Two World Trade Center

Coordinates: 40°42′44″N 74°00′40″W / 40.712095°N 74.011002°W / 40.712095; -74.011002

Two World Trade Center, also known by its street address, 200 Greenwich Street, is an unfinished office building at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan, New York City.^[1] The tower is under construction and would be the second on the World Trade Center site. The first tower, the "south tower" of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, was located across Greenwich Street. It was completed in 1971 and was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

When completed, the tower will be located on the east side of Greenwich Street, across the street from the original location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The foundation work was completed in 2013, but construction is on hold.^[2][3]

Original building (1971–2001)

The original building was known as the South Tower. When completed in 1973, 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower) became the second tallest building in the world. The South Tower's rooftop observation deck was 1,362 ft (415 m) high and its indoor observation deck was 1,310 ft (400 m) high.^[4] The World Trade Center towers held the height record only briefly: the Sears Tower in Chicago, finished in May 1973, reached 1,450 feet (440 m) at the rooftop.^[5] Throughout its existence, however, the South Tower had more floors (at 110) than any other building. This number was not surpassed until the advent of the Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2010.^[6][7]

Of the 110 stories, eight were set aside for technical services in mechanical floors (floors 7/8, 41/42, 75/76, and 108/109), which are four two-floor areas that evenly spaced up the building. All the remaining floors were free for open-plan offices. Each floor of the towers had 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) of space for occupancy. The original Two World Trade Center had 95 express and local elevators.^[8] The tower had 3,800,000 square feet (350,000 m²) of office space.^[9]

Initially conceived as a complex dedicated to companies and organizations directly taking part in "world trade", the South Tower, along with 1 World Trade Center (also known as the North Tower) at first failed to attract the expected clientele. During the early years, various governmental organizations became key tenants of the World Trade Center towers including the State of New York. It was not until the 1980s that the city's perilous financial state eased, after which an increasing number of private companies—mostly financial firms tied to Wall Street—became tenants. During the 1990s, approximately 500 companies had offices in the complex including many financial companies such as Morgan Stanley, Aon Corporation, Salomon Brothers and the Port Authority itself. The basement concourse of the World Trade Center included The Mall at the World Trade Center,^[10] along with a PATH station.^[11]

Electrical service to the towers was supplied by Consolidated Edison (ConEd) at 13,800 volts. This service passed through the World Trade Center Primary Distribution Center (PDC) and sent up through the core of the building to electrical substations located on the mechanical floors. The substations stepped down the 13,800 primary voltage to 480/277 volt secondary service, and then further down to 208/120 volt general power and lighting service. The complex also was served by emergency generators located in the sub-levels of the towers and on the roof of 5 WTC.^[12][13]

The 110th floor of 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) housed radio and television transmission equipment; access to the roof of 1 WTC was controlled from the WTC Operations Control Center (OCC) located in the B1 level of 2 WTC.

At 9:03 a.m. EDT on September 11, 2001, five hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the southern facade of the South Tower.^[14][15] Three buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including 2 WTC, collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure.^[16] The light construction and hollow nature of the structures allowed the jet fuel to penetrate far inside the towers, igniting many large fires simultaneously over a wide area of the impacted floors. The fuel from the planes burned at most for a few minutes, but the contents of the buildings burned over the next hour or hour and a half.^[17] The fires might not have been as centrally positioned, nor as intense, had traditionally heavy high-rise construction been standing in the way of the aircraft. Debris and fuel would likely have remained mostly outside the buildings or concentrated in more peripheral areas away from the building cores, which would then not have become unique failure points. In this scenario, the towers might have stood far longer, perhaps indefinitely.^[18][19] The fires were hot enough to weaken the columns and cause floors to sag, pulling perimeter columns inward and reducing their ability to support the mass of the building above.^[20] The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. after burning for 56 minutes in the fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175 and the explosion of its fuel.^[16]

New building

The new 79-story building, when completed, will have a height of 1,270 feet (390 m), with a tripod-shaped antenna that allows the building to reach a total height of 1,350 feet (410 m).^[21] In comparison, the Empire State Building's roof at the 102nd floor is 1,250 feet (380 m) tall, and its antenna is 1,472 feet (449 m), and the original 2 World Trade Center (referred to as the South Tower) was 1,362 feet (415 m).

The tower was designed by Foster and Partners, based in London. The structural engineer for the building is WSP Cantor Seinuk, New York City.^[22] The curtain wall/cladding consultant for the building is Permasteelisa SPA.^[23]

When constructed, the tower will be the second–tallest skyscraper on the World Trade Center site following One World Trade Center. The sloping roof consisting of four diamonds inclined toward the memorial will provide a visual marker around the skyline of just where the original towers were. The tower is designed to resemble a diamond, with cross bracing intersects and indentations breaking up the sides.^[24] The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the following about 200 Greenwich Street's wedged rooftop: "Designed by Lord Norman Foster, the tower incorporates WTC master planner Daniel Libeskind's 'wedge of light' concept, and will cast no shadow on the memorial park on September 11."^[25] The total floor space of 200 Greenwich Street is anticipated to include 2,400,000 square feet (220,000 m²) of office space and another 130,000 square feet (12,000 m²) for retail shops and access areas to the underground World Trade Center PATH station.

Construction status

Excavation for 200 Greenwich Street commenced in 2008^[26] and the building was originally scheduled to be completed sometime between 2011 and 2016. On May 11, 2009, however, it was announced that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was seeking to reduce the tower to a "stump" building of approximately four stories.^[27] The overall plan, which also calls for a similar reduction in height for 175 Greenwich Street and the cancellation of World Trade Center Tower 5, would halve the amount of office space available in the fully reconstructed World Trade Center to 5 million square feet (465,000 square meters).^[27] The agency cited the recession and disagreements with developer Larry Silverstein as reasons for the proposed reduction.^[27] The plan has seen some opposition; a May 2009 piece in the New York Post challenged the necessity of the office space reduction, given Lower Manhattan's low commercial vacancy rate compared to other U.S. cities and overall demand for modern office properties.^[28]

Silverstein is opposed to the plan, and filed a notice of dispute on July 7, 2009. By doing so, the development firm began a two-week period during which renegotiated settlements and a binding arbitration regarding the construction of the four World Trade Center towers can be made.^[29] Silverstein Properties, which has paid the Port Authority over $2.75 billion in financing, noted the organization’s inability to meet construction obligations in its official complaint. The development firm has proposed further government intervention in the project as a way of settling the dispute.^[29] On December 2, 2009, US$2.6 billion tax-free bond for the building's construction was approved by the state of New York to continue construction on the World Trade Center site. The construction of Two World Trade Center, however, remains on-hold.^[30]

On March 25, 2010, the Port Authority released plans to build Two and Three World Trade Center to street level. The transit and retail podium at the 175 Greenwich Street site would be constructed immediately, but the construction of Tower 3 would be delayed until Silverstein Properties obtains financing for the remaining cost of the tower. Tower 3 will be built, but Tower 2's office construction will wait until the economy improves.^[31] Tower 2 foundation work began on June 1, 2010, but construction was halted in August 2012.^[32] The street-level foundation was finished by November 2012^[33] and construction of everything up to street level was completed in mid-2013.^[31][2] The rest of the building, however, has yet to be built until tenants for Tower 2 can be found.^[34]

Possible tenants

As of May 2015, there are no confirmed tenants in Two World Trade Center. However, the New York Times reported on April 10, 2015, that News Corporation and 21st Century Fox, both owned by Rupert Murdoch, are in negotiations with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to create a joint headquarters at Two World Trade Center. ^[35] On April 24, 2015, Dow Jones Business News reported that avant-garde Danish architect Bjarke Ingels would be brought in to replace Norman Foster as lead designer for Tower 2 if the Murdoch companies do move to the site; a redesign was deemed necessary given the different requirements for TV studios as opposed to financial companies, the assumed major tenants for the Foster design. However, it is unclear how any redesign would conflict with the below-grade work already completed, which conformed to the original building design.^[36]

See also

• List of tallest buildings in New York City

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Two World Trade Center.

• Official website , WTC.com
• Foster + Partners page on 2 WTC
• Skyscraperpage.com diagram of building