Freedom Tower - New York, New York

The Freedom Tower
The Freedom Tower, currently under construction on Lower Manhattan Island, is the centerpiece of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in New York. The original World Trade Center was the victim of the largest terrorist attack in United States history, when terrorists hijacked two airliners and flew into the twin massive towers of Manhattan's skyline. Just a short time after the impact, the heat of the fire melted the core of the structure, and the buildings collapsed, entirely destroyed. The impact of the planes and the collapse of the Twin Towers (and surrounding buildings) killed 2,602 people, including hundreds of fire and police personal. To memorialize the people killed that day, there is a large World Trade Center Memorial and Museum currently being constructed, which will cover the footprints of the original buildings.

However, in addition to creating the Memorial, there is also a very real need in New York City to replace the massive amount of office space that was destroyed with the collapse of the towers and the five other buildings that made up the original World Trade Center Complex. This is because the economic stability of the area rests heavily on the business that the Trade Center site once provided. It was decided then by New York officials to rebuild the area into a new, more magnificent World Trade Center Complex. The main, tallest, structure of this rebuilding will be the new One World Trade Center, nicknamed Freedom Tower. Unlike the old complex, which featured two massive twin towers, the new design will only feature the tall Freedom Tower, which will be surrounded by smaller, stylized office buildings. The Freedom Tower will only have 78 floors dedicated to occupied space, however the first office floor will be numbered 'Floor 20' (it will be at the height of a twenty-story floor) and thus the top floor will be labeled 'Floor 102,' after the 102 floors of the original One World Trade Center.

The building will be of steel construction, but the outside will be made of shatter-proof glass. A concrete base, measuring 200 feet by 200 feet, will form the first portion of the tower. To avoid looking like a cold concrete bunker, the concrete base will be covered with stylized pieces of glass. The building will be built that so, from the square base, the sides will be angled at a curve, so the building may resemble a geometric prism or a large square building, depending on where it is viewed from (the glass outer part of this structure helps to accomplish this effect).

The building's highest occupied floor will be Floor 102, also known as the Observation Deck. It will sit at a height of 1,362 feet (seven feet higher than the highest occupied floor of the original tower). From there, the building's glass frame will rise to the skyline at a height of 1,776 feet (the height represents 1776, the year that The United States of America came into existence). This extra height, consisting of a spire and a broadcasting and cell phone antennae, will make it the tallest building in the world, as long as no other competing structures are built before it. This is unlikely though, as 2008 is set to bring completion of the Burj Dubai skyscraper in the Middle East, at an estimated height between 2,600 and 3,000 feet. However, the developers of Freedom Tower have decided to keep the new building at the height of 1,776 feet, due to the symbolism of the number with the birth of America. The spire will also boast a powerful beam of light into the night sky, up to 1000 feet, that will forever symbolize the national tragedy that occurred there.

The Freedom Tower, when completed in 2011, will also feature an urban shopping center and a variety of high-end restaurants and retail space, along with a subway station. This development, along with the adjacent World Trade Center Memorial, is expected to bring a sense of renewal and triumph back to Manhattan Island.

Copyright © Paper Models, Inc.