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| 2058 World Trade Center: 1. The former WTC; 2. One WTC (Freedom Tower) and The National September 11 Memorial & Museum |
I don't want to write about September 11, 2001, the day the nothingness has tried to possess the world. I don't want to mention the inanimate tools used for this purpose. Anyway, there is probably no one in the Internet that doesn't know what happened. I only want to present the buildings that there were, and the buildings that were erected in their place, because, doesn't it, those remaining are indebted, including to those who are no longer, to carry on the life. People can be killed, but mankind can't be kneeling by a handful of pathetic stragglers.
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| 2059 World Trade Center: 1. The former WTC; 2. Firefighters Memorial; 3. One WTC (Freedom Tower) and The National September 11 Memorial & Museum |
The idea of establishing a World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City was proposed several times, but it began to take shape only in 1966, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has obtained all consents necessary to begin construction. Ever since 1962 were announced the selection of Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. The complex, located in Lower Manhattan, was one of the most-striking American implementations of the architectural ethic of Le Corbusier, and it was the seminal expression of Yamasaki's gothic modernist tendencies.
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| 2060 The original World Trade Center (all seven buildings of the WTC complex are visible) |
The North Tower (1 WTC) and the South Tower (2 WTC), commonly the Twin Towers, the idea of which was brought up by Yamasaki, were designed as framed tube structures, which provided tenants with open floor plans, uninterrupted by columns or walls. By the time of their completion, December 1970 and July 1971, the towers were the tallest (1 WTC - 417m), respectively the second tallest (1 WTC - 415m) buildings in the world. At the top of the roof of the North Tower was added in 1978 a 100m-high antenna, so that its highest point reached 530m.
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| 2061 One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) |
In addition to the twin towers, the plan for the WTC complex included four other low-rise buildings, built in the early 1970s, the 47-story 7 WTC building being added in the 1980s. On a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in the towers, with another 200,000 passing through as visitors. The towers offered expansive views from the observation deck atop the South Tower and the Windows on the World restaurant on top of the North Tower. The 1, 2, 3, and 7 WTC were destroyed on September 11, 2001, and the three remaining buildings extensively damaged by debris and later were demolished.
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| 2062 A view of original WTC through a blow up window |
After years of delay and controversy, reconstruction at the WTC site is now underway, with Studio Daniel Libeskind as master planner. The new complex includes One WTC (formerly known as the Freedom Tower), 7 WTC, three other high-rise office buildings, a museum and memorial, and a transportation hub similar. Built between 2006 and 2013 after the plans of architect David Childs, 1 WTC is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, and the fifth-tallest in the world.
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