New WTC Complex Tower Designs Unveiled

[van1357 15]

For those interested in more pics, there are a whole heap here.

[funkalunatic 0]

Originally posted by: Creathir A website about buildings and cities... and one of the most famous buildings in the midwest cannot even be mentioned... sillyness...

John Hanc-ck Center in Chicago

- Creathirquote>

Keep it clean, say Hanpeepee Center.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: zelgadisUnlike the old buildings, which looked like the delivery boxes that the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building came packaged in.quote>

Good one!

[coolotter88 2]

I like the 4 diamond and the weird one with the diamond metal bands on the side. they should make the roof of the 4 diamond building like a giant mirror or something that we could use to vaporize our enemies or something...but its probably going to be solar cells or something.

in fact, if I had a big evil corporation that had more than enough money to spend, i'd buy tower 2.

<.<

>.>

in other news, the price of glass and steel has gone up after the unveiling of the new world trade center design...

[JWUT 2]

Originally posted by: coolotter88

in other news, the price of glass and steel has gone up after the unveiling of the new world trade center design...quote>

 

LOL...

[Jersey_17011 0]

Originally posted by: coolotter88

in other news, the price of glass and steel has gone up after the unveiling of the new world trade center design...quote>

 

LOL!!!      

[confused04 14]

Originally posted by: diablo_del_bano I like the design for the center, though I wish they would have put more into the main tower, it doesn't look that bad. I just wish they would rename it. I HATE the name 'Freedom Tower." If calling it World Trade Center makes a few whiny victim's families, the least they can do is name it something that doesn't scream "we think we're still the only free nation, so ***** you world!" Though I still prefer World Trade Center Tower 1 or something like that.quote>

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of places around the world called "Freedom ______".  Why suddenly is it not ok if we use it.  Its not really that big of a deal.  If we called it anything, someone's gonna whine.  What do you think your doing?  I'd prefer to listen to the families who lost someone than someone from abroad who has some problem with the name "Freedom".

I personally love the redesign. The towers are for once actually decent and it still preserves the foot prints of the original building.

[diablo_del_bano 3]

but because of the circumstances, it isn't the right building to name Freedom tower. And who cares if these people lost someone, that doesn't mean they need to be pleased. I just think the name needs to be a normal name, especially because of what happened there. Though I should be happy they didn't turn the whole site into some stupid memorial like I was afraid they would...

Oh, and finaly, if they are going to say that the height is 1,776 feet (the only other problem I have with it) they need to either use a spire rather than an antena that they're calling a spire, or better yet, reach it by making the building taller as a whole. And please, why does the height need to have some stupid symbolism? Being patriotic is one thing, but this is almost like propaganda. I mean, is all of this symbolism necessary? EVeryone who visits the site will already know about the tragic events, and we don't need more.

[confused04 14]

I'd quite before you'd really make someone mad. "A stupid memorial" means a lot to those who lost loved ones. I myself did not lose loved ones that day, but I certainly sympathize with those who want a dominating memorial. I think the circumstances are more than permitting to allow the name Freedom Tower.

[diablo_del_bano 3]

Yes, but I feel like making people mad right now, so if my views make them mad, more power to me. To be honest with you I never thought the loss of life was a great tradgedy, only the actual structures themselves. People die, and we can be sad, but it is better to move on, especially when they died because someone wanted to scare us. What better way to show that it doesn't effect us but to move on?

[PhilsCafe 8]

Originally posted by: diablo_del_bano Yes, but I feel like making people mad right now, so if my views make them mad, more power to me.quote>

That's really not a good reason... Freedom of speech is ok, but your personal freedom stops where you affect another person's freedom.

I agree that moving on is a good way to cope with a tragedy... but one has to accept that everyone handles dolor differently. Also these events are now part of the city's background and therefore deserve a architectural memorial... not to forget the people who lost their loved ones in the towers...

[Mulefisk 15]

It looks pretty good.

The main tower and the 2 smaller ones are looking great.

In my opinion, however, The one with the diamont top really shouldn't be there. It's ugly, and it makes the skyline less dramatic.

It actually kinda looks like there were two main towers, but one of them got sliced in half with a huge knife.

[coolotter88 2]

i just don't know, the name freedom tower reminds me of some sort of monument needly thingy stuck in the middle of some busy plaza.

[manman99 2]

I would really enjoy seeing those buidings in NYC I think they all look spectacular. I heard that the lights on the buildings were all going  to be very immaculate and beautiful.      I think that it would make a fine addition to NYC, the city really hasnt had a " big boom" for buildings in a while, so I really am looking foward to it!!!

                             Manman99                 

edit: and for more info on all the buildings just go to this site

[MayorTim 16]

Aside from having just lost ALL respect for Diablo, I think they need to make the complex a little more uniform. The buildings don't appear to have anything in common, and don't look like a complex as much as they look like random neighbors. They have nothing in common at all, and to me it feels like each one is screaming for attention.

[diablo_del_bano 3]

Well last night I just felt like crap, so my filter for that kind of stuff was turned off. I am sorry I said it, though it is what I really believe.

[funkalunatic 0]

I disagree. They all seem to have the same kinder of glass color/texture thing going, which relates them to each other and defines the group. Plus the distinctive designs for each building make them seem like they have individual personalities. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Separate, complementary personalities, but they're all green.

Too much uniformity = bad.

Uniformity in some elements and diversity in others = good.

[MayorTim 16]

Originally posted by: funkalunatic I disagree. They all seem to have the same kinder of glass color/texture thing going, which relates them to each other and defines the group. Plus the distinctive designs for each building make them seem like they have individual personalities. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Separate, complementary personalities, but they're all green.

Too much uniformity = bad.

Uniformity in some elements and diversity in others = good.quote>

I see what your saying, but I think the building with the triangle roof is just too radically diffrent from everything else in the complex. Alone it would be a really impressive skyscraper, but in the complex it just screams for attention.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I think the new design is a huge improvement.  I just don't like the building to the far right though.  I think that the park area is plenty enough of a memorial.

What about the building's bases?  Are they still fortresses?  I think the car bomb stuff is silly, even if the lobby was glassy and open, a car bomb would only be able to do minimal damage to the building.  And knowing New York, they'd kill more people if they blew up a car in a traffic jam next to a busy sidewalk anyway.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=125&threadid=71379&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

I started a thread about the Freedom Tower design back in the spring, and in it my thoughts on the name and height were summed up.  The discussion is mostly on the 2nd page.  I'll do some quotes that express what I think:

"The reason Freedom Tower is so ridiculous is because it's totally inappropriate for what is being built. The new tower will not represent freedom---IT'S A COMMERCIAL OFFICE BUILDING!. It will represent American capitalism, which, while certainly impossible without a lot of economic freedom, is not the same as honest-to-goodness social and political freedom, which it is named for.

It's the equivalent of me naming my car the Freedom Scion or my girlfriend's hair dryer the Freedom Blower. Social and political freedom has nothing to do with giant office towers built by billionaire investors as an eff-you to Islamic jihadists.

...

And besides, if they have to name a building Freedom anything, chances are they're more concerned with the word itself than actually ensuring that all of our citizens are really free."

"If we're so unchanged by [the attacks], then why are we naming the building that? Freedom Tower is overcompensating."

[Vivicas X. Strom 1]

I'm not american or canadian, i come from the city of Melbourne in Australia, so i'm neutral on the Patriotism. I have to say though as stoic as the former towers were, they were impressive.

This proposal is weak and lacking in any defining statement.

Earlier this year, we in Melbourne had our tallest 'scraper completed. The Eureka Tower which stands at 92 storeys...I implore all of you to Google some images of it. Now that's what i call a Tower.

Eureka by the way was a revolutionary event here in our state from the colonial days, so naming buildings after patriotic calls is nothing new. It does depend on the sincerity of it...Freedom tower sounds tacky.

[MayorVieira 1]

They all look generic to me... no personality whatsoever. They look like the many skyscrapers proposed, under construction or recently built in China, UAE and other countries desperate to show themselves and their growing economy to the rest of the world.

The US (NY and Chicago in particular) have invented the skyscraper and have always been the parameter for others to copy in that matter. Why follow this wave of poor architecture and ruin NY's skyline in the process?

One can argue that critics said similar things when the original complex was built, but those buildings had a personality of their own. They were something never seen before, and that's why the city grew to love them despite initially hating them. Minoru Yamasaki was not American, but in the end, nothing could be more New Yorker than those towers. They simbolized the city as much as so many famous landmarks that came before them... they were something you could only see there.

Daniel Libeskind's design for the new WTC had that same quality. You don't see that anywhere. Those new designs? Without a good view of the surroundings, I'll have a hard time distinguishing New York from Shanghai, Taipei, Dubai or even London's new proposed downtown. But maybe that's just me.

PS: Keep it clean, everyone... I don't want to close this topic because one or two people can't be civilized when dealing with a touchy subject.

[Vivicas X. Strom 1]

Very well said MayorVieira. You hit the nail on the head with that one.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Minoru Yamasaki was American (his family immigrated to Seattle, where he was born), and he moved to Detroit when he was 33, where his architecture firm is still around today, along with dozens of his buildings.

I don't think the towers were any more unique than the new ones being proposed today.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

I kinda think the new towers compete for attention as well. While the main Freedom Tower has a profile much like a cenotaph, it no longer seems as tall or prominent against its neighbors, which should be more like backdrops rather than equal stars. Somehow the secondary buildings got taller with more spectacular tops, and collectively they do kinda look like a scene in Manila or Shanghai. The original towers were fairly boring in their international style details, but together the pair made an increadibly powerful sculptural presence on the skyline. Even when we derided them as giant tuning forks, in doing so we were still acknowledging that overwhelming physical presence. The new complex, whatever its final form, should try to recapture that sculptural power.

It would be nice to see more streelevel frontage fill out vague void spaces of the block edges (see some of the plans in manman99's link), and to see them do more to really frame the open memorial space. At the very least, similar lines visually reinforcing each other across the base levels of all the buildings would do much to tie them together as being part of the same complex, even as the upper portions diverge into each architect's unique style. Landmark towers in a park never quite seem to look good, but strongly edging the park with an urban wall really turns it into a clearly defined and special place.

But whatever results, this will remains a big philosophical issues project. Anyone remember the firestorm over Pei's glass pyramid in the Louvre?

[jvlm.123 0]

I bet these are gonna be on the STEX soon.... [hint, hint]

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull work

[Dark_Element 0]

I like the design of the new towers and agree with the idea that calling it the 'Freedom Tower' is pointless. I strongly supported rebuilding a twin tower complex (either the original designs or a twin of the 'Freedom Tower') but having a 386 meter, 78 floor building as the second tallest in the complex will look quite nice......I really like shape of it. I also agree with some of you about the base of the Freedom Tower......redesigning it because of 'car-bomb' concerns is pathetic.

[Blazerhawk 162]

I love their design. The buildings will fit in lower Manhattan. I still hate the "bunker base" look on the Freedom Tower. Also its spire seems too short and wide.

I also like the memorial. The two pools where the twin towers stood (I believe) is awesome. Also trees in New York great idea. All its missing is a large flag.

[usad25 0]

i love them. i can't wait to go to nyc. i want to go there when i get older.

[JWUT 2]

As I mentioned earlier, I think these new buildings would look great in some other city, and the further away fron Ground Zero, the better. THIS is what I think they ought to have rebuilt in NYC:

[ http://www.triroc.com/wtc/ ]

Who gives a rat's hind end what the politicians think? What actually matters here is what the people of New York City want, and what the World Trade Center victims' families want. For heaven sakes, fire the pandering bureaucrats, and organize a fleet of private construction companies to rebuild the twin towers, taller and stronger and to more stringent standards, and have it done faster than the Empire State Building was. America has insulted itself and its greatest city by not demanding that this project be finished YESTERDAY, However they decided to do it. It is truly SAD that this site will not be finished until 2012.

Urk, I'm ranting... I just don't agree with the way the LMDC, Port Authority, and Silverstein Properties have handled the whole affair.

Building anything other than the Twin Towers in the place of the Twin Towers is tantamount to acknowledging that the terrorists hurt us, and we aren't standing tall.