Financial record excerpt, DEP Box 06, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

The Metro Section Sl)e JCcto Jlork Simes

Many Demands On New Tower At Ground Zero Seeking Better Security At a Symbol of Resolve

w W i By GLENN COLtWS BB<J DAVID W. DUNLAP Once Intended as a shimmering, soartag decla­ ration of political resolve and architectural am­ bition, the Freedom Tower at the site of the World Trade Center Is being reimagined as something more Impregnable. So the challenge »w faced by its designers is to keep it from looking like a higli-rlse bunker. ■I The Freedom Tower may end up with a struc­ 8 turally massive base that Is distinctly different from the upper office floors. The designers may use state­ less-steel claddlafe reinforced glass or even translu­ Bi cent concrete, a new material embedded with strands of glass that transmits light and shadow through seeniingiy Impervious walls.. ti The redesign, ordered by Gov. George E. Pataki last month In response to seeurtty concerns raised. by the New York Police Department, will add tens of mllUons of dollars to the building’s estimated $1.5 1 billion cost. Less than four weeks before the gover­ nor’s deadline of the end of Jane, details of the re­ I*' design are still being worked out, said Silverstein Properties, developers of the Freefcm Tower and 7 World Trade Center, and Skidmore, Swings & Mer­ Ii rill, the architects of both buildings.

I II The urgent push to fortify what had already been called “probably the safest building to the I world" by Its chief architect, Davte M ('tnMs of Skid­ i1 more, has raised broader questtons about the site planning and architectural criteria for the trade cen­ 1 ter redevelopment project.

IhpB Today, two City Council conunittees will cons.id- er security concerns at the Freedom Tower and the larger Issue of Police Department involvement in J the design and construction of big buildings and de­ velopment projects. IE If antiterrorist security had been the one and only consideration at the trade center site, the first f i designs for the Freedom Tower and other projects would seem to flout some basic axioms put forth by the Defense Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the [ V to if American Institute of Architects. In publicly available reports, they advise that attention-getting arehl- tectoral symbols are prime targets I and should be located far from po­ tential vehicle-borne bombs; glass OA--, < facades can be lethal in a blast; train stations and underground AFP/'Getty Images garages are especially vutaerable to attack; and spacious, column- Tlie current design of the Freedom free intertors under other strac- tttres may be liable to collapse. Tower includes exposed columns at At the trade center site, plan­ the base, right, one of the security ners have envisioned a defiantly ta,ll concerns that led Gov. George E. skyscraper laden with syinbolJsin on Patafei to order the redesign of the tower, now under way. Continued on Page B4

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