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Freedom Tower

Stats
Heights
Antenna/Spire: 1,776 ft (541.3 m)
Roof: 1,368 ft (417.0 m)
Top floor: 1,362 ft (415.0 m)
Technical details
Floor count: 108 floors (82 office space)
Floor area: 2,600,000 sq ft (241,548 m²)
Floor breakdown
* Sublevels - Garage/Retail/Transportation
* Ground Floor - Main Lobby
* 1st-19th Floors (Base) - Podium (Not Occupied on the base except for lobby)
* 20th-63rd Floors - Offices
* 64th Floor - Sky lobby
* 65th - 88th Floors - Offices
* 89th and 90th Floors - Transmission equipment
* 91st - 100th Floors - Mechanical
* 100th - 101st Floors - Restaurant
* 102nd Floor - Observation deck
* 103rd - 108th Floors - Mechanical (Unoccupied)
* Top of the Building - Observation deck Two (Proposed)
Timetable
Status: Under Construction
Groundbreaking: April 26, 2006
Completion: 2009
Occupancy: First Quarter 2011
Design Overview
As the first office tower to rise on the actual World Trade Center site, the Freedom Tower recaptures the New York skyline, reasserts downtown Manhattan's preeminence as a business center and establishes a new civic icon for the country. It is a memorable architectural landmark for the city and the nation; a building whose simplicity and clarity of form will remain fresh and timeless in its design. Extending the long tradition of American ingenuity in high-rise construction, the design solution is an innovative mix of architecture, structure, urban design, safety and sustainability.
The Freedom Tower is a bold and simple icon in the sky that acknowledges the memorial below. While the memorial, carved out of the earth, speaks of the past and of remembrance, the Freedom Tower speaks about the future and hope as it rises into the sky in a faceted, crystalline form filled with, and reflecting light. This tall, pointed tower, in the tradition of great New York City icons such as the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, evokes the slender, tapering triangular forms of these two great landmarks of midtown and replaces one quarter of the World Trade Center office space lost on September 11, 2001. (Overall, downtown lost approximately 15 million square feet of office space on September 11th.)
The tower rises from a cubic base whose square plan - 200 feet by 200 feet - is the same size as the footprints of the original Twin Towers. The base is clad in more than 2000 pieces of prismatic glass; each measures 4 feet x 13 feet 4 inches with varying depths. It has been designed to draw upon the themes of motion and light; a shimmering glass surface drapes the tower's base and imparts a dynamic fluidity of form whose appearance will reflect its surroundings. Just as the rest of the building, the base will serve as a glowing beacon.
Generous open spaces - designed in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker - filled with trees, water and places of respite that enliven the surrounding streets, connect the tower with the adjacent neighborhoods and allow views and access into the memorial. While incorporating enhanced security measures, the building remains open and accessible. Entrances on all four sides of the buildings, each 60 feet high and ranging in width from 30 feet on the east and west sides (for access to the restaurant and observation deck, respectively) to 50 feet on the north side and 70 feet on the south for primary tenant access, activate the building at street level.
As the tower itself rises from this cubic base, its square edges are chamfered back, transforming the square into eight tall isosceles triangles in elevation. At its middle, the tower forms a perfect octagon in plan and then culminates in a glass parapet (elevation 1362 feet and 1368 feet) whose plan is a square, rotated 45 degrees from the base. A mast containing an antenna for television broadcasters - designed by a collaboration between SOM, artist Kenneth Snelson (who invented the tensegrity structure), lighting designers and engineers - and secured by a system of cables, rises from a circular support ring, similar to the Statue of Liberty's torch, to a height of 1776 feet.








Freedom Tower Archivehttp://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=78621&page=1http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=78621&page=1http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=78621&page=1