NEW YORK (AP) — Thirteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the
resurrected World Trade Center is again opening for business — marking
an emotional milestone for both New Yorkers and the United States as a
whole.
Publishing giant Conde Nast will start moving Monday into
One World Trade Center, a 104-story, $3.9 billion skyscraper that
dominates the Manhattan skyline. It is America's tallest building.
It's
the centerpiece of the 16-acre site where the decimated twin towers
once stood and where more than 2,700 people died on Sept. 11, 2001,
buried under smoking mounds of fiery debris.
"The New York City
skyline is whole again, as One World Trade Center takes its place in
Lower Manhattan," said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey that owns both the building and the
World Trade Center site.
He said One World Trade Center "sets new
standards of design, construction, prestige and sustainability; the
opening of this iconic building is a major milestone in the
transformation of Lower Manhattan into a thriving 24/7 neighborhood."
With
construction fences gone and boxes of office equipment in place, Conde
Nast CEO Chuck Townsend planned to walk Monday into what Foye calls "the
most secure office building in America."
Only about 170 of his
company's 3,400 employees are moving in now, filling five floors of the
tower, said Patricia Rockenwagner, a Conde Nast vice president and
spokeswoman. About 3,000 more will arrive by early 2015.
The
building is 60-percent leased, with another 80,000 square feet (7,400
sqare meters) going to the advertising firm Kids Creative, the stadium
operator Legends Hospitality, the BMB Group investment adviser, and
Servcorp, a provider of executive offices.
The government's
General Services Administration signed up for 275,000 square feet
(25,000 square meters), and the China Center, a trade and cultural
facility, will cover 191,000 square feet (18,000 square meters).
From
the northeast corner of the site, the tower overlooks the National
September 11 Memorial & Museum built in the footprints of the twin
towers. Its stated aim is to honor those who perished on that sunny
September morning.
For years, the grisly pit where workers found mostly body parts was dubbed the "ground zero" of the aerial terror attack.
Now,
the illuminated spire of One World Trade Center serves as a beacon to
planes that fly over the city, seemingly at eye level with the high
rise's open rooftop. The view stretches from Manhattan to the Statue of
Liberty into New Jersey and Connecticut and all the way to the Atlantic
Ocean.
At night, the incandescent steel-and-glass behemoth can be seen from vessels in New York Harbor approaching Manhattan.
An observation deck eventually will be open to the public.
The
eight-year construction of the 1,776-foot (541-meter) -high skyscraper
came after years of political, financial and legal infighting that
threatened to derail the project.
The bickering slowly died down
as two other towers started going up on the southeast end of the site:
the now completed 4 World Trade Center whose anchor tenant is the Port
Authority, and 3 World Trade Center that's slowly rising.
The
spirit of renewal did not quash memories of the horrific act of terror,
but the area has prospered in recent years beyond anyone's imagination.
About 60,000 more residents now live there — three times more than
before 9/11 — keeping streets, restaurants and shops alive even after
Wall Street and other offices close for the day.
Still, it's a bittersweet victory, one achieved with the past in mind as the architects created One World Trade Center.
T.J.
Gottesdiener of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm that produced
the final design told The Associated Press that the high-rise was built
with steel-reinforced concrete that makes it as terror attack-proof as
possible.
He said the firm went beyond the city's existing building codes to achieve that.
"We did it, we finally did it," he said.
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