Freedom Tower work begins at WTC site
Ground finally broken on what will be tallest building in New York City
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12513193/
(Gold9472: I have a problem with the name of this tower. Were the people who died in those towers "free" to leave the building before they were murdered? Hasn't this bogus "War On Terror" been promoted with the idea that the "people" who "committed" it were "against our Freedom"? Freedom has taken on a new meaning since 9/11. It doesn't exist in this day and age. Instead, the word has become an advertisement for death. Fascist Tower would probably be more appropriate.)
Updated: 11:45 a.m. ET April 27, 2006
NEW YORK - After spending months wrangling for control of buildings and money at ground zero, politicians and a private developer gathered Thursday as excavation trucks rolled out to mark the beginning of construction of the Freedom Tower, the symbolic skyscraper designed to replace the destroyed World Trade Center.
Hours after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the trade center, approved a broad new deal with developer Larry Silverstein that changes timelines and rebuilding strategies for lower Manhattan, Silverstein announced Wednesday that construction crews would report to the site Thursday morning.
Early Thursday, New York Gov. George Pataki, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Silverstein stood on the ramp leading to the site, shaking hands with about a dozen workers. Three large yellow excavating trucks then rolled down the ramp, driven by workers wearing hard hats emblazoned with the American flag and the words "Freedom Tower, World Trade Center."
For the next month, crews will be relocating utilities and making other preparations for laying the building’s foundation.
"It is going to be a symbol of our freedom and independence," Pataki said at a news conference on the ramp.
At 1,776 feet tall, the tower will be the tallest structure in New York, casting a beam of light from its peak.
Under the agreement, five towers will rise from the 16-acre site by 2012, joining a memorial and transit hub scheduled to open in 2009, and a performing arts center.
Standing up to terrorists
Addressing concerns that the Freedom Tower would be a potential terrorist target because of its height, Pataki added: "We are not going to just build low in the face of a war against terror."
Silverstein added: "This is an opportunity for us to show our determination, our resiliency, our resolve."
Pataki, Bloomberg and other politicians had called the developer greedy in recent weeks during a heated battle for control of development and billions of dollars in rebuilding money at the 16-acre site.
Wednesday's deal switches control of leasing the Freedom Tower from Silverstein to the Port Authority, along with a second skyscraper that may change from an office building to apartments. Silverstein, who oversaw design and construction plans for the $2.1 billion Freedom Tower, will still build it, and build and lease three other office towers located closer to a mass transit hub on the site.
"We can now move forward with rebuilding the World Trade Center," said Silverstein, the 74-year-old developer who leased the twin towers six weeks before they were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. "This has been my goal all along."
Business and political leaders say the resolution of the impasse that had stalled rebuilding would help return millions of square feet of destroyed office space to downtown Manhattan and attract tenants who have been slow to come back.
No tenants committed
Silverstein has built another tower, 7 World Trade Center, that still is mostly empty. The Freedom Tower has no tenants committed, although the Port Authority said it would commit to fill nearly half of it with government leases.
Business leaders expressed concern that the Freedom Tower would be difficult to rent because it is in a more distant part of the 16-acre site and a potential terrorist target. Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association advocacy group, said Wednesday the iconic tower "still looms as a potential public liability."
"Before billions of public dollars are committed to its construction and tenancy, we encourage the Port Authority to take a second look at its viability from a security and marketability perspective," Yaro said.
But Charles Gargano, a vice chairman at the Port Authority, said that continued rebuilding will attract the tenants lost by the twin towers' destruction by the time the Freedom Tower opens in 2011.
"We're confident," he said. "We have five years to create that kind of a market."
Third design
The low-key groundbreaking for the tower was the second groundbreaking for a building on its third design. Architect Daniel Libeskind drew the first Freedom Tower, a twisting glass skyscraper with an off-center spire meant to evoke the Statue of Liberty. David Childs produced a second design of the tower, then a third last year after police expressed concerns that the building was not sturdy enough to withstand a terrorist's truck bomb.
Politicians broke ground on the tower for the first time on July 4, 2004, with a 20-ton inscribed granite cornerstone that has remained encased in blue plywood since construction stalled.
Officials said the deal Wednesday ensures that all five planned towers would be built by 2012. Other plans for ground zero include a memorial, a transit hub and a performing arts center. Construction has begun on the memorial and transit hub, which are both scheduled to open in 2009.
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