Port Authority approves cheaper glass covering for the base of 1 WTC

1 WTC gets new, cheaper glass covering for base

November 16, 2011 09:30AM

1 World Trade Center

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has approved a new glass covering for the 20-story base of 1 World Trade Center, Crain's reported. The initial plans to clad the 185-foot-tall concrete base of the forthcoming tower in special prismatic glass fell through because of manufacturing difficulty and a susceptibility to shattering.

The new glass covering will be significantly cheaper for the Port Authority. The agency will pay $37.2 million to Permasteelisa North America Corp to engineer and install stainless steel slat panels around the base and cover it with glass fins, which will reflect light during the day. That compares to the $82 million contracted for the original plans. Crain's could not determine how much of that was actually paid out.

The installation will begin in 2013 and should keep construction on the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed tower on track. Port Authority Chairman David Samson said the new plan "provides a practical way to cover the tower's secure base, and give it an innovative, inviting look for the thousands of workers who will be employed there and the millions of tourists who will visit it."

Safety concerns have loomed over the construction of the tower, as special measures were taken to ensure the stability of the bottom 20 floors. As a result, those floors will not have office space. [Crain's]

New York rebuilds - 911 Memorial opens to the public Monday 9/12

Photo credit: AP

Visitors line up to enter the 9/11 memorial plaza in the World Trade Center site in New York. (Sept. 12, 2011)

They came. They saw.

They remembered.

And many of them cried.

Certainly, to a person, visitors to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which opened to the public for the first time Monday, found themselves moved by the simplicity, the beauty and the significance of the site -- a memorial erected where the towers of the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001.

"There are no words," visitor Eileen Cristina, 64, of Lititz, Pa., said upon seeing the memorial up close Monday morning.
Read the full story here: http://www.newsday.com/911-anniversary/9-11-memorial-opens-to-public-1.3163719

NYC's Financial District and downtown starts to swell with stores, restaurants as WTC is restored

A decade ago, the Financial District swelled with workers in suits and ties, only to virtually empty out as the sun set.

Now, the area's growing 24/7 crowd of residents and tourists, along with the progress at Ground Zero as the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, is beginning to attract the attention of yet another group: retailers and restaurateurs.

"Certainly there are a lot more people downtown, either because they're living there, working there, or visiting there," said Robin Abrams, executive vice president at real estate firm The Lansco Corporation.

Read full story:

 http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2011/08/29/2011-08-29_nycs_financial_district_and_downtown_starts_to_swell_with_stores_restaurants_as_.html