn’t look like that,” Colbourne said, drawing appreciative laughter from the crowd. “We really want to make this a vibrant pedestrian corridor and we have a major concern about this vehicle entrance.”

© 2007 Community Media, LLC

http://lowermanhattan.info/images/news/071107_wtc5elevation_160.jpg

I'd like to see a bigger version of that. Found it on lowermanhattan.info

^^I also would like to see a bigger version of that!I tried to look for it,and found some other renders and studies.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3668/jpparkms7.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6879/overviewot6.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1052/200706aa2qp5.jpg

The other trade centers look better.

strange design, but original. although I think that this aera need more attention than the one given by this building.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/nyregion/17bank.html
Unbuilding a Skyscraper Wounded on Sept. 11

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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

David Emil, the president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, on the 26th floor of 130 Liberty Street.


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Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, its windows replaced with plywood, is being dismantled.

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On Sept. 11, 2001, the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan, was damaged by pieces of the World Trade Center. The building, seen here on July 17, is being dismantled. The plywood-enclosed area at the top of the building was in the process of undergoing abatement for asbestos and other hazardous contaminants.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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After abatement is completed, each floor of the building looks like this. The dismantling process represents the first complete removal of a building so large and so badly contaminated. Excessive levels of seven hazardous substances, including asbestos, dioxin, lead and chromium were measured in the building.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Where windows were removed, plywood was inserted in place of glass.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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A mechanical excavator worked to break apart one of the building's concrete floors. Water was sprayed to hold down dust. The workers can dismantle one floor about every four days.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Once the concrete slab and metal decking are removed, what remains is a steel skeleton of each floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Steel beams that framed the horizontal structure of the building were cut away with torches.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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As more and more beams and columns are removed, what was once an enclosed building opens up to the sky.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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An internal staircase, which served as a fire exit, was one of the last remaining structures on the 27th floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Once the interior stairs are removed, workers must reach the upper floors using these external stairways, which are built into scaffolding.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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A welder made a final cut to a beam, freeing up the last exterior bay remaining on the 27th floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Two skid steer loaders pulled down the bay, which was already cut at the base of each column.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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As the loaders roared into reverse, the cables became taut and the bay began to topple. There was still enough resistance, however, that the front wheels of the loader on the right reared slightly into the air.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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Within seconds, the whole bay had toppled, landing on the floor slab with a large jolt.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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The same compact loader that pulled the wall down was used to cart away debris for removal by crane.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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A large container filled with debris, seen at left, was hoisted from the roof.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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The container was lowered to a staging area on the south side of Liberty Street.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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An crane waited to unload the container.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

It is, Avi Schick said, like watching a video of a building being built, but in reverse.

Mr. Schick, the chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, was walking through 130 Liberty Street, the building opposite ground zero that was gashed by pieces of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The building, the New York base of Deutsche Bank at the time, is now being dismantled.

That is different from being demolished. The building is being taken apart almost piece by piece, something demolition experts say has been done before.

What is a first is the complete removal of a building so large and so badly contaminated by hazardous substances. And it is happening under the wary eyes of regulators, neighbors and even the Wall Street types who will someday fill the building that is scheduled to take this one’s place.

So, day after day this summer, workers with acetylene torches are going floor by floor, slicing through the steel beams, the horizontal parts of the building’s skeleton. With help from small tractorlike machines, they are pulling down the beams and the steel columns they are attached to.

Then they are cutting the beams and columns into smaller pieces and loading them into trash-hauling bins that a crane lowers to the street.

Working their way down from the top of what was once a 41-story building, the workers reached the 26th floor on Tuesday morning.

They were cutting into the beams at the southwest corner of that floor, and the two-and-a-half-inch-thick concrete floor slab was vibrating. That was because a mechanical excavator — another tractorlike machine, with a jackhammer mounted on a movable front arm — was breaking through the slab on the southeast corner.

The broken pieces went into another trash-hauling bin and the crane took them away, too. The workers can dismantle one floor every four days or so.

A separate team is working its way through the building, removing the interiors and scrubbing away any contaminants that may remain.

Consultants to the development corporation said more than two years ago that besides asbestos, the building had excessive levels of seven hazardous substances, including dioxin, lead and chromium.

Now those floors have been reduced to their structural elements: naked columns and beams. The walls that once defined offices are gone. So are the plate-glass windows that once looked out on the trade center across the street. So are the wires that connected computers and phones and brought in electricity.

And there was the continuing search for human remains. The chief medical examiner’s office said in February that 766 body parts had been found in the building. Most were fragments of bone less than four inches long.

The long-delayed project got under way in earnest in February. A large construction company, Bovis Lend Lease, won a contract worth $82 million to clear the site, and before that, there was a court fight between Deutsche Bank and its insurers that ended after former Senator George J. Mitchell was called in as a mediator.

The solution was for the development corporation, which is controlled jointly by the state and the city, to buy the building for $90 million.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency approved the plan for dismantling the building last September after reviewing methods for keeping contaminants from being released into the air during the deconstruction.

The E.P.A. action came two months after a deputy commissioner for the city Department of Environmental Protection, Robert C. Avaltroni Jr., began leading meetings every other week with city and state officials and officials from the regional office of the E.P.A. to deal with issues raised by the project. Those meetings continued as Gov. George E. Pataki left office and Gov. Eliot Spitzer took over.

Finally, crews began driving what are called needle beams into the facade. The needle beams anchored the scaffolding, which obscured the building as the interior decontamination, including a top-to-bottom wipe-down, began.

Soon the crews were removing the floor-to-ceiling windows and replacing them with plywood.

Then the project slowed down again, as Bovis and the John Galt Corporation negotiated with the development corporation. They said they wanted an extra $30 million because the project turned out to be more complicated than they had expected it to be. Mr. Schick said the development corporation agreed to advance a total of $38 million toward the cost of finishing the job, with the exact amount to be negotiated — or litigated — later.

What is happening at 130 Liberty Street is certainly different from most demolition projects, where the process is less methodical and the rubble a jumble of steel, concrete, plaster and glass. In some ways, the Deutsche Bank building looks more like a construction site than a demolition site. Scaffolding runs up the outside of the building, as do elevators that are little more than lifts with perforated walls.

On the upper floors, where Mr. Schick and David Emil, the president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, led their tour, the work is being done by people in hard hats.

That was a sign of progress. The last time a reporter and a photographer were allowed in the building, they had to wear respirators and body suits.

This time, on the 26th floor, there was a grid of steel beams where the floor slab had been removed. And there was the part of the slab that Mr. Schick and Mr. Emil could still walk on, even as the excavator pounded the concrete. “In about 36 months,” Mr. Schick said, “there will be some banker here.”

He and Mr. Emil are determined to finish the disassembly to clear the way for a new building that will house JPMorgan Chase’s investment banking headquarters. “JPMorgan Chase is making a huge bet on our ability to do that,” Mr. Schick said.

Mr. Emil said the removal of the Deutsche Bank building would be finished in “late winter” — that is, in early 2008. But the deal for the additional money for Bovis and John Galt included a bonus if they finish by Dec. 31.

The deconstruction has had its problems. In May, a 22-foot-long metal pipe fell from the 35th floor and smashed through the roof of a nearby firehouse. No one was seriously hurt, but the deconstruction work was halted for about a week while the city reviewed safety precautions.

Mr. Schick said that a Buildings Department inspector is assigned to the building full time, as are inspectors from the E.P.A. and the state Labor Department, who are checking for environmental hazards. He said the work could be halted if they found unexpected debris the size of a dime — in a space not quite as large as an acre.

Twelve monitors that check air quality have been mounted on or near the building.

The last time one went off, Mr. Schick said, it was caused by drilling by Con Edison that had nothing to do with the project.

“This building is unique,” said Mr. Avaltroni, the city environmental official. “It was severely damaged, it had the gash, it had not been dealt with for a period of time, and if you look at it symbolically, it’s very important to get it down. The main objective here is do it right, get it done.”

Lol, 130 Liberty is on fire. I wonder who will be first to post the article on how it will delay 5.

August 18, 2007

OMG this site must be cursed!!

a fire broke out today at the Deutsche Bank...:( :( :(

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Oh crap, firemen are dead according to NY1.

oh dear god, not another fire in a highrise. this just isnt the month for construction workers... or firemen. i hope not too many people were hurt. how many firemen died?

^^:rant: :rant: :rant:

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_223/newdeutsche.html
Volume 20 Issue 14 | August 17 - 23, 2007

New Deutsche violations

As the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. has continued its steady downward progress this summer, the project – now under the constant supervision of the Department of Buildings – has continued to rack up violations.

On July 3, a partial stop-work order was issued for dangerous demolition. According to the D.O.B.’s online records, that order was lifted on July 6 after an engineer’s report. On July 11 a violation was issued for “failure to maintain” when the demolition caused a large hole in the 31st floor of the building.

On Aug. 1, the D.O.B. issued a stop-work order when it found that “burning operations” – the use of torches to cut through steel – were sending sparks down onto lower floors where combustible materials were being stored.

That stop-work order was rescinded the same day, but the next day, the D.O.B. found that 130 Liberty’s permits to safely store combustible materials had expired. Those permits must be issued by the Fire Dept. On Aug. 3 a stop-work order was issued for all operations involving torches. According to D.O.B. spokesperson Kate Lindquist, the stop-work order was lifted on Aug. 6 after the project renewed its expired permits.

The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, which manages the deconstruction project, declined to comment on the stop-work orders and referred press inquiries to the D.O.B.

Though none of the recent snags were as serious as the incident in which a 15-foot pipe plummeted from the building into a firehouse last spring, they have spawned worried emails and phone calls between local residents and environmental advocates. Several residents of nearby buildings like 125 Cedar St. have said they will not feel completely safe until the Deutsche Bank tower is gone for good.

The 41-story office tower, which was heavily damaged and contaminated on 9/11, will no longer meet its Dec. 31 deadline for deconstruction. According to several officials, it is now expected to be down sometime in early 2008.

— Skye H. McFarlane

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/nyregion/22fire.html?ref=nyregion
Critics Say Lessons From 9/11 Were Not Followed in Deutsche Bank Blaze

By AL BAKER
Published: August 22, 2007
After the Sept. 11 attack at the World Trade Center, an independent consultant studied the Fire Department’s performance and identified a number of lapses amid all the undeniable valor of that day. It said that too many men rushed into the buildings before anyone realized the danger they were in, contributing to the staggering death toll.

The consultant, McKinsey & Company, said the Fire Department needed to use more caution and preparation when it approached such a major, complicated fire, and not send too many men in before it knew what it was dealing with.

Saturday’s fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, which left two firemen dead, presented its own set of challenges, but it also bore similarities to Sept. 11 that went beyond geography, including the fact that the building was a high-rise.

Now, some are questioning Saturday’s response, noting that, at one point, more than 100 firefighters were inside the building even though the fire was out of control and wildly unpredictable — and that those men had to be called out. And they were inside even though, unlike the situation in the twin towers, no workers were trapped.

“Clearly firefighters were sent into a deathtrap,” said Stephen J. Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “I think the Fire Department’s position is they didn’t know how bad it was. We certainly need to find out why they didn’t know.”

Yesterday, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta directed his investigators to determine why the department did not have a plan in place to fight a fire in the building.

Mr. Cassidy made his remarks as the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, announced that his office had opened an investigation into the fire to determine if any crimes had been committed. The move extends the prosecutors’ subpoena power to the fire marshals who are working with the district attorney’s office.

Mr. Cassidy also called for an independent investigation of the fire by the state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, who said last night that his office had begun reviewing the circumstances of the fire. Mr. Cassidy said the department was “not capable” of doing its own investigation because of its own involvement and its relationship with other city agencies involved.

In a way, it is a debate that goes to the heart of Fire Department culture — rushing into burning buildings, after all, is what firefighters do. And for their part, fire officials said they believed that Saturday’s fire was well managed, and that the department’s response could not be compared to its actions on 9/11.

“This is a fire in a high-rise building; it is not a terrorist attack,” said Francis X. Gribbon, the department’s chief spokesman. “They see the fire, they know where the fire is. They use the protocols in place to fight the fire.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the department’s decision to send the more than 100 firefighters up into the building to fight the blaze, saying they bravely improvised in a crisis.

The Deutsche Bank building is being dismantled. Sheathed in black netting and plywood, the floors where the men were trapped had been sealed off with plywood and plastic sheeting, creating a maze that became especially daunting as the building filled with wind-fanned black smoke.

Radio transmissions captured the moment when high-ranking officials ordered all the men out — a striking echo of Sept. 11. With two men down and 29 Maydays coming from hellishly fire-engulfed floors, commanders wanted to do a head count.

The priorities of those in charge of the fire response are crystallized in one transmission: A senior official cursed as he said he did not care about the building, and shouted, “Where are my men?”

Firefighters were trapped without water because the standpipe system — plagued by a shut valve, cracks and a broken pipe — malfunctioned. The two firefighters who died, Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, ran out of air. Investigators are focusing on a discarded cigarette or faulty electrical panel as the cause of the blaze.

“This was an unoccupied building,” said a former fire official. “On 9/11 we sent too many people in. McKinsey said that we should not rush men in and, even though the investigation is ongoing, it seems obvious at this point that we still have not learned the lesson that if you’re going to send people in, there should be adequate time and means to get them out.”

Charles R. Blaich, a retired deputy chief who was in charge of safety for the Fire Department at the ground zero site, said the McKinsey report changed how the department managed disasters.

“After 9/11 there were directions that came out from the chief of department that we never get ourselves into a position at these huge disasters where we just blindly assign assets without reasonably assessing what risks we face and what benefits we will achieve,” Mr. Blaich said. “What are we going to achieve by doing this?”

Thomas Von Essen, the fire commissioner on Sept. 11, said he had had many conversations with firefighters who responded on Saturday. He said many felt the operation had moved too quickly.

Mr. Von Essen said it was widely known that the bank building was undergoing a complex and dangerous demolition. He said fire officials should not have been surprised by what the firefighters encountered.

John J. McDonnell, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said he believed the lessons of Sept. 11 had been learned “to some extent.”

“I don’t know if the upper echelons of the Fire Department were aware of the complex nature of the abatement within the building, I mean everyone from the fire commissioner to his staff,” said Mr. McDonnell, whose union represents 2,450 members.

“Were they aware of the complex nature?” he asked. “If they were aware prior to that, maybe there would have been a different fire plan in place.”

He added, “Under a hazardous materials condition, you approach things on a much more cautious level. ”

Firefighters at the scene checked in with commanders, said Mr. Gribbon, the department spokesman. “They were given assignments and they went to work.”

Mr. Gribbon declined to release a minute-by-minute breakdown of the department’s response because he said the department was conducing an internal review that involved listening to radio transmissions, transcribing the tapes, interviews and re-interviews, among other things.

Mr. McDonnell said no one had been prepared to find the stairwell landings blocked by the heavy plywood boards used to compartmentalize buildings where asbestos was being removed. Firefighters had to use an exterior elevator and scaffolding stairs to get up and down.

Jerome M. Hauer, director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management from 1996 to 2000, said it was “unfair” to contrast the department’s operations on Saturday with the findings of the McKinsey report because “I don’t feel that the report was accurate in some of its assessments.”

He said the accountability for what occurred “has to rest” with the building owner and the demolition operators, not with the Fire Department.

Anemona Hartocollis and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/nyregion/23company.html?ref=nyregion
Obscure Company Is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work

By CHARLES V. BAGLI, DAVID W. DUNLAP and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: August 23, 2007

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Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company in the Bronx is one of the companies behind the John Galt Corporation, the demolition contractor for the former Deutsche Bank building.

The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently never done any work like it. Indeed, Galt does not seem to have done much of anything since it was incorporated in 1983.

Public and private records give no indication of how many employees it has, what its volume of business is or who its clients are. There are almost no accounts of any projects it has undertaken on any scale, apart from 130 Liberty Street. Court records are largely silent. Some leading construction executives in the city say they have never even heard of it.

That may not be as surprising as it seems. John Galt, it appears, is not much more than a corporate entity meant to accommodate the people and companies actually doing the demolition job at the emotionally charged and environmentally hazardous site at the edge of ground zero.

The companies and project managers who have been providing the expertise, the workers and the financing for the job are Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company, which is not in business to demolish skyscrapers, and former executives from Safeway Environmental Corporation, a company that was already removed from one contract at 130 Liberty because of concerns about its integrity.

Using a separate corporation to insulate the assets of a parent company from the enormous potential liabilities of demolition work is not itself unusual. And challenging construction projects in the city often have several companies come together in a joint effort.

The arrangement involving Galt — achieved after multiple companies that had bid on the Deutsche Bank contract were eliminated for one reason or another — is nonetheless odd for such a momentous job, one that is expected ultimately to cost roughly $150 million.

The arrangement, never fully publicly disclosed, was proposed by the general contractor charged with overseeing the demolition, Bovis Lend Lease, and approved by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns 130 Liberty Street.

Yesterday, Bovis announced that it had declared Galt in default on the bank building contract, saying the outfit Bovis had selected had failed “to live up to terms of its contract with respect to site supervision, maintenance and project safety.” One person who has spoken to Bovis executives, but who was not authorized to speak for the company, said it was likely that Galt would be formally fired within the week.

When officials at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation approved Galt’s participation, they even allowed two former senior Safeway executives to join the operation at the Deutsche Bank building on several conditions, including that they cooperate with an investigation being conducted by the city’s Department of Investigation.

In the 17 months since Galt took shape — and as problems mounted at the demolition site, including repeated safety violations — city and state officials have made announcements about the work and problems at 130 Liberty referring to John Galt as if it were a fully established corporation, and never mentioning by name the more controversial and less than perfectly qualified people and companies doing the work.

(John Galt, by the way, is a central character, an engineer, in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” The book begins with this line: “Who is John Galt?”)

John Galt’s stationery puts its headquarters at 3900 Webster Avenue in the Bronx, near Woodlawn Cemetery, the same address as Regional Scaffolding’s. The two companies also share many of the same officers.

Greg Blinn, who is shown in city records as the president of the John Galt Corporation, said in a telephone interview: “I’m not really sure how I can help. My contract precludes me from talking to the media. I have to refer all questions or inquiries to the L.M.D.C.”

Daniel L. Doctoroff, the city’s deputy mayor for economic development, who was a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation at the time it approved the Galt contract, said through a spokesman this week that safeguards had been put in place to make sure that the former Safeway executives did nothing inappropriate — like funnel money back to Safeway.

Those safeguards included enlisting the help of an integrity monitor who would scrutinize, among other things, Galt’s hiring, purchases and financial transactions.

The complicated nature of the arrangement on the demolition job resulted to a great extent from the difficulty Bovis and the state had in attracting any contractors interested in, or capable of, performing the novel and high-profile job.

It is not hard to understand why most contractors — particularly during a building boom, when they can pick and choose work — would balk at doing a job involving hazardous materials under microscopic regulatory scrutiny for a governmental client whipsawed by demands that demolition go faster (so that ground zero redevelopment could proceed) and slower (to ensure that contaminants were not released into the neighborhood).

Add to that the extremely high cost of obtaining insurance for the work, and the lack of any meaningful precedent for the operation, and most companies would see a recipe for delay, escalating costs and shrinking profits.

Safeway first surfaced on the scene at 130 Liberty when it, along with Regional Scaffolding, won a $13 million scaffolding contract in 2005 for the bank building.

But Safeway, its former owners, Harold Greenberg, 61, and Stephen Chasin, 56, and another company they long operated, Big Apple Wrecking and Construction Corporation, had a troubled history.

Mr. Greenberg, of Staten Island, has gone to federal prison twice for crimes related to the industry.

Identified by federal investigators as a Gambino crime family associate, he was convicted in 1988 of bribing a federal inspector to overlook asbestos-removal violations while Big Apple was demolishing Gimbels department store on East 86th Street in Manhattan. Three years later he pleaded guilty to mail fraud in a bid-rigging scheme involving other contractors.

Safeway’s failure to disclose his criminal history and the accusations of mob ties led the authorities to bar the company from working on city schools in 2003. School investigators contended that Mr. Greenberg and his partner in Big Apple and Safeway, Mr. Chasin, sought to disguise their roles in companies in order to obtain public contracts and other work from which his convictions would bar them.

(Safeway Environmental was one of the subcontractors used in the development of a new headquarters for The New York Times, across Eighth Avenue from the Port Authority Bus Terminal.)

Neither Mr. Greenberg nor Mr. Chasin could be reached for comment. Calls left at their offices and homes were not returned.

The two former Safeway executives, Mitchel Alvo and Don Adler, declined to comment.

At the city’s insistence, Safeway was ultimately bounced from the scaffolding contract at the bank building.

Meanwhile, the effort to take down the building moved slowly, as litigation and fights over costs and responsibility dragged on.

By early 2006, though, Bovis, a multibillion-dollar global operation, had won the giant contract to oversee the demolition of the bank building. Seven contractors submitted bids to Bovis to do the demolition work under Bovis’s direction. Some, though, were deemed not qualified. Others dropped out.

That all opened the way for what was known as the John Galt Corporation.

“There was only one contractor willing to work on taking down the building, as far as I know,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Tuesday.

Thus began the negotiations to allow Galt to go forward and tackle the contaminated building. According to an agreement between the state and Bovis, John Galt was allowed to take on Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler, the two former Safeway executives.

“A series of conditions were included in the contract at the direction of L.M.D.C. that prevented questionable individuals from working at this job or from having any association with John Galt,” said Mr. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor. “Once Galt and Bovis agreed to these stipulations, representatives on the L.M.D.C. board from the city joined their state counterparts and voted to approve the contract amendment to Bovis.”

According to the agreement, portions of which were shared with a reporter, neither John Galt nor Bovis could employ or use the services of any other senior executives, principals or owners of Safeway Environmental or two other companies, one of them Big Apple Wrecking.

The contractors also agreed to allow Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler to cooperate with the city’s Department of Investigation in what was described in the agreement — without elaboration — as an ongoing investigation.

The presence of Mr. Alvo and Mr. Adler on the 130 Liberty Street project was not mentioned in the development corporation’s March announcement but was highlighted in a Daily News article on April 16, 2006.

John Galt, having done little, if any, work before the 130 Liberty Street project, did actually try to win another project shortly after starting work at the bank building.

It was the winning bidder for the demolition contract at the Bronx House of Detention in the summer of 2006. But it failed to obtain approval through the city’s contract review process and lost the job because, officials say, they learned that the city’s Department of Investigation had opened an investigation into John Galt.

“In July 2006, E.D.C. and the developer were made aware that D.O.I. had initiated an investigation of Galt that might delay a background clearance, so the developer instead used the next lowest bidder,” said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

Galt’s work at the Deutsche Bank building, however, went on unaffected.

Deputy Mayor Doctoroff said the city’s decision to deny Galt the Bronx contract did not obligate the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to re-examine whether Galt was the right company to be working at ground zero.

OMG :(

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=72898


August 23, 2007

At least two firefighters were injured this afternoon when construction equipment being used at the Deutsche Bank building fell to the ground, hours after crews began doing remedial work on the building following Saturday’s deadly fire.

The Empire State Development Corporation said that around 2:15 p.m. a pallet jack fell from the 23rd floor of the building and struck a temporary shed. The two firefighters were injured as they were walking in the safety perimeter around the building.

All work on the site has been halted and all workers have been removed from the site.

Sources tell NY1 that the construction equipment likely fell from an outside elevator or hoist that was carrying it up the north side of the building.

The firefighters were taken to Saint Vincent's Medical Center – one with head injuries. The other is said to have sustained minor injuries. They are both said to be in stable condition.

Preliminary reports indicated that several construction workers were also injured, but that information has not been confirmed.

Demolition work at the WTC site skyscraper was suspended after the tragic fire that killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino on Saturday, but remedial work began this morning on the south side of the building between the 20th and 26th floors to remove debris and contain toxic material inside the building to make the site safe.

Residents in the area have long complained about the safety of the site.

"The building probably should have come down at least three years ago, but because of money and insurance it has remained,” said neighborhood resident Andy Jurinko. “I live probably 75 feet from the Deutsche bank. I go in and out of the entrance way every day, walking past the Deutsche Bank… It has been treacherous. It's been a disastrous area for the last six years."

Earlier today, residents who live near the building were advised to keep their windows closed while the remedial work was being performed.

A spokesman for the ESDC said crews began work this morning to make the site safe.

E-mails and calls were put out to residents advising them to close their windows in case of flying debris. The ESDC says people should not be concerned about air quality.

Before any work could begin, crews had to receive clearance from the Fire Department and the Department of Buildings because a stop-work order is still in effect, meaning demolition cannot take place. Before today’s incident, remedial work was expected to go on for several days.

Nearby residents say they've become accustomed to these types of problems living in the area.

"It's just a little inconvenience,” said one resident. “We can't drive through the neighborhood, and we’ve got to go through the checkpoints. But other than that, there's really no problems at all.”

“It's not too bad. I have to come in the back door, which isn't too difficult,” added another. “The only annoying thing is there's no access to the front. But other than that, it's not too bad."

The investigation into what caused Saturday's blaze continues. FDNY records show that the last time a comprehensive inspection was done on the failed standpipe system was back in March of 2005. According to department regulations, standpipes in buildings being demolished are to be inspected every 15 days.

The city has also admitted that it did not have a plan to fight a fire in the building, even though one is required to stay up to code.

The sub-contractor in charge of demolition has been fired. The John Galt Company was declared in default of its contract by the site's contractor.

The city says the building had a history of violations from the Department of Buildings, including several fines this year for failure to properly remove combustible material and debris.

The Manhattan district attorney's office and the state attorney general are both investigating the fire.



:yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck: :yuck:

Ah very nice project New York. Keep on going!

Sorry to hear about those firefighters, a real pity

TalB--Its almost unbelievable that this John Galt Corporation is being allowed to do this work given the sketchy history of the company and its associates. But I guess that's about what we should expect at ground zero.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_234/newfiresafety.html
Volume 20, Number 25 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | November 2 - 8, 2007

New fire safety violations at Deutsche

By Josh Rogers

Officials may hope to resume demolishing the Deutsche Bank building soon, but the project’s fire and safety problems continue.

In October — two months after the Aug. 18 blaze killed two firefighters at the damaged building — the city Dept. of Buildings issued three violations — one for allowing combustible debris to accumulate on the sixth floor (Oct. 4), one for leaving debris too close to the edge of the building (Oct. 5), and one for doing after hours work without a permit (Oct. 13).

“One would think they’d be careful — they’re under investigation, two people have died, the community is up in arms,” Pat Moore said of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and other agencies overseeing the building across the street from her home.

She is a member of Community Board 1 and attended an Oct. 12 meeting of the 130 Liberty St. Advisory Committee, yet she had not heard about the violations until she was contacted by Downtown Express.

“Why would we have a meeting on the 12th and not hear about the violations,” she asked. The meeting was run by the L.M.D.C., the building’s owner.

Kimberly Flynn of 9/11 Environmental Action said a fellow activist emailed her the information about the violations but she also got no official word, despite attending the Oct. 12 meeting.

“These are violations in October, at which point we would have thought the L.M.D.C. had the situation firmly in hand,” she said. “The nature of the violations is particularly troubling….”

“It’s looking like same-old, same-old. At the community meetings [right after the fire] people asked over and over, ‘what’s going to be different to prevent injuries, accidents and fires?’”

Officials with the development corporation, a state-city authority under the control of the governor, did not comment for this article.

Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of C.B. 1’s World Trade Center Committee, said L.M.D.C. officials did say Oct. 12 that they were reducing the “fire load” in the building, but they did not connect the change to the recent violations.

The violations have been rectified, according to the Buildings Dept. Web site.

Avi Schick, the L.M.D.C.’s chairperson, said a few weeks ago that the work resealing the building to prevent possible toxic chemicals from escaping was proceeding well and he hoped the cleanup and demolition would begin soon.

Councilmember Alan Gerson said two weeks ago that the L.M.D.C. promised to testify before his Council committee before demolition work resumed. Gerson postponed the hearing then, and he has not yet rescheduled, an indication that the demolition date may have been pushed back.

Fifteen of the building’s 41 stories were taken apart before the fire.

The corporation has not yet picked a subcontractor to replace John Galt Corp., which was cited for numerous safety violations before the fire. Last year, Board 1 warned the L.M.D.C. not to hire the firm, citing Galt’s lack of experience and alleged ties to organized crime.

The L.M.D.C.’s silence about the fire and safety violations is the latest in a list of community complaints about the project.

This year after each major incident, officials made assurances that the project would proceed safely, but they were not specific about what the mistakes were and what they learned. A large pipe fell off the building and crashed through the nextdoor firehouse in May, injuring two firefighters slightly. The fire killed Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia Aug. 18, and then five days later, a 300-pound forklift fell off the building, crashed through a shed, and injured two other firefighters seriously.

The night before that last incident, the L.M.D.C. sent out a community advisory saying that Bovis Lend Lease would be working on the site, ostensibly to make it safer before demolition work resumed, but the LM.D.C. did not disclose that John Galt would be there as well.

One of Galt’s workers was blamed for losing control of the forklift and Aug. 23 turned out to be its last day on the site.

Julie Menin, CB. 1’s chairperson and a member of the L.M.D.C.’s board of directors, said residents must be told immediately when problems are discovered at Deutsche. “We shouldn’t be put in a position,” she said, “where we have to be ferreting out information about what’s happening at the site.”

Josh@DowntownExpress.com

unique !


unique new york
unique new york
unique new york
unique new york


lol thats hard to say over and over

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11142007/news/regionalnews/mike__spitz__pataki_face_180m_deutsche_b_617986.htm
MIKE, SPITZ & PATAKI FACE $180M DEUTSCHE BLAZE SUITS

By CHUCK BENNETT

November 14, 2007 -- Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Spitzer and former Gov. Pataki all share responsibility for the August inferno at the condemned Deutsche Bank building that killed two firefighters, according to notices of claim filed yesterday on behalf of the victims' families that seek $180 million.

The papers filed yesterday allege that top elected officials and their appointees are to blame for the fire through "their abject misconduct and callous indifference."

"This is a first step of a long, long process my family and I are going through to force change in the city and prevent a disaster like this from happening again," said Linda Graffagnino, who lost her firefighter husband Joseph in the blaze.

The long-expected civil litigation comes as a grand jury has begun hearing evidence in the ongoing criminal probe.

"People are definitely going to get indicted," said a source familiar with the grand-jury proceedings into the deaths of Graffagnino and Robert Beddia.

Firefighters responding to the Aug. 18 blaze at the tower overlooking Ground Zero were confronted by a confusing maze of blocked stairwells and barriers meant to contain the spread of asbestos and World Trade Center dust.

Graffagnino, 33, and Beddia, 53, both died on the 14th floor of the building.

The claim, filed on behalf of Linda Graffagnino, 33, and her two children Mia, 4, and Joseph, 1, seeks $150 million.

Beddia's younger sister Barbara Crocco, 49, filed a separate notice of claim seeking $30 million. Additional reporting

by Kati Cornell

cbennett@nypost.com

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_235/thereasonfordeutsche.html
Volume 20, Number 26 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | November 9 - 15, 2007

The reason for Deutsche violations?

‘Why not,’ the L.M.D.C. asks

By Julie Shapiro

There is no guarantee that Downtown has seen the last of the violations at the Deutsche Bank building, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said Monday.

The comments, by President David Emil, were the L.M.D.C.’s first public reply to the three Dept. of Buildings violations first reported by Downtown Express last week. The L.M.D.C. incurred the violations in October for combustible debris on the sixth floor, debris too close to the edge of the building and work starting too early in the morning.

“It is our obvious desire to bring this [building] down completely in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations,” Emil said. “We think the issues have been addressed, but we are obviously concerned about [the violations] and are trying to not have it happen again.”

Emil spoke at the C.B. 1 World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee, where members questioned him on everything from the violations to the project’s timeline.

Asked after the meeting why violations continue at the building, Emil replied, “Why not?”

“The building is being very, very carefully regulated, and the regulators are going to enforce the letter of the law,” Emil said. “When you do that in a building in which each floor is an acre, it’s impossible to say there will never be another violation. What it is possible to say is that we’re going to absolutely positively try to do everything right.”

Emil also updated the committee on the progress of resealing the building, a necessary step before decontamination continues.

The L.M.D.C. had hoped to finish resealing the building with plastic sheets last week, but should finish by the end of this week, Emil said.

Also, unlike the pre-fire setup in which sections of the building were sealed in two-floor blocks, workers are rebuilding the original fire staircases, which will allow access through the 19th floor. Emil hopes to have the staircases complete by Nov. 16.

The extended timeline for the project is fuzzier.

“If [the building] is completely down by June or July, I, for one, would be very happy,” Emil said.

“Would you be surprised?” a committee member asked.

“I’m not sure what would surprise me on this job,” Emil replied.

He then said that progress could be slow over the winter, since construction workers usually heat their sites with open flames. The room fell completely silent, and then Emil quickly added that setting fires was not an option in the 130 Liberty St. building, where a blaze killed two firefighters Aug. 18.

Emil still had no news on plans to hire a subcontractor to complete the demolition. The L.M.D.C. has also not decided whether to complete the decontamination before starting demolition work, though Emil is still “leaning strongly in favor” of completing decontamination first.

Several committee members were concerned about the violations.

Barry Skolnick asked about the role of URS Corporation, which the L.M.D.C. hired before the fire to oversee the other contractors.

Emil replied that it would be unrealistic to expect URS to prevent all violations, especially the one for working after hours without a permit.

Pat Moore, who lives next door, asked about the flammable material still in the building.

There are two types of flammable material, Emil said. The first type is construction debris contained in large boxes above the 14th floor. Of the 350 to 400 boxes, 190 have been removed so far. Once the building is resealed, the removal will continue.

The second type is construction material, like sheetrock, that was stored in the building prior to the fire and needs to be moved, Emil said. This presumably was the material that the city objected to, since the violation was issued for a buildup of combustible debris on the sixth floor.

A question on insurance came from board member Tom Goodkind. He wanted to know whether Allianz Global Risks U.S. Insurance Company and AXA Corporate Solutions insurance company have pitched in their share of the demolition costs.

“So far the insurance companies have participated…in funding that escrow agreement,” Emil said. “I don’t want to characterize whether they’re honoring it or not honoring it, but as to whether they have contributed any money so far, the answer would be yes.”

Avi Schick, the development corporation’s chairperson, has said previously that he does not want to disclose how much money the agency will try and get from the insurers because it is likely to be the subject of litigation.

The L.M.D.C. paid $90 million for the 130 Liberty St. building in 2004 and agreed to fund the demolition up to a $45 million cap. Beyond that, the insurance companies agreed to pay a certain percentage of the costs. The details, Emil said, are complicated.

In February 2004, officials said insurance companies would cover the entire cost over $45 million. On Monday, Emil would not name the percentage that the companies must pay.

Julie@DowntownExpress.com

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_235/letterstotheeditor.html
Deutsche deja vu

To The Editor:

I am not too surprised to hear that there is another violation at Deutsche Bank (news article, Nov. 2 – 8, “New fire safety violations at Deutsche”). As usual, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation continues to cut corners while demolishing this building despite what dangers can be faced while doing it. The reason they will continue without taking safety precautions is because they feel that they have a schedule to keep, and delaying their demolitions can throw a wrench into the official plans through a chain reaction. You cannot put a price on safety, but I take it some just never learn from their mistakes

Tal Barzilai

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11182007/postopinion/editorials/downtown_dithering_76866.htm
DOWNTOWN DITHERING

November 18, 2007 -- Do Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg want to rebuild Ground Zero?

If so, they must move swiftly to remove the dangerous monstrosity that may become the chief obstacle to rebuilding there - that is, the Deutsche Bank building.

Given the bureaucratic inertia that seems to have swallowed up that 9/11-scarred site, you'd think neither Spitzer nor Bloomberg cares much about its future.

Or about the long-term future of Downtown itself, which is counting on a rebirth at Ground Zero that can take place only after the Deutsche Bank building is gone.

Indeed, three months after a fatal fire at the building halted its demolition, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a state- and city-controlled entity that owns the property, remains at full stop.

The LMDC is still trying to figure out whether contaminants in the building should be cleaned completely before demolition resumes - or whether both jobs can go ahead simultaneously, as they did before the fire.

Officials also need to settle on contractors for the job. (A key subcontractor, the John Galt Corp., was fired after the blaze.) What are they waiting for?

Meanwhile, preliminary work - bolstering fire safety on the building and repairing some structural damage caused by the fire - is still being completed.

Yet just last month, officials promised that demolition work would have started by now: “We hope the deconstruction will resume at the beginning of November," vowed LMDC Chairman Avi Schick.

Maybe someone should have asked: November of what year?

Now, officials are saying that - assuming the stars line up - work might start next month.

Sure, delay is a hallmark of any operation involving government paper-clip twisters. And federal environmental regulators have doubtless done everything in their power to slow down the demolition.

But this job is different.

For one thing, every day that the building remains standing is another day that it remains a threat to the community.

Remember, the fire wasn't the only calamity at 130 Liberty. A few months before, a 15-foot pipe fell from the building and smashed through the roof of a nearby firehouse, injuring two firefighters. And only days after the blaze, a pallet jack fell, injuring two more of The Bravest.

Beyond that, there's the question of the future of Ground Zero itself.

As The Post's Steve Cuozzo has pointed out, construction work there is inextricably linked to the demolition of the bank tower.

If the structure doesn't get cleared away soon, it may hold up completion of the towers at Ground Zero.

Enough is enough.

Ground Zero should have been finished long ago - and the Deutsche Bank building should be just a bad memory by now.

Spitzer and Bloomberg are letting New Yorkers down by not assuring the building's immediate removal.

How 'bout it, Mike? Eliot?

I do not like this skyscraper because
1. I wanted the building as a hotel
2. There is no 6 WTC in the new development
3. A tower with a cantilevered section like that is much better suited to a hotel than an office building (with a pool on top of the section)
4. I hope this tower gets cancelled.

2. is a very good reason :lol:

I don't like it. It's not ugly, it just looks goofy.

^^ true!

I do not like this skyscraper because
1. I wanted the building as a hotel
2. There is no 6 WTC in the new development
3. A tower with a cantilevered section like that is much better suited to a hotel than an office building (with a pool on top of the section)


Completely agree!


4. I hope this tower gets cancelled.

Ok. Maybe not that far...

The slanted roof looks good..

I hope they can change the cantilevered section, but if they don't, I think it will look better than the render- if it has the right cladding.

KPF is designing the building guys... the are not finished as of yet. The render now is just a placeholder for :Dthe massing and height of the tower.

I do not like this skyscraper because
1. I wanted the building as a hotel
2. There is no 6 WTC in the new development
3. A tower with a cantilevered section like that is much better suited to a hotel than an office building (with a pool on top of the section)
4. I hope this tower gets cancelled.

Well too bad for you. This building will be built whether you like it or not.

Yeah, Jimmy ain't the king of development.

Wanted a hotel... pfft.

Well too bad for you. This building will be built whether you like it or not.

"Yeah Jimmy!! And if you still don't like it when it's built, well... hu! You can go to your momy and cry! Ah!"


Please Brendan, grab a plush and chill out...

A hotel would indeed have been convenient to admire a breathtaking view in the morning(s) of one's NY trip.
I wanted a hotel too damn it...

4. I hope this tower gets cancelled.
I am hoping for the same thing along with the rest of that so-called official plan over at the WTC site.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12132007/news/regionalnews/deutsche_bank_still_in_strife_859231.htm
DEUTSCHE BANK STILL IN STRIFE

By CHUCK BENNETT

December 13, 2007 -- Nearly five months after the inferno at the former Deutsche Bank building killed two firefighters, the FDNY's safety recommendations haven't been followed and work cannot resume, officials said yesterday.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the FDNY has not "signed off" on the project - a major obstacle in finally demolishing the ugly reminder of 9/11.

"We are not going to get into too much of this, but I can say concerns are being addressed," Scoppetta said after a City Council hearing yesterday on the FDNY's new building-inspection program.

After the Aug. 18 blaze at 130 Liberty St. it emerged that the FDNY failed to conduct regular inspections of the building. As a result, the department increased its weekly inspections citywide and also stationed a battalion chief at the former bank building full-time.

Avi Schick, the embattled chief of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said in October that work to remove the remaining 27 floors of the abandoned building would resume last month. Schick has yet to publicly set a new date.

Sources say wrangling between the LMDC, the state agency in charge of the project, and its contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, is causing delays.

The LMDC declined to comment.

The slanted roof looks good..

I hope they can change the cantilevered section, but if they don't, I think it will look better than the render- if it has the right cladding.

Yeah, as it is it looks ridiculous.

I don't think that's so good looking. That "flashlight" (=lump) doesn't fit too well. I have to admit, that without it, that tower would look quite boring. First I was "wow-ing" the tower, cuz I thought it was the one one the left :)

W00t! I will be moving in as soon as its built- this is where I will be based Apparently 2012 - no further details as yet :(. I doubt it though. Have they even started construction down there yet?

deleted

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12202007/postopinion/editorials/tear_it_down__already_241385.htm
TEAR IT DOWN, ALREADY

December 20, 2007 -- Yet another round of delays at Ground Zero may be leading New Yorkers to wonder: Is the site headed for the same paralysis that held up rebuilding under then-Gov. George Pataki? Is anyone down there in charge?

Yesterday brought word that the World Trade Center memorial, which state officials promised would be open for 9/11's eighth anniversary, now likely won't be done until 2010. And the memorial's museum and visitors' center won't open until 2011 - a full decade after 9/11.

Other work is progressing, but even that may come to a halt if work doesn't soon resume on removing the contaminated Deutsche Bank building, which was irreparably damaged in the terror attack.

As we've said repeatedly, that building should've come down years ago.

Instead, it has stood as a monument to bureaucratic inertia. Even as a pipe fell from one of its upper floors, crashing through a firehouse below. And a blaze killed two firefighters in August. And a pallet-jack toppled down days later, injuring two more firefighters.

The state-controlled Lower Manhattan Development Corp. owns the property; after the August fire halted the building's deconstruction, LMDC head Avi Schick said work would re-start in November.

Never happened.

Now LMDC officials can't even say when demolition might begin. Nor even when they'll hire a new subcontractor for the job.

How pathetic.

We've seen this before, of course: Gov. Pataki vowed back in 2004 to have the Deutsche Bank building down by the following year. But the whole Ground Zero rebuilding was plagued by incompetence and a lack of leadership back then - nothing moved forward.

Now, with other parts of the project finally under way, a protracted delay at the Deutsche Bank building could be fatal, given that other work on Ground Zero buildings is closely linked to demolition of that tower.

Who's to blame for the new mess?

That's not entirely clear, given all the finger-pointing. But the LMDC, which - again - owns the Deutsche Bank tower, is mostly run by the state. Which means Gov. Spitzer needs to get on the ball.

Mayor Bloomberg also has a role to play, given that the fate of the building will greatly affect the city of which he is in charge.

Much is at stake in that building's removal. Officials should act like they understand that - and get that building down pronto.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_242/deutscheviolations.html
Volume 20, Number 33 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | Dec. 28, 2007 - Jan. 3, 2008

Deutsche violations and questions keep mounting

By Josh Rogers

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_242/tower.gif
“I feel like I have a new life. I feel safe,” she said.

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

The city recently issued two violations for materials falling off a crane at the former Deutsche bank building.

Two thousand and seven began with the hope of seeing long-delayed demolition work activity at the former Deutsche Bank building soon. The year ends with the same hope along with heightened concern about the safety of the project after the deaths of two firefighters battling a blaze in the damaged tower on Aug. 18.

Since the fire, the 130 Liberty St. building across from the World Trade Center site has been resealed to prevent contamination from potentially hazardous chemicals. Work continues on a fire stairway and other safety protections. But subcontractors to replace John Galt Corp. have not been picked, and the promise by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to resume the environmental abatement and demolition work in November has come and gone without explanation as to why it was missed.

Bob Harvey, who runs the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, a subsidiary of the L.M.D.C., told Community Board 1 two weeks ago that “it is too early at this point” to tell whether demolition of Deutsche would be finished by Sept. 2008, the date when JPMorgan Chase is supposed to get control of the site to build new headquarters.

The city Buildings Dept. issued three more violations at Deutsche on Dec. 17 — two for materials that fell from a crane. The agency has not yet put out any details about the violations and a spokesperson refused to say what materials fell, how far they fell or even who was cited for the violations. The third violation was for violating the partial stop work order on the building. The Buildings Dept. did not comment on that one either.

“This is an extremely toxic building, there were elaborate protocols set up because of pressure from the community and what we see repeatedly is a desire to relax the protocols, relax the protections,” said Rob Spencer, who keeps close track of the project’s violations.

Spencer, a spokesperson for the Organization of Staff Analysts, a municipal union with many members working near the W.T.C., pointed out that it’s important to know more about the mishaps since one of the cranes is suspended much higher than the building, which now stands at 26 stories.

“You don’t know if they mean ‘a’ crane or ‘the’ crane. Is it the main crane or a little one?

“Given the history, I hope L.M.D.C. does not see this as an annoyance but as a warning to fix the situation.”

Development corporation officials declined to comment for this article.

In the past, L.M.D.C. officials have said the violations are an indication that the system is working — that transgressions are being caught.

Councilmember Alan Gerson said that’s true, but the continued violations really are “good news, bad news,” because it would be better if there was nothing anyone had to catch.

Gerson postponed a City Council hearing in the fall on Deutsche’s future plans after the L.M.D.C. and city officials promised to testify before the demolition work resumed. Gerson said the hearing could be Jan. 10, although he has not received final confirmation yet. He said if it occurs then, it will still likely be some time before the demolition work resumes since no contractor has been picked.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has organized several meetings with community leaders, local residents and L.M.D.C. officials since the fire, is working on setting up another meeting on Jan. 11 to discuss the project.

Gerson thinks the public should have a few weeks to review the new subcontractor and dismantling plan once they are revealed.

“It has to be transparent, it has to be open and there has to be an opportunity to take feedback — and I expect there will be — they have said there will be,” Gerson said of the public process.

Andy Jurinko, who lives right next to the building, said residents continue to be left in the dark. “It’s always cloaked in secrecy,” he said. “They can tell you one thing and you don’t know if it’s true — hell, firemen didn’t know what they were walking into.”

Catherine McVay Hughes, chairperson of C.B. 1’s World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee, said even if officials are still weighing options, there still should be some updates. She said she has not heard anything concrete for about two months.

“People want to be informed with what’s going on whether it’s cranes moving or work developing the deconstruction plan,” she said.

Before the fire, the building’s standpipe was broken and had not been inspected for a decade, so firefighters had to carry up water sources. Violations were issued for letting blow torch sparks land too close to combustible materials. The fire was started by a cigarette, even though there was a no smoking rule in the building.

Hughes said she is not ready to accept assertions that violations are hard to completely eradicate. She remembers working as a construction safety engineer, on male-dominated, multi-million dollar projects with large cranes, oil and other hazardous conditions when she was only 22.

“You have to tell people not to smoke, ‘you have to wear your hard hats,’ you have to enforce the rules,” Hughes said. “It’s not impossible [to have no violations]. You have to try and make it as safe as possible.”

She said she learned little tricks like going over safety rules right before handing out pay checks to make sure people stayed and listened.

She said there was never an accident and she does not recall any of the few projects she worked on ever receiving a fine or a violation. But Hughes was careful not to say the lessons she learned years ago could be applied to Lower Manhattan, since she never worked on projects in New York and she acknowledged that the Deutsche project has its own unique considerations.

Jurinko had his own wish as to how things should proceed.

“I’d like to see a magic wand waved,” he said. “And see the building come down and the JPMorgan tower go up.”

With reporting by Julie Shapiro

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01102008/news/regionalnews/da_eyes_deutsche_money_fraud_454804.htm
DA EYES DEUTSCHE MONEY 'FRAUD'

By MURRAY WEISS - Criminal Justice Editor

January 10, 2008 -- Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars earmarked for the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building may have been ripped off, The Post has learned.

The revelation deepens the scandal surrounding the cursed building, where firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino wre killed in a blaze last summer.

The money trail emerging from a mountain of more than 1 million pages of subpoenaed financial records and documents - has already led to a questionable pattern of corporate and bank transfers involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, law-enforcement sources said.

Some of the funds have passed into companies that prosecutors and city investigators suspect are "shell" businesses created on paper to mask the ultimate destinations of the money.

The disclosure raises the possibility that cash may have been diverted and used for a number of illicit reasons including:

* Lining the pockets of company officials or employees whose existence was unknown to city and state officials.

* Kicking back money to people involved in the contracting process.

* Making payments under the table so recipients could avoid taxes.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars has been seen so far going south," one source said. "The question is, where was it going and where did it end up?"

The probe, conducted by the Manhattan DA and the city, has prompted a grand jury - which had been gathering once a week to investigate the fire - to now meet twice a week to hear the mounting evidence.

The DA's presentation is expected to take months to complete, the sources said.

In addition, prosecutors and investigators are getting a clearer picture on possibly bringing manslaughter charges against people responsible for ensuring safety at the 26-story demolition site at 130 Liberty St.

They include monitors who should have discovered that a potentially lifesaving standpipe hanging loosely from the basement's ceiling had been removed by workers before the fatal Aug. 18 blaze.

The pipe's destruction left the structure without water, which led to the deaths of Beddia, 53 and Graffagnino, 33, on the upper floors of the doomed building.

Although the FDNY did not conduct its own inspections of the building in the months before the blaze, no fire official is expected to face sanctions.

The sources declined to identity the companies or individuals the panel is probing.

The construction site's manager, Bovis Lend Lease Corp., which was contracted by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to oversee the entire $150 million project, retained the John Galt Company to demolish the building and remove hazardous materials from it.

The LMDC, which purchased the land and the building for $90 million, was under pressure to get the demolition moving because the building was slated to be replaced with a new structure and remained a bitter eyesore next to Ground Zero.

"They were in a bind and wanted it done," one of the sources said.

"They did not ask too many questions, and that may be why there was room for f- - -ing around."

As it turned out, Galt was little more than a corporate entity utilizing officials from two other companies working on the site: Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Co., and Safeway Environmental Corp., which had its own questionable histories and little experience.

One of Safeway's officials, Harold Greenberg, was identified as a Gambino crime associate who had twice gone to federal prison for industry-related crimes - once for trying to bribe a federal inspector, and another time for a bid-rigging scheme.

A Galt official hung up when reached by The Post, and Safeway officials declined comment.

murray.weiss@nypost.com

Keep on dreaming.


Deconstruction of this tower will start up again very shortly. By the way, the new 5WTC I'm sure has over 40 floors.

Keep on dreaming.


Deconstruction of this tower will start up again very shortly. By the way, the new 5WTC I'm sure has over 40 floors.

Thats the spirit that makes things moving :banana:

Can't wait to see all the complex rising.... I would pay millions (if I had them :) ) to see the future skyline...

Keep on dreaming.


Deconstruction of this tower will start up again very shortly. By the way, the new 5WTC I'm sure has over 40 floors.

Please keep in mind that I didn't write that article, somebody else did, so take your anger out on them and not on me.

^^^^
Don't worry dude... That's just Ebola throwing one of his usual hissy fits as soon as you stop brown nosing NY whatever the reason.
Don't pay attention.

oh did talb make a friend ;)

Aww Bolton just doesn't like me because he made himself look stupid when we were fighting about something with Hudson Yards; you can't compare anything to anything else because you're wholly wrong no matter what. I wonder if they are still serious with this new tower and what stage of design they are up to. I read in the paper that 130 Liberty will be gone this year.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_246/fewanswers.html
Volume 20, Number 36 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | January 25 -31, 2008

Few answers provided at Council’s Deutsche hearing

By Julie Shapiro

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_246/spray.gif
Downtown Express file photo by Milo Hess

Firefighters battling the deadly blaze at the Deutsche Bank building last Aug. 18 had to pump water from the ground because of a broken standpipe.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation left many questions unanswered after a City Council hearing about progress on the former Deutsche Bank building.

The hearing, run by Councilmember Alan Gerson, was to provide the public with an update on the decontamination and demolition of the building at 130 Liberty St., the site of an Aug. 18 fire that killed two firefighters.

“Today we will practice preventative medicine,” Gerson said at the outset of the hearing, promising to demand answers from the witnesses. However, the answers were not often forthcoming.

While Avi Schick, chairperson of the L.M.D.C., assured Gerson that work is progressing, he did not give a timeline of when hazardous material abatement work or demolition will begin or conclude, and said such a timetable would be counterproductive.

“The fact that a monument to mismanagement is still standing…is nothing short of a national disgrace,” City Councilmember Peter F. Vallone Jr. told Schick. “A timetable is not only productive but is the least I would expect.”

Abatement work cannot start until the L.M.D.C. gets approval from a myriad of government agencies. “We are days away from the necessary approvals,” Schick said.

Schick was also optimistic about the project’s progress in September, the last time he testified before the Council. On Wednesday, he would not describe the exact status of the L.M.D.C.’s plan, but said the corporation meets with a variety of agencies daily.

“The fact that you don’t have signoffs yet is ridiculous,” Vallone said, adding that the blame for years of delays lies with Albany. The L.M.D.C., which owns the building, is a federally-funded, state-city public authority under the effective control of the governor.

After he said timetables were counterproductive, Schick said he was hoping to have the building down by the end of 2008, a wish several other speakers echoed.

Two months before the fatal fire, Charles Maikish, who then oversaw the project as the head of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, warned residents that the rush to take the building down quickly led to a large pipe crashing through the adjacent firehouse — injuring two firefighters slightly.

The site was supposed to be turned over to JPMorgan Chase, which will build its headquarters there, by this September.

The L.M.D.C. still is “leaning quite heavily” toward decontaminating the entire building before demolishing it, but has not made a final decision, Schick said, echoing his position from November, when he had previously predicted work would resume. Community Board 1 and environmental advocates have continued to press the L.M.D.C. to do the two jobs separately.

While Schick testified that more than 10,000 air samples taken around the building came back within the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines, he would not say what type of contamination remained in the building.

“We’re focused on getting the building abated and taking it down, not revisiting history,” Schick said. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is leading a criminal investigation into the fire and has convened a grand jury.

The air samples were taken daily immediately after the fire, but have returned to the weekly, pre-fire schedule, Schick said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency declined to attend the hearing, Gerson said.

The city Department of Buildings has issued more than 10 violations to 130 Liberty St. since the fire. In response to a question from Gerson, Eric Reid, principal engineer for the D.O.B., said the violations — which include allowing combustible materials to accumulate in the building — do not pose an imminent threat to the public.

“The contractor is making good progress on the violations,” Reid said. “I expect them all to be cured in the near future.”

The hearing was the public’s first introduction to LVI Environmental Services, Inc., the subcontractor Bovis Lend Lease selected to oversee the decontamination and demolition of the building.

On Monday, LVI is expected to start working at the site, removing concrete slabs that were compromised in the fire. Bovis said it will take eight to 10 weeks to remove the slabs, which are on the south side of the building between floors 15 and 20.

“Prior to any abatement work, this needs to happen first,” said Frank Voci, senior vice president at Bovis.

The head of LVI, the largest abatement company in the country, said he approached the L.M.D.C. to seek the contract.

“Safety is a culture at LVI,” president and C.E.O. Robert McNamara said. LVI provides rewards based on safety performance, and has incident rates well below the national average.

“We’re thrilled for the opportunity to get in after this problem, get it done and get it done safely,” McNamara said.

Schick would not say how much the project has cost so far or how much it is projected to cost, but he told reporters he expects to pay LVI in the tens of millions.

Schick and Voci listed the progress made since the fire, including restoring the fire standpipe, rebuilding fire staircases, removing flammable material and resealing the building. Schick said contractors will soon install a fire-suppression system with a sensitive trigger and a system to detect any breach in the standpipe — which was broken before the fire and contributed to the deaths.

Bovis also created a new position of project safety manager, assigned to Ray Master, who will work solely on 130 Liberty St.

“I am committed, very specifically and concretely, to getting this job done without incident,” said Master.

Community members and activists have generally praised the selection of LVI, but many remain concerned about the overall project.

“We’re very relieved a nationally known contractor is taking over,” said Kimberly Flynn, head of 9/11 Environmental Action. “However, the community is still waiting to exhale. We’re still waiting for Avi Schick to announce that L.M.D.C. is committed to decontaminate the entire building first before demolishing it.”

In testimony at the hearing, Julie Menin, chairperson of Community Board 1 and an L.M.D.C. board member, encouraged transparent deliberations, saying there has been progress to that end since the fire.

“The most important thing is that the building come down as expeditiously and safely as possible,” Menin said during a break in the hearing. She sounded pleased with the goal of demolishing the building within the year, as long as it is done safely.

During the hearing, Gerson emphasized that the delays in demolishing 130 Liberty St. delay other construction on the World Trade Center site, particularly the tourist bus garage and vehicle security center.

“There is no time left for needless bureaucracy or governmental delay,” Gerson said. “Every day the building remains un-razed delays progress at ground zero.”

Julie@DowntownExpress.com

great design

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01242008/postopinion/editorials/double_talk_on_ground_zero_635328.htm
DOUBLE TALK ON GROUND ZERO

January 24, 2008 -- The former Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero has stood for years as a monument to bureaucratic bungling - but could finally be coming down!

. . . Sometime this year.

That is, if one is to believe Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman Avi Schick, who took heat at the City Council yesterday over the LMDC's continued inability to bring down the building - which was grievously damaged on 9/11, and in August was the site of a hellish blaze that killed two firefighters.

Schick got a much-deserved tongue-lashing from Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) after first insisting that any timetable for the building's demolition wouldn't be "productive" at this point.

Maybe not from his perspective. No timetable, after all, means no benchmark for progress - and no standard against which to gauge blame.

No wonder that Schick was soon back to his original plan: asking the council, in essence, to simply accept his assurances that all concerned are "committed" to getting the building down quickly.

Whatever the hell that means.

Indeed, Schick wouldn't (couldn't?) even say what precise steps are still needed before the LMDC gets the all-clear to resume work.

And that's especially odd, given that subcontractor LVI Services says it hopes to restart preliminary deconstruction work by Monday.

Bottom line: Schick's dodgy testimony inspires little confidence that further delays aren't in the wings.

More candor, please.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_248/epasays.html
Volume 20, Number 36 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | Feb. 1 - 7 , 2008

E.P.A. says it waited 5 months for Deutsche demo plan

By Julie Shapiro

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_248/deuts.gif
Downtown Express photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio

The former Deutsche Bank building across from the World Trade Center site stands now at 26 stories and there is no date yet to resume demolition.

Just over five months after the fatal blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation submitted its first official plan for the building to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The E.P.A. has been criticized in some quarters for delaying the resumption of the work, but the agency says it didn’t get a final plan to approve until last week, and that was changed two days later.

Pat Evangelista, the E.P.A.’s World Trade Center coordinator, told Downtown Express that the L.M.D.C. gave the plan to the E.P.A. Jan. 21, then revised and resubmitted it Jan. 23.

The L.M.D.C., charged with decontaminating and demolishing 130 Liberty St., has floated other plans in the past, but this was “the first ‘plan’ plan,” Evangelista, said.

The L.M.D.C. submitted the plan to several other government agencies as well, Evangelista said. After a community meeting Jan. 24, Evangelista said he had started reviewing the plan but couldn’t comment on specifics. He did not say if the L.M.D.C.’s plan would abate the entire building before starting demolition, a choice E.P.A. would support.

Avi Schick, L.M.D.C. chairperson, has long been leaning toward abating before demolishing. He and L.M.D.C. president David Emil came close to committing to that course at the community meeting.

Emil said the L.M.D.C. is working on an abatement plan and will come up with a deconstruction plan while the building is being abated. Schick hurried to add that the corporation hasn’t decided on anything yet.

Kimberly Flynn, head of 9/11 Environ*mental Action, was concerned that by the time the L.M.D.C. finalizes a plan and city agencies approve it, it will be too late for the community to give meaningful input.

“Even in the bad old days of Pataki,” Flynn said, the community had a chance to see draft plans and give input before the agencies made final decisions. “The sky isn’t going to fall if we get to look at those plans.”

Since the fire, head contractor Bovis Lend Lease has shied away from admitting any mistakes or wrongdoing. But Frank Voci, senior vice president of Bovis, came close to doing just that at the meeting. His goal, he told the audience, “is to regain your trust and confidence. I’ve lived in New York City all my life. Ground zero is very important to me. This project is very important to me.”

He also said he joined the project after the fire.

Voci called the tall building crane “an eyesore” because neighbors see it standing still day after day. He promised to get the crane moving, using it to remove debris from the building’s top floors.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver attended the meeting, which was held in his hearing room. He started to criticize L.M.D.C., but ultimately struck a more positive tone and focused on the future. “The new administration should be in full swing in its second year,” he said, referring to Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s appointees.

The L.M.D.C. said last week it expects to have 130 Liberty St. down by the end of 2008. When asked if L.M.D.C.’s contracts with Bovis and subcontractor LVI Services include deadlines, Schick replied that LVI’s contract did not, but he did not say anything about Bovis. Prior to the fire, the L.M.D.C. agreed not to dispute $6 million of payments to Bovis if the building was taken down by the end of 2007.

Dave Newman, industrial hygienist for New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, accused the L.M.D.C. of hiding information. Newman later provided Downtown Express with copies of freedom of information law requests he sent to the L.M.D.C. Among other documents, Newman wanted a copy of the fire safety agreement between the city and L.M.D.C. from last September, shortly after the fire that killed two firefighters.

In a reply this month, Irene Chang, counsel for L.M.D.C., told Newman the document does not exist. However, Newman also provided Downtown Express with a copy of a fire safety agreement, in the form of a Sept. 11, 2007 letter by Schick and Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler to the E.P.A.

An L.M.D.C. spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Several people, including Newman, mentioned the L.M.D.C.’s Community Advisory Council, which L.M.D.C. all but disbanded early last summer. Schick told the audience L.M.D.C. has been meeting with community members in Silver’s office regularly since the fire, but several people called out, “That’s not the same thing.” Schick said he didn’t understand the difference. Julie Menin, C.B. 1’s chairperson, suggested including Community Advisory Council members at Silver’s meetings in the future.

Toward the end of the meeting, Schick put the community’s concerns into words that everyone could agree with.

“What people want to see is progress,” he said. “And frankly, words mean much less than progress.”

Julie@DowntownExpress.com

THIS IS THE VIEW OF IT FROM BARCLAY TOWER... on Jan 1st, 2008..hadn't been to bed yet.

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7884/n6515307586144435683of3.jpg

Why can't they just demolish it quicker??

You've had to been drinking to do something like that.

:nuts: Say what! How did you get up there? Was it scary?

:nuts: Say what! How did you get up there? Was it scary?

He musta been so drunk he prolly dont remember. You gotta be real shitfaced to pull a stunt like that.

Actually no...no you don't have to be drunk! We went up there first sober...then we brought beers back up with us onto the roof to watch the sunset! It was dangerous but not stupid...it wasn't a stunt...it was an experience mate. I suggest you try it...not that you'd have the chance. :D

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7707/n6515307586144414985qz7.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6176/n6515307586144425301fo7.jpg

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8347/n6515307586144358203ae2.jpg

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8910/n6515307586144378902zs0.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8139/n6515307586144368549fk9.jpg

lmfao thats a really cool pic tho!

cheers philvia!

...and were Australian...if that makes any more sense... lol

That's Crazy! Haha musta been fun though! i wish i got the chance!

ohhh you added more pics!!
how did you get up there? ;|
thats awesome :D haha

um we just went up to the top floor and went through a few doors and up a few ladders...pretty scary stuff! JAY-Z was in the top penthouse...so we were higher than him haha

LOLOLOL nice.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082008/news/regionalnews/deutsche_to_undergo_detox_546672.htm
DEUTSCHE TO UNDERGO 'DETOX'

Post Wire Services

February 8, 2008 -- Workers will clean toxic dust out of the problem-plagued Deutsche Bank building before taking it down, the government agency in charge of the demolition announced yesterday.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. released new plans on dealing with the long-delayed dismantling of the building, which was badly damaged on 9/11 and where two firefighters were killed in an August blaze.

Responding to concerns that the building be made safe in case of future emergencies, the plans call for round-the-clock safety managers and a strict no-smoking policy.

Contractors will first clean several floors of the 26-story tower of toxic dust. Two stairwells will remain accessible to firefighters and be cleaned later.

LMDC officials say they hope to take the building down this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/nyregion/14deutsche.html?ref=nyregion
Agency Sued Over Death of Firefighter at Tower

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: February 14, 2008

The sister of one of the two firefighters killed in August fighting a fire at the former Deutsche Bank building sued the government agency that owns the building and several contractors on Wednesday, charging they knowingly created dangerous conditions that led to her brother’s death.

The sister, Barbara Beddia Crocco, contends in the suit that her brother, Robert Beddia, 53, died because of conditions caused during the dismantling of the building, including piles of combustible debris, dismantled fire connections, compromised stairwell walls and barricaded exits.

The lawsuit says the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owned the building, and several private companies knew of the potentially fatal conditions before the fire.

But in a striking omission, Ms. Crocco did not sue New York City or the city’s Fire Department, even though city officials relieved three senior fire officers of their posts about 10 days after the Aug. 18 fire. Aryeh Portnoy, a lawyer for Ms. Crocco, said his client had not ruled out suing the Fire Department, “at the right time.”

“Tragically,” according to the papers filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, “the conditions created by the defendants were too much for Beddia to withstand, and he was killed by toxic smoke, unable to escape because of the stairwell barricades erected by the defendants.”

Mr. Portnoy said that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the contractors at the site “knowingly created those conditions.” He added, “They had a responsibility to let the firefighters know, and they failed to do that.”

Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, declined comment on Wednesday.

The suit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages. Mr. Beddia and a second firefighter, Joseph Graffagnino, 33, died when a broken standpipe in the basement could not deliver water to the fire, which fire marshals said was probably started by a cigarette. At a news conference in August, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said three senior fire officials had been stripped of their command during an investigation into the fatal fire.

The mayor said the local firehouse had failed to conduct any required inspections of the building, which was on the edge of ground zero, since 2006.

John C. Meringolo, a lawyer representing the family of Mr. Graffagnino, said on Wednesday that he intends to file suit as well.

this is a frivolous law suite, since when are your basic civilians masters of building design? I understand that she is mad, but he died on the job, doing a job he know he could die from, and she needs to be at peace with that. If she wins, people will start sueing everyone, the government for putting there kids in a dangerous environment, so on and so on. Soon the owners of these buildings would rather have there towers burn down then let another fire fighter die because of the pointless law suits.

5WTC is being designed again so I think it will be safe to expect a totaly new tower for WTC Tower 5's plot @ 130 Liberty Street.

this is a frivolous law suite, since when are your basic civilians masters of building design? I understand that she is mad, but he died on the job, doing a job he know he could die from, and she needs to be at peace with that. If she wins, people will start sueing everyone, the government for putting there kids in a dangerous environment, so on and so on. Soon the owners of these buildings would rather have there towers burn down then let another fire fighter die because of the pointless law suits.

While I agree many lawsuits are frivolous, this one isn't. Yes, the firefighter died doing his job but the only reason he died was because the demolition contractors didn't do what they were supposed to. If they had provided the operational standpipe system they were supposed to the firefighters would not have died! Firefighting is a dangerous profession but as long as codes are followed by contractors and designers the risks are minimized. In this case the contractors DID NOT do what they were supposed to. They need to get sued and should lose!

5WTC is being designed again so I think it will be safe to expect a totaly new tower for WTC Tower 5's plot @ 130 Liberty Street.


Good! It wasn't attrocious, but still... They needed to flush that design down the toilet... ARF ARF ARF!!!:)

I'm sorry but that was too tempting... :nuts:

While I agree many lawsuits are frivolous, this one isn't. Yes, the firefighter died doing his job but the only reason he died was because the demolition contractors didn't do what they were supposed to. If they had provided the operational standpipe system they were supposed to the firefighters would not have died! Firefighting is a dangerous profession but as long as codes are followed by contractors and designers the risks are minimized. In this case the contractors DID NOT do what they were supposed to. They need to get sued and should lose!

The fact that the LMDC cut corners on the demolition is the main reason they should be sued on this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/nyregion/20deutsche.html?ref=nyregion
Bank Tower Contractors Accused of 44 Violations

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: February 20, 2008

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA01.jpg
On Sept. 11, 2001, the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan, was damaged by pieces of the World Trade Center. The building, seen here on July 17, is being dismantled. The plywood-enclosed area at the top of the building was in the process of undergoing abatement for asbestos and other hazardous contaminants.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA03.jpg
After abatement is completed, each floor of the building looks like this. The dismantling process represents the first complete removal of a building so large and so badly contaminated. Excessive levels of seven hazardous substances, including asbestos, dioxin, lead and chromium were measured in the building.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA04.jpg
Where windows were removed, plywood was inserted in place of glass.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA05.jpg
A mechanical excavator worked to break apart one of the building's concrete floors. Water was sprayed to hold down dust. The workers can dismantle one floor about every four days.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA06.jpg
Once the concrete slab and metal decking are removed, what remains is a steel skeleton of each floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA07.jpg
Steel beams that framed the horizontal structure of the building were cut away with torches.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA08.jpg
As more and more beams and columns are removed, what was once an enclosed building opens up to the sky.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA09.jpg
An internal staircase, which served as a fire exit, was one of the last remaining structures on the 27th floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA10.jpg
Once the interior stairs are removed, workers must reach the upper floors using these external stairways, which are built into scaffolding.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA11.jpg
A welder made a final cut to a beam, freeing up the last exterior bay remaining on the 27th floor.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA12a.jpg
Two skid steer loaders pulled down the bay, which was already cut at the base of each column.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA12b.jpg
As the loaders roared into reverse, the cables became taut and the bay began to topple. There was still enough resistance, however, that the front wheels of the loader on the right reared slightly into the air.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA12c.jpg
Within seconds, the whole bay had toppled, landing on the floor slab with a large jolt.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA13.jpg
The same compact loader that pulled the wall down was used to cart away debris for removal by crane.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA14.jpg
A large container filled with debris, seen at left, was hoisted from the roof.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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The container was lowered to a staging area on the south side of Liberty Street.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/08/16/nyregion/17bank_CA16.jpg
An crane waited to unload the container.

Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

Federal safety regulators have accused the contractors who were taking down the former Deutsche Bank tower in the summer of indifference or intentional disregard for dangerous conditions that led to a fatal fire there, and of a host of other serious safety violations, officials said on Tuesday.

The regulators cited the project’s general contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, an international construction management company, and its former subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation, for 44 safety violations, and proposed fining them nearly half a million dollars.

Most of the violations, cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as a result of an inspection it began after the Aug. 18 fire, were classified as serious, and five were listed as willful, the agency’s most severe category.

OSHA focused on fire-related hazards, including a missing section of standpipe that delayed the flow of water to firefighters, and insufficient water supply and water pressure. The blaze killed two firefighters inside the tower, which was being taken apart after being extensively damaged on 9/11.

OSHA also cited the companies for hazards like blocked and unmarked exits, a lack of fire extinguishers, and allowing smoking — which fire investigators have said was the likely cause of the blaze. The contractors exposed workers “to death or serious injury from falls, falling objects, electrocution and the inability to exit the tower swiftly and safely” in the event of a fire, the agency said.

“Employers must adhere to safety and health standards, and prepare completely and effectively for workplace emergencies,” said Richard Mendelson, OSHA’s area director in Manhattan, who oversaw the investigation.

“Failure to do so can — and, in this case, did — cost lives,” he said.

Bovis fired the Galt company in the days after the fire. Both Bovis and Galt have filed papers with the agency contesting the citations and, in statements, said that they would vigorously fight the accusations.

The breadth and scope of the accusations provide the most detail to date of the systemic failure of oversight at what is arguably the most regulated demolition and asbestos abatement site in the country.

They also raise questions about the role of an alphabet soup of local, state and federal agencies, from the city’s Buildings and Fire Departments and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state authority overseeing the rebuilding effort at ground zero.

Several agencies had inspectors assigned to the site all day, every day — there were four Buildings Department inspectors and a supervisor whose only responsibility was the bank tower — while city officials have said that the Fire Department failed to inspect the building at all, as it was required to do.

“How is it possible that these violations occurred?” said Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a nonprofit coalition of unions and health professionals that has long been critical of the project’s contractors and the demolition project. “Clearly, there was a systematic failure of oversight.”

Although OSHA’s findings suggest that the myriad violations occurred under the noses of all those inspectors and other private contractors, including a construction company, URS, hired by the development corporation to oversee the job, the safety agency regulates only private contractors.

The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, however, is conducting a broad criminal investigation into the deaths and the entire project, which was mired in delays, multimillion-dollar cost overruns and regulatory red tape long before the fire halted the deconstruction of the tower. The criminal inquiry is focused in part on failures by the city, including the Fire and the Buildings Departments, and prosecutors in Mr. Morgenthau’s office have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury.

They are also examining how the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and Bovis selected Galt, a company that had never before performed such work. City investigators had cautioned development officials against hiring Galt; the company was an arranged marriage of sorts between a scaffolding company with no demolition experience and executives from a company called Safeway Environmental, which city officials suspected of having ties to organized crime.

The 41-story Deutsche Bank building has stood beside ground zero as an ugly reminder of the Sept. 11 attack and the slow progress of rebuilding Lower Manhattan. The complex project, perhaps the most closely scrutinized undertaking of its kind, involved removing asbestos and other potentially toxic materials from the tower and tearing it down floor by floor. The deconstruction work had torn down the building to its 26th floor when the fire suspended the project.

The fire, which occurred at the end of a workday on the 14th floor, left Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33, dead, apparently trapped by stairwells that had been sealed off because of concerns about asbestos contamination.

OSHA cited the two contractors for a total of $464,500 in proposed fines. It listed 3 willful and 22 serious violations by Galt, carrying fines of $271,500, and 2 willful and 17 serious violations by Bovis, with $193,000 in fines. The contractors, which were formally served with the citations on Friday, have 15 days from then to request an informal conference or fight the allegations before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

According to the OSHA citations, which covered the four-day period before the fire, Bovis willfully failed to inspect the building’s standpipe and to maintain it in operating condition and willfully failed to ensure there was an adequate water supply for firefighters to operate their equipment.

OSHA said the other willful violations included Galt’s failure to enforce no-smoking regulations, and the blockage of access to the building’s stairwells by both Galt and Bovis.

The agency defines a willful violation as one committed “with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.” A serious citation, according to the agency, is one in which “death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.”

A Bovis spokeswoman, Mary Costello, said in a statement that the company “strongly disagrees” with the citations, and that it would fight the allegations and the proposed penalties.

The company’s statement, noting that the deconstruction of the former bank tower at 130 Liberty Street was one of the most complex and highly regulated asbestos abatement and demolition projects ever undertaken in the city, said that work before the fire “was proceeding under an approved and closely monitored” plan.

It also said that Bovis had worked with city, state and federal regulators since the fire in planning for the resumption of work, and had developed a revised health and safety plan for the rest of the project, with a new subcontractor, LVI Environmental Services.

But the project was nearly derailed late last year by a dispute in which the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation threatened to fire Bovis. They eventually worked out an agreement to proceed.

Galt, in a statement, rejected the accusations and vowed to defend itself. The company contended that the government agencies overseeing the site often issued conflicting directives that resulted in “massive slowdowns and cost overruns.”

“Every detail of the work was scrutinized, criticized and finally approved before it could be done," the statement said. "It is inconceivable that these agencies, including OSHA, whose trained inspectors were present at the site on a daily basis, could not detect, or were oblivious to the alleged ‘serious and willful’ violations that supposedly existed prior to the fire."

The statement said that if government regulators, including OSHA, failed to discover the alleged violations before the fire, they should be the ones charged with failing to do their duty.

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency approved the state’s revised plan for the decontamination and demolition of the tower’s remaining 26 floors, allowing work to resume for the first time since the August fire. The development corporation expects the job to be completed by the end of the year.

I hope the safety conditions there will improve... :ohno:

Well-made documentation of the dismantling process though...

It just shows what happens when you hire a non-union company just to save time and money.

Nice...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03182008/business/deals_downtown_domino_102500.htm
DEAL'S DOWNTOWN DOMINO

JPMORGAN'S MOVE MAY SEAL FATE OF GROUND ZERO TOWER

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03182008/photos/biz038a.jpg
NOT NEEDED: JPMorgan's design for offices and trading floor may never be built.

March 18, 2008 -- BANKING giant JPMor gan Chase said yesterday that it will probably move its investment-banking unit into Bear Stearns' headquarters at 383 Madison Ave. - a step that landlords and brokers said makes it unlikely that JPMorgan will go ahead with plans for a new office tower near Ground Zero.

Meanwhile, real estate players trembled over the leasing-market fallout of a merger between two Wall Street firms with more than 11 million square-feet between them in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a number certain to be pruned significantly after the inevitable staff layoffs.

But it was the fate of JPMorgan's plan for a new, 42-story tower to house 7,000 high-earning employees downtown, most of who would move from Midtown, that had builders and brokers buzzing yesterday.

JPMorgan Chase spokesman Joe Evangelisti told us, "We would intend to move our investment bankers into the Bear Stearns building" on Madison once JPMorgan completes its chump-change purchase of Bear Stearns for $236 million. The 383 Madison tower alone is valued at around $1.2 billion.

Asked about the Ground Zero site, called 5 World Trade Center, Evangelisti said only, "We are leaving our options open downtown. It could be a very valuable opportunity for us."

That was a far cry from what JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last June, when he termed the project "critical to our firm's long-term future," and cited pride in "taking a leadership role in supporting lower Manhattan and helping to revitalize the World Trade Center area."

Since the new tower was supposed to house JPMorgan's investment banking unit, it was unclear what use the firm would have for the building after swallowing Bear Stearns.

Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund said, "We have every expectation they'll continue their commitment" to 5 WTC.

JPMorgan Chase is supposed to pay the PA $300 million to lease the land for its "beer-belly" tower, so dubbed because of a bulge in its middle floors to accommodate 56,000 square-foot trading floors.

But no lease has yet been signed.

The PA is still waiting for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to clear the land at 130 Liberty St., site of the ruined hulk of the former Deutsche Bank building.

Under a term sheet signed last year, the PA must turn the site over to JPMorgan Chase by September, although the deadline could be pushed back six months beyond that.

But last summer's fatal fire at 130 Liberty St. and endless delays in completing demolition have left the actual takedown timing uncertain.

A downtown source said JPMorgan Chase "has gotten increasingly antsy" over the uncertainty in knowing when it can start on a skyscraper that will cost over $1 billion to construct - particularly as inflation is driving the cost higher every month it's delayed.

Real estate insiders, most of who do business with both JPMorgan and/or Bear Stearns, did not want to speak for the record. But all expressed skepticism JPMorgan would proceed downtown.

One prominent executive said, "Jamie Dimon is the smartest guy on the planet. The Bear Stearns building is right next door to JPMorgan's Midtown campus. It's less than 10 years old and has totally adequate trading floors. The JPMorgan people have coveted it for years."

If JPMorgan Chase does back off the 5 WTC plan, it will be a psychological blow, although not necessarily an economic one, to lower Manhattan.

The new tower has been cited as a crucial vote of confidence for downtown by LMDC Chairman Avi Schick, Port Authority chiefs Anthony Coscia and Anthony Shorris and former first deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff, among many others.

But Goldman Sachs is completing an even larger new tower in Battery Park City. And a change of heart by JPMorgan wouldn't necessarily be the worst thing for the Port Authority.

"If I were them, I wouldn't be worried," said Dan Fasulo of research firm Real Capital Analytics. "I think a hotel or mixed-use project is actually the highest and best use of that site."

Downtown Alliance President Liz Berger said, "It's simply too early to tell" what JPMorgan Chase will do.

"But the truth is that while we'd like JPMorgan to build, we now have a diversified economy downtown. If they don't go ahead, it would be a loss, but not a defin ing one."

Beyond the question of a new downtown tower is the issue of how badly the absorption of Bear Stearns would hurt the overall office market.

JPMorgan currently has at least 7 million square feet of office space in Manhattan, much of it concentrated in a "campus" at 245, 270 and 277 and 345 Park Ave. Bear Stearns has about 1.5 million feet in Manhattan, some of which it was already planning to shed before the current crisis.

Leasing brokers cautioned it was too early to worry about space being dumped on the market - but every one of the usually talkative dealmakers declined to be quoted.

I concluded it would look better if it didnt go back to being skinnier. If it insted kept the bulge.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03212008/news/regionalnews/chase_to_build_and_bear_it_102865.htm
CHASE TO BUILD AND 'BEAR' IT

OKS WTC PLAN DESPITE BANK BUY

By TOM TOPOUSIS

March 21, 2008 -- JPMorgan Chase will move ahead with building a tower at the World Trade Center, even though its plan to relocate its investment-banking headquarters to Ground Zero was scuttled by the acquisition of Bear Stearns earlier this week, The Post has learned.

"We are exploring other alternatives there and believe we can use it," JPMorgan Chase spokesman Joseph Evangelisti said of the World Trade Center site, where bank officials struck an agreement with the Port Authority to build Tower 5.

"We are going to utilize the agreement," Evangelisti said.

JPMorgan's intent to build at the World Trade Center was cast in doubt earlier this week when the bank acquired Bear Stearns for the rock-bottom price of $236 million. The deal includes Bear Stearns' tower and trading floors on Madison Avenue at 47th Street.

Evangelisti said JPMorgan will move its investment-banking headquarters to the Bear Stearns building but will develop the World Trade Center site for another purpose.

Sources familiar with the talks about Tower 5 said it will likely not include large trading floors that were supposed to jut out from the upper floors of the structure and that had been derided as a "beer belly."

In a bid to keep the bank at the World Trade Center site, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes lower Manhattan, spoke with senior JPMorgan officials earlier this week and was told the company would develop the site.

"We have every expectation that they will be there, but the design of the building may change," said Silver spokesman Dan Weiler.

JPMorgan and the PA agreed last June to a deal that would allow the bank to build a 1.3 million-square-foot tower in exchange for a 92-year lease worth roughly $300 million to the agency, which owns the World Trade Center.

"The company is giving every indication of its continued interest and we look forward to JP Morgan playing an important role in rebuilding the World Trade Center," PA spokeswoman Candace McAdams said yesterday.

The site is now the location of the old Deutsche Bank building, which has been vacant since the 9/11 terror attacks. The building is expected to be decontaminated and removed by the end of this year.

tom.topousis@nypost.com

not going down the toilet then? There's so much going on with towers 1-4, plus the Church Street tower and Beekman Street, the loss of this (even temporarily) wouldn't be a huge issue, but I'm sure it something will go ahead on here at some point in the future.

Sources familiar with the talks about Tower 5 said it will likely not include large trading floors that were supposed to jut out from the upper floors of the structure and that had been derided as a "beer belly."


i liked the "beer belly"
all i imagine being built there is a boring box. which then i would prefer nothing being built there for now so that we could save the plot for a better building later.

not going down the toilet then? There's so much going on with towers 1-4, plus the Church Street tower and Beekman Street, the loss of this (even temporarily) wouldn't be a huge issue, but I'm sure it something will go ahead on here at some point in the future.

I agree that this plan should be flushed down along with the rest of the official plan for the WTC site.

I wanted this stupid building to have 57 floors instead of just 42. It's still gonna be one screwed-up tower

I wanted this stupid building to have 57 floors instead of just 42. It's still gonna be one screwed-up tower

It will not have 42 floors. JP Morgan is going to make a skinny tower for the plot. The design is being changed. It was never supposed to have 57 floors since that number was from the one of the first masterplans, which is ditched.

The redesigned 5WTC may have 30 floors; it may have 60 floors.
I'm hoping it's tall, and it seems likely since it will be "skinny;" a nice crown and/or spire would be nice too. I'm hoping for something like the concept design for 99 Church Street. Who cares about floor count in the first place if there's height and building mass? This is supposed to be one of the smallest towers of the WTC anyway.

How can anyone be so mad if it's at least 520 feet tall and has at least 40 floors? That means it's one floor taller than the old 130 Liberty Street and one meter taller than the old 130 Liberty Street. I'm expecting at least 200 meters and 40-plus floors, but it could be much more. Whatever JP Morgan wants is what they get, and they ain't lacking money. I think they might use it for a little, then sell it to make a huge profit.

What about the soon-to-be-former world headquarters building of Bear Stearns?

news from SSP:

Looks like they may just get this one down yet...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/nyregion/01deutsche.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Work to Resume at Burned Bank Tower


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 1, 2008


New York City lifted a stop-work order on Wednesday at a condemned skyscraper across the street from ground zero that had been in effect since a fire there killed two firefighters in August.

The Department of Buildings removed the order after contractors spent weeks building new fire control systems at the 26-story former Deutsche Bank building.

The building was heavily damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed into it, leaving a trail of toxic debris. The remains of many victims of the terrorist attacks were found there in the past two years, while regulators battled over how to dismantle the building and remove the debris.

The fire on Aug. 18, 2007, believed to have been started by a construction worker’s discarded cigarette, led to a grand jury criminal investigation and shut down work on the building.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state agency that owns the building, said 300 workers would begin six-day-a-week shifts to clean 19 floors of toxic material.

Schedules call for the building to be dismantled by the end of the year, more than two years after the original date.

good news, so there's still hope that the tower may be completely dismantled by the end of the year :)

good news, so there's still hope that the tower may be completely dismantled by the end of the year :)

Still hope? That thing will be gone in 6 months. I see it every week, and aside from the accident work stoppage, it went down & down & down. I'll get photos this thursday.

- Andy

the demolishing of towers is always quite fast :)

I wonder if they are going to stick with the current design, modify it a tad to look better, or start over.
Whatever happens, they, Chase, said that they are indeed going to erect WTC Tower 5, and I hope it will be a sleek glassy skyscraper since you have a 53-story sleek, glassy tower going up a few meters away from 130 Liberty Street, right next door to WTC Tower 5, and on the other side you have the simple yet beyond massive WTC Tower 4 @ 150 Greenwich. I'm sure that we'll find out before the year ends, cause by the end of the year the old bank tower will be out of the picture with a little luck, to be later replaced by a new, taller and bigger bank tower. Lower Manhattan sure has a lot to look forward to.

I don't know if anyone else caught this, but how can there be a WTC7 if there is no 6? IS there a 6? If so what building is it? I have only heard of 1-5.

- Andy

I don't know if anyone else caught this, but how can there be a WTC7 if there is no 6? IS there a 6? If so what building is it? I have only heard of 1-5.

- Andy
It is called '7 World Trade Center' because, well, it replaced the previous '7 World Trade Center', which was on the same site.

Pre-2001-09-11, the buildings were:

1 WTC - the North Tower
2 WTC - the South Tower
3 WTC - the Marriott Hotel
4 WTC - (low-rise building around plaza)
5 WTC - (ditto)
6 WTC - (ditto)
7 WTC - mid-rise building across street to north of plaza.

Mike

It is called '7 World Trade Center' because, well, it replaced the previous '7 World Trade Center', which was on the same site.

Pre-2001-09-11, the buildings were:

1 WTC - the North Tower
2 WTC - the South Tower
3 WTC - the Marriott Hotel
4 WTC - (low-rise building around plaza)
5 WTC - (ditto)
6 WTC - (ditto)
7 WTC - mid-rise building across street to north of plaza.

Mike

I think when they rebuilt 7 WTC they had a 7 building replacement idea also, plus 7 is utilized by the PANYNJ as their HQ and several other key functions for the city and was a no brainer to be quickly rebuilt. I'll try to get some photos of it this thursday, it's a bit cold, but very well proportioned and much taller than the original 7wtc. I think its coldness is due to the fact that is a very function oriented structure, with the substation and phone switching stuff at the bottom. If you've ever been there next to it, it has a very uncomfortable grille mesh going on that feels like it could stop a car without taking too much damage, and seems to be several "layers" thick. I am sure this is to accommodate ventilation and security at the same time.

Edit: Photos:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l18/andyandsuesellstuff/P5080047_1-1.jpg

I liked this detail.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l18/andyandsuesellstuff/P5080046_1-1.jpg

- Andy

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/05/12/2008-05-12_failure_to_rebuild_wtc_site_quickly_will.html
Failure to rebuild WTC site quickly will cost taxpayers

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Monday, May 12th 2008, 11:09 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/05/12/amd_goldman-graphic.jpg
Photos by Zuma and AP

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein got (c.) sweet deal from Mayor Bloomberg (l.) and George Pataki.

New Yorkers are on the hook to hand over $321 million to Goldman Sachs, America's richest investment bank, because reconstruction of the World Trade Center has fallen way behind schedule.

Under the hidden terms of a deal that then-Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg approved in 2005, the city and state agreed to pay huge penalties to the firm if major portions of Ground Zero redevelopment weren't complete by next year, a target now considered impossible to meet.

Goldman wanted speedy construction because the Wall Street giant is building its own $2.4 billion tower across from the site on West St.

Now, Goldman could snare 64 years of free rent worth $161 million that it's supposed to pay for leasing the state land. Goldman could also recoup an additional $160 million in sales tax payments.

The sweetheart deal okayed by Bloomberg and Pataki also provided $1.65 billion in tax-free

Liberty Bonds and a $115 million incentive package. At the time, the bank was threatening to decamp to New Jersey.

In return for constructing its 43-story office building for 9,000 employees, Goldman. was allowed to put $161 million it owed in rent and $160 million in sales taxes into escrow accounts, documents show. Albany and City Hall agreed that Goldman could keep its cash if two conditions were not met:

* Specific blockbuster transit-and-security projects on the Trade Center footprint had to be finished by the end of next year, when Goldman's tower will be finished. Officials concede that's not going to happen - and that the projects are years behind schedule.

* A comprehensive security plan for downtown had to be "implemented" before 2010. That counterterrorist plan can't be fully "implemented," as the deal requires, until the structures at Ground Zero are in place.

The bottom line: The $321 million bonanza in tax and lease payments could soon revert to the Wall Street powerhouse, which piled up $11.6 billion in profits last year.

Goldman spokeswoman Andrea Raphael declined to comment, but in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing four months ago, the firm made note of the escrow deal and implied it could be pocketing the ground-lease payments.

"Under the terms of the ground lease, we made a lump-sum ground rent payment in June 2007 of $161 million, which was paid into escrow, to be released to the Battery Park City Authority pending performance of specified state and city obligations," it said.

State officials wouldn't discuss specifics - even though the document they refused to discuss can be found on the SEC Web site. City officials think they're off the hook.

"The city is on track to provide a comprehensive security plan for lower Manhattan by the end of 2009 as required by the agreement, and we are working with the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to help them meet the other deadlines," said Deputy Mayor for Economic. Development Robert. Lieber.

Lawyers are likely to argue this point: How can a security plan for Ground Zero. be "implemented" by 2010 if none of the iconic buildings at the site are wrapped up by that time?

Sources close to the deal said only that the state and city are in preliminary talks with Goldman to win a bit of flexibility.

"The state and Goldman Sachs have and continue to have productive conversations on ensuring that downtown is rebuilt in a manner that is fair to both workers and residents and, of course, all taxpayers," said Avi Schick, chairman of the LMDC.

Among the projects supposed to see ribbon cuttings by 2010:

* The Transportation Hub: With its soaring wings designed to resemble a bird in flight, the PATH terminal was originally planned to open in 2006. A new report says there's less than a 5% chance of the hub being complete before July 2012.

* The Vehicular Security Center under Liberty St.: A centerpiece of security operations, this is the planned $478 million subterranean complex through which delivery trucks and buses will access the 16-acre site. Construction of the high-tech security checkpoint can't even start until the toxic former Deutsche Bank tower above it is finally demolished. The latest estimated opening date is 2011 or 2012.

dfeiden@nydailynews.com

I wish WTC would get fricking finished, it's been 7 years!!!!!!!!! You could have built and demolished 4 WTC's in that time period to showcase each design proposal!! I am tired of streets being blocked off, subway patterns and access routes being changed weekly, and the construction noise, and the traffic disruptions..... Finish the damn thing all ready!

- Andy

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05162008/news/regionalnews/falling_debris_halts_deutsche_111076.htm
FALLING DEBRIS HALTS DEUTSCHE

By CHUCK BENNETT and ED ROBINSON

May 16, 2008 -- Dismantling work at the trouble-plagued site of the Deutsche Bank building was halted yesterday after a steel disc fell 22 stories from a hoist, authorities said. No one was hurt.

The 4-pound disc fell from a hoist operated by a contractor with ties to the company blamed for last year's blaze that killed two firefighters. Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting shares executives with the John Galt Corp., which was fired over safety violations after the fatal fire.

It's taking forever to dismantle that krautbank!

today by Scruffy, SSP:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z70/Scruffy66/Byram/DSC00364.jpg

It seems to have stopped, probably internal work being done. I will get photos thursday.

- Andy

It's Friday. Where are the pictures?

can a mod please edit the Title to only "5 World Trade Center", the tower will not be the HQ of JP Morgan Chase. source: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3553845&postcount=346

June 12th by NYguy, SSP:

http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641706/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641706/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641707/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641709/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641710/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641713/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641727/large.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641713/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/98641727/original.jpg

I wish WTC would get fricking finished, it's been 7 years!!!!!!!!! Finish the damn thing all ready!

Amen Brother! :ohno:

This still has not come down, they said it will be completely gone by the end of the year, nearly September and still where it was 14 months ago. Yet another promise made about the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan that is missed and false.

I wish WTC would get fricking finished, it's been 7 years!!!!!!!!! You could have built and demolished 4 WTC's in that time period to showcase each design proposal!! I am tired of streets being blocked off, subway patterns and access routes being changed weekly, and the construction noise, and the traffic disruptions..... Finish the damn thing all ready!

- Andy

The first WTC took 10 years to build.

i heard it wont b built and that chase decided 2 move uptown from a very connected broker working next door at the w hotel under construction

It took 7 - 8 years to build actually. 66 - 73. WTC 7 was complete in 1987 but that doesn't count being as it wasn't part of the masterplan at the time of the WTC, unlike WTC's 1 - 6. Already we are very close to the 7th anniversary, and still hardly anywhere. There has been an enormous amount done to repair extremely damaged structures around Manhattan and everything, but the WTC site, Im sorry but it is a little slow to be fair. Yes they had to clear up the site and everywhere else which took a long time, but it was a site with no activity for 3 or 4 years. Im getting sick of seeing this toxic tower as well, they keep saying it will be down by a certain time and it NEVER is. They said end of 2008, its still exactly the same as it was 14 months ago, they won't get this down in 4 months, so they willl say they found remains or something and it will be down mid 2009.

Welcome back, WTC's. I just wish they looked more like the originals.

According the latest report 130 Liberty will be completely gone by next summer when the south bathtub extension will be working on the site.

According the latest report 130 Liberty will be completely gone by next summer when the south bathtub extension will be working on the site.

They have said this for years so I'll believe it when I see it.

Yeh right pull the other one. They said it would be gone by December, hasn't moved. I could do a quicker job with a hammer and chizzle.

If this had been another city with another building, they would probably imploded this months or years ago.

If this had been another city with another building, they would probably imploded this months or years ago.

imploded? umm think before you write:ohno:

we better take it slowly and make sure that no other lives wouldn't be lost. We have enough of 2 dead firefighters, we don't need anymore casualties, which then will result in even more delays.

imploded? umm think before you write:ohno:

we better take it slowly and make sure that no other lives wouldn't be lost. We have enough of 2 dead firefighters, we don't need anymore casualties, which then will result in even more delays.

I was saying that if this was a normal skyscraper in a different city, they would have imploded it like they had to do to the 35-storey Landmark Tower in Fort Worth, they had to demolish it after a tornado wrecked it in 2000. But this is New York where all the buildings are so close and they can't just cordon off a city block to demolish it, and this isn't an average building, it's full of mold.

Is there any progress with the deconstruction or is it still at the same height?

same height. No suprise there! Its getting ridiculous now.

hmmm i dnt like the shape...

There's no design. They say the new design will be slimmer and won't have a cantilever. I don't care how long they take as long as 130 Lib comes down and something taller goes up.

They are half-way right?
When will they continue with the deconstruction?

They've been active for months. However they now have to completely abate the whole building before they can start taking down any more floors. Before they would abate just a few floors below the floor being demolished.

They should have the whole building decontaminated and active demolition of the structure restarted real soon.

i heard it wont b built and that chase decided 2 move uptown from a very connected broker working next door at the w hotel under construction

Yes. Now they have no choice but to get a tower that rises to a height of nearly 60 floors and 900 feet and use it for a 900-room hotel and an undetermined amount of residential units.

The latest news from the NY Post,

Deutsche ‘Done’
By Chuck Bennett | February 19, 2009
New York Post
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. said yesterday the condemned former Deutsche Bank building will be gone by this fall, and released plans for taking it down.

Decontamination is expected to be complete by the end of March. Work will start in late April on tearing down the remaining 26 floors.

Among new safety measures is an alarm on the standpipes and special emergency exits. Two firefighters were killed in a 2007 blaze because the standpipe had been cut.

That not good news or bad news. I don't think this a good enough reason to pull this thread out from its resting place.

---double post---

let's hope 5WTC is in the 200m+ range...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/nyu_to_zero_in_on_wtc_wHckhEXJGxWtgF9R4knkFI?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

NYU to 'zero' in on WTC

By TOM TOPOUSIS
June 15, 2010


New York University officials are eyeing lower Manhattan -- including a tower at the World Trade Center -- as part of their 20-year plan to dramatically expand campus housing, classrooms and other services, The Post has learned.

In a letter to the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp., NYU Vice President Lynne Brown has requested a meeting with rebuilding officials to determine which downtown sites are available for campus expansion.

The university is planning to add 6 million square feet of new space, about half of which would be built in the college's core area in and around Greenwich Village. But Brown said the university can't meet all of it needs in the historic neighborhood.

"For that reason, we would like to discuss lower Manhattan as part of our exploration of remote sites," she wrote in a letter dated June 11.

Brown cited community officials who have advocated that NYU move into the World Trade Center's yet-to-be-built Tower 5, which is slated for the site of the former Deutsche Bank building now being demolished.

Tower 5 is expected to include 1.3 million square feet of space. The PA is looking for a developer willing to build either an office tower or a combination hotel and housing high-rise on the site after it's cleared by the end of this year, which would fit in with NYU's plans.

"We're certainly willing to meet with NYU and pleased that there is so much continuing interest in the site during its building," said a PA spokesman.

Brown said she wants to meet with LMDC officials to learn about any opportunities available downtown and "to assess whether there is some role that the university can play to help revitalize and diversify the area."

Under NYU's expansion plan, the university's campus would grow by 40 percent over the next two decades.

So far, officials have identified Downtown Brooklyn, a corridor along First Avenue in Manhattan -- near NYU's medical center -- and Governors Island as possible sites for growth.

Sources familiar with the university's plans insist that Tower 5 would not be used to replace a proposed 40-story tower that NYU still wants to build on Bleecker Street, which is the most controversial element of the expansion plan.

Julie Menin, chairperson of downtown's Community Board 1, said a move by NYU to expand in lower Manhattan would find broad community support.

"I raised this idea a number of weeks ago," Menin said. "I'm very pleased they are taking this idea seriously.

"I think it makes sense for a whole lot of reasons. Tower 5 is perfect for them."

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9745&d=1276744784
Source (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3577&p=328369&viewfull=1#post328369)

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9744&d=1276744774
Source (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3577&p=328369&viewfull=1#post328369)

by GreenwichBoy (WNY), June 16th 2010

Reports http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/06/who_wants_nyu_apparently_everyone_in_lower_manhattan.php that NYU was interested in partnering with a developer for the 5WTC site are apparently false:

http://dnainfo.com/20100615/manhattan/nyu-throws-cold-water-on-world-trade-center-move

so so, could be better..

http://dnainfo.com/20100625/manhattan/port-authority-chief-doesnt-want-wait-decade-for-redevelopment-of-deutsche-site

Port Authority Chief Doesn't Want to Wait a Decade to Develop Deutsche Site


June 25, 2010
By Julie Shapiro


A mixed-used skyscraper that provides residential living and shops, along with office space, should rise on the site of the Deutsche Bank building, Port Authority executive director Chris Ward said Friday morning.

Speaking a day after outgoing deputy mayor Rober Lieber said the Deutsche site should remain a hole in the ground for a decade while the office market recovers, the Port Authority chief said he saw no reason to wait to build Tower 5.

“We’re going to have to be flexible and creative downtown,” Ward told DNAinfo. “Let’s keep our options open to create the best possible project.”

Ward was responding to Dep. Mayor Robert Lieber’s statement on Thursday that the site for World Trade Center Tower 5 could stay vacant for the next decade, until the real estate market demands additional office space there.

Ward, though, said he envisioned that Tower 5 could follow in the footsteps of the Time Warner Center, which contains offices, condos, a hotel and retail space.

If the Port Authority keeps its options open and works with developers to make the project successful, “something will happen well before 10 years,” Ward said.

Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, said she had spoken to residential and hotel developers who were interested in building there, and she hoped affordable housing could be part of the future plan as well.

Menin said it is important to start planning now so the community is not left with “another hole in the ground” once the Deutsche Bank building finally comes down at the end of this year.

“We should not let this languish,” Menin said. “We should get ahead of the curve.”

http://www.tribecatrib.com/news/2010/june/651_dep-mayor-former-deutsche-bank-site-should-be-reserved-for-office-tower.html

Dep. Mayor: 130 Liberty St. Should be Reserved for Office Tower

http://www.tribecatrib.com/images/stories/2010/06-June/menin-lieber.jpg

By Matt Dunning
UPDATED Jun. 30

It appeared to be a plan whose time had passed: an office tower on the former Deutsche Bank building site, just across the street from the 10 million square feet of office space planned for the World Trade Center site. But a high-level Bloomberg administration official still believes the idea could work—10 years from now—and it’s worth waiting for.

Outgoing Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber, in charge of the city’s economic development, said that despite the lack of a willing developer or anchor tenant, an office tower similar to the one JP Morgan Chase had planned to occupy at 130 Liberty Street two years ago could eventually be economically viable.

“What we’re talking about now is something that’s going to take place a decade from now,” Lieber, a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s board of directors, said during a meeting of the board this month. “I can’t say with any confidence that there’s no need for more office space in Lower Manhattan. I actually believe that there will be.”

“Site 5,” the site of the former Deutsche Bank building, has been in limbo ever since JP Morgan Chase abandoned its plans for a 42-story headquarters there, choosing to move uptown after its acquisition of Bear Stearns in 2008. Though plans for the 1.3 million-square-foot tower were shelved indefinitely, the site has remained zoned for commercial development only.

Lieber’s comments came as fellow board member and Community Board 1 chairwoman Julie Menin asked the board to change the site’s designated use from commercial to residential, which would open the door for an apartment or hotel development on the lot once the Deutsche Bank building is torn down.

Menin had earlier suggested that New York University locate its planned 40-story skyscraper on Site 5 as an alternative to a proposed location on Bleecker Street, where Village residents have opposed its construction. NYU has since rejected the idea but expressed possible interest in the site for part of its expansion. She has also advocated for a performing arts center—now slated for the World Trade Center site—to be relocated to Site 5.

“I just feel like we’re sitting on this and we don’t have a plan,” Menin said. “I think it’s well understood that there’s not going to be a demand for office space, given the towers that are already being built.”

“There is an interest from developers all over the city to build it as a residential or hotel development,” she added.

Any change to the site’s permitted use would require an environmental review and approval by the city’s Planning Commission, LMDC president David Emil said during the June 24 meeting. Both Emil and board chairman Avi Schick said they agreed with Menin that it was time to reevaluate what kind of building will go on the site.

“It can be done, and it probably should be done,” Emil said.

“[The site is] an asset that we hold in the public trust for the community,” board chairman Avi Schick said, “and I think we want to make sure that we engage with the community as we figure out what the best and highest use for that asset is.”

Nevertheless, Lieber, who will leave city government later this summer, called soliciting offers for residential construction a “useless exercise.” He said he believed demand for commercial space at the World Trade Center site would someday exceed the capacity of the three office towers—including the Port Authority’s 1,776-foot-tall tower at One World Trade Center—currently planned for the area.

“I think we’re way too early to think about changing the use,” Lieber said. “The more we mess around with this and create uncertainty around it, the more complicated it’s going to be to get those tenants to come down to Lower Manhattan and occupy that space.

I think this site should be used as a hotel. The old WTC had a hotel, why can't the new one?

^^ Sounds more and more like they're shooting for bulk office at 5WTC to compete with Jersey City. The signature towers across the street are more than enough for Premier Class A tennants. Hotels are already springing up nearby, witness the W Hotel that will open soon.

Update :

by hoveringcheesecake

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/2218/5919805752eb84bc914fb.jpg

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5751/5919800024217fe46e96b.jpg

Prep ?

I'm really mad this thread is still open. This design isn't going to happen.

Update :
Prep ?

That is work for the Vehicular Security Center (VSC), it has nothing to do with a future tower 5.. let's hope they build WTC 2 & 3 up to their full height first..

^^ Sounds more and more like they're shooting for bulk office at 5WTC to compete with Jersey City. The signature towers across the street are more than enough for Premier Class A tennants. Hotels are already springing up nearby, witness the W Hotel that will open soon.

There is a very big and constant demand for high-end residential and hotel space in NY, especially downtown which currently has only a Ritz (and soon will have a Hilton and a Four Seasons). Thus, the third largest business district in the US will have only three high-end hotels in the near future. When this tower is built, I'd be shocked if it's not a five-star hotel/condo.

^^ I think for now they should leave the spot empty, once all other WTC towers are completed and the economy will be in a boom again, they should build there a 1500ft+ mixed use tower.

We don't want this New World Order puppets to have anything to do with New York!

We don't want this New World Order puppets to have anything to do with New York!

What do you mean? Their headquarters is already in NY.

I'm really mad this thread is still open. This design isn't going to happen.

Maybe not the same design, but I don't doubt something will go up here.

^^ I think for now they should leave the spot empty, once all other WTC towers are completed and the economy will be in a boom again, they should build there a 1500ft+ mixed use tower.

Quit giving ppl false hopes. I'm here to tell you once again, the height limit for this building is 900 feet. 1,500 feet isn't going to happen.

^^ Besides, if it was over 900 feet, it would ruin the spiral effect.

Quit giving ppl false hopes. I'm here to tell you once again, the height limit for this building is 900 feet. 1,500 feet isn't going to happen.

I give somebody false hope? How can I give somebody false hope if I have only stated my opinion. I never said that they will do it, I said they should do it. I hope you see the difference. You can attack me as much as you want, but that won't change what I said :rant:

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/3397/3068064311wq5.jpg
Now that's just funny, if you hate or love it.
Out of scale !

LOL, 5WTC on that rendering looks kinda like a toilet :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I give somebody false hope? How can I give somebody false hope if I have only stated my opinion. I never said that they will do it, I said they should do it. I hope you see the difference. You can attack me as much as you want, but that won't change what I said :rant:

It's like I said in the 3WTC thread. Your beating a dead horse.

It's like I said in the 3WTC thread. Your beating a dead horse.

I'm curious, please tell me, do you know Roadcruiser from SSP?

I don't use Skyscraperpage. I look at the diagrams from time to time. But I am not a member.

http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/img/site_plan_north.jpg

i found a model for scetch up who looks a bit different like the rendering its about 230m high

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8961/wtc5.png

Please excuse what is possibly a silly question but... Where is WTC 6?! Is there no such building? 0_o
(I should know that...)

There is no 6WTC in the new complex.

So this is going ahead? :D

5WTC sure but we're not to sure about the design.

5WTC sure but we're not to sure about the design.

Going ahead? Like, prep soon?

I'm say no. I haven't seen them dig yet. And they don't have any tenant lined up.

I don't think that's the actual final design though is it?

I'm say no. I haven't seen them dig yet. And they don't have any tenant lined up.

Wasn't there talks of it becoming residential a little while ago. If that's the case, it might be quite a while before anything happens at that site.

Please excuse what is possibly a silly question but... Where is WTC 6?! Is there no such building? 0_o
(I should know that...)

1WTC is being built on the site of 6WTC, the lowrise US Customs Building.


So this is going ahead? :D

No. It will be a tourist plaza for several years while construction on the main WTC site finishes up. Then it could be redeveloped in any number of ways. The JP Morgan tower pictured in this thread was actually redesigned just before the plans were scrapped and JPM backed out in favor of the Bear Stearns Building in Midtown. This tower is as dead as they come.

Wasn't there talks of it becoming residential a little while ago. If that's the case, it might be quite a while before anything happens at that site.

That depends on who you ask. Larry's got a hotel in the works already. But if it's PA owned, they being looking for mix use more than anything.

Curious, what's that semi-diagonal square above 5 WTC in the render diagram? Have we seen any plans or is it just a placeholder?

i found a model for scetch up who looks a bit different like the rendering its about 230m high

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8961/wtc5.png

This tower is not being built.

I know. somebody pulled this thread out of it's grave.

It was that Kanto guy and his talks of making this thing a "2000 footer when the market needs it." Yeah effing right.

is there now a tower proposed ore not?

In a way, yes and no.

We know that something will rise on this site, and be at most 900 feet tall.

We don't know however, the design, it's height, floor count, architect, use (office, mixed, res, etc), or really anything else.

It was that Kanto guy and his talks of making this thing a "2000 footer when the market needs it." Yeah effing right.

No no he only came in after the fact. It was sieradzanin1, then I pop up lol

In a way, yes and no.

We know that something will rise on this site, and be at most 900 feet tall.

We don't know however, the design, it's height, floor count, architect, use (office, mixed, res, etc), or really anything else.

but i think they will use the same windows for this tower like the windows from the other wtcs

The windows of the other WTC aren't the same. And for all we know 5 WTC, could have a stone facade. We don't know yet and we're months away, from finding out.

In a way, yes and no.

We know that something will rise on this site, and be at most 900 feet tall.

We don't know however, the design, it's height, floor count, architect, use (office, mixed, res, etc), or really anything else.

nothing being build here, nothing being proposed, and this site will be staying empty for a while. Please stop with all these rumors already. Unless somebody here have something from credible source, consider all that "900 foot" is bull shit.

For a new members here... there used to be a proposal by JP Morgan but they back out from it so for now it's will be a empty site.

nothing being build here, nothing being proposed, and this site will be staying empty for a while. Please stop with all these rumors already. Unless somebody here have something from credible source, consider all that "900 foot" is bull shit.

For a new members here... there used to be a proposal by JP Morgan but they back out from it so for now it's will be a empty site.

I 1000% agree with you. Right now we know nothing about what will rise there and I'd say not even the PA knows anything. In my opinion they'll wait 'til there will be no suply to meet demand. Right now there is 157 rising for residential use and the 4 WTC towers rising for office space, not to mention all of the other proposed buildings.

I 1000% agree with you. Right now we know nothing about what will rise there and I'd say not even the PA knows anything. In my opinion they'll wait 'til there will be no suply to meet demand. Right now there is 157 rising for residential use and the 4 WTC towers rising for office space, not to mention all of the other proposed buildings.

So then why the hell were you going on last week about building a 2000 footer at this site?

My question to him is. What makes him think the PA doesn't know what's going on.

Then he says " In my opinion they'll wait 'til there will be no suply to meet demand"

I don't understand. How can they meet demand, if they don't know what's going on.

Remember these are his words not mines.

I never said that they don't know what's going on, I only said that in my opinion they are still undecided as to what they will build at that site. It's just too early for anything about that site to be decided other than that something will stand there.

I 1000% agree with you. Right now we know nothing about what will rise there and I'd say not even the PA knows anything. In my opinion they'll wait 'til there will be no suply to meet demand. Right now there is 157 rising for residential use and the 4 WTC towers rising for office space, not to mention all of the other proposed buildings.

^^ Ok maybe I miss understood you.

wikipedia says it broke ground on Sept 9th 2011; any confirmations??

^^Yeah don't believe anything you read on wikipedia.

TRD (http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/andrew-cuomo-pushes-to-move-st-nicholas-church-to-130-liberty-street-from-155-cedar-street-despite-construction-interference)


Cuomo pushes to move WTC church despite construction interference
October 04, 2011

http://s3.amazonaws.com/trd_three/images/324835/church.jpg

Governor Cuomo and the St. Nicholas ChurchBehind closed doors, Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing to rebuild the St. Nicholas Church at the former site of the Deutsche Bank Building, sources told the New York Post, even though it could severely delay construction of the World Trade Center site.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey wanted the church to be rebuilt at 155 Cedar Street, where it stood before being destroyed during the Sept. 11 attacks. Church leaders initially thought the new structure would be built one block away at 130 Liberty Street, but the Port Authority wanted to negotiate a land swap so that it could be built at the Cedar Street site. (Negotiations have stalled and the two sides will head to court to come to an agreement later this month.)

The Port Authority wants the church to be built on Cedar Street because the Liberty Street location sits directly above the under-construction Vehicle Screening Center. The agency has been working on the center for two years under the assumption that the massive church wouldn't be built on top of it. Construction could be delayed by a year or more to ready the underground structure to support the domed marble house of worship.

[...]

I just hope they'll build a skyscraper instead of this church.

Wow. Have some respect for people's religion.

I just hope they'll build a skyscraper instead of this church.

they should buildt a skyscraper OVER this church

like the citygroup building

It means nothing for Tower 5.

The Tower 5 footprint can't be built over this part of the Vehicle Security Center.

Tower 5 will be set back from this site, regardless of where the church moves.

The site is a gap that should be filled with a tower. This is not disrespect just reality and common sense.

^^ The tower will be beuild, when demand is there. They need to find tenants for 2 and 3 before they even consider a tower 5. No need to hurry things.

why is the old deutsche bank building in google earth again???

strange

I just hope they'll build a skyscraper instead of this church.

The church was originally there and suffered the same fate as the towers. It got top be built there - where exactly will it stand is a matter of possible discussions.
In Japan there is a law that an old church cannot be relocated. Instead it can be raised so lots of skyscrapers have old churches right on top of their roofs. Maybe it is a way to go here as well. And since the church is no longer there the building an look normal without this horrible bulge in the mid section.

Can't they just put a religious practice within a skyscraper? Trying to recreate old architecture can be architecturally disastrous.

The dispute on the church is settled, but nothing new on 5 WTC..

http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/press_releasesItem.cfm?headLine_id=1474

PORT AUTHORITY AND GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT ON REBUILDING OF ST. NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America today announced an agreement regarding the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The agreement, signed today by Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward and representatives of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and St. Nicholas Parish, permits the rebuilding of the Church with a nondenominational bereavement center at the east end of Liberty Park, at 130 Liberty Street. The agreement follows a four-month independent engineering study commissioned by the Port Authority and the Archdiocese, which found that the Church could be built on the site with minor modifications to the original plan and with no impact on the World Trade Center construction schedule.

Read more.. (http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/press_releasesItem.cfm?headLine_id=1474)

So no tower on this site? :(

So no tower on this site? :(

not anytime soon

But that has nothing to do with the church.
I have no problem with the priority on WTC 1, 2, 3, 4.

They should either remove the cantilevered part and make a box like 7wtc (but keeping the slanted roof) or build it as a stump. The current design sucks and looks overly expensive.

^^ I quite like the cantilevered floors, but if they were the reason it wasn't being built then I'd agree, they should be removed and a box with a slanted roof should be built. However, they're clearly not the reason.

Good job bumping a building that's been cancelled since 2008.

any Construction Thinking about 5wtc??

^^ Nope, and it'll definitely stay this way for many years cause I can't imagine tower 5 rising before towers 2 and 3, which themselves will rise only in a year or two, maybe more :dunno:

To clear things, the JP Morgan Investment Bank Building, (aka The Urinal) was cancelled in 2008.

The city, the Port Authority, the City Planning Commission, and the Community Board are still deciding what type of building should be built here, (i.e., commercial or residential or a mix of hotel and residential). The site is currently zoned for a strictly commercial building. Some people want that classification to stay, because once the WTC including is built out, Lower Manhattan will have very little room, if any room at all, for new office buildings. So that's a very good reason to leave this zoned for an office building and why I think it should remain zoned for commercial construction, however as we all know with 2 and 3 WTC, finding tenants in this economy is tough, so if it's reserved for an office building it could take 5-8 years to build.

The arguments behind rezoning the site to residential and/or hotel is that it will give the memorial and park a more 24/7 feel, and the building would likely rise much sooner than if it were to stay zoned for strictly commercial use.

Also, if a commercial building were to rise on this site it would most likely be in the 700 foot range. No way we're getting something taller than 4 WTC, but still something north of 200 meters. Hope that helps, and puts an end to people bumping this thread.

This Project Is Dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD.

Enough already.