WTC Redevelopment: Coming Together

NEW YORK CITY-City officials gathered at 7 World Trade Center Wednesday to deliver an update about the progress made on the World Trade Center redevelopment. Days before the 10^th anniversary of the attacks, much talk was focused on accomplishments made thus far at the site.

Most important, officials agreed, is the fact that the memorial is on schedule to open in time for family members to gather there Sunday, when the space is reserved for them alone. The following day it opens to the public.

“Sunday’s commemoration will be an opportunity for all of us to come together once more and promises to be a moment to reflect, to remember and to rededicate ourselves to the values and freedoms that made New York a target for evil,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “We worked very hard to keep the project on schedule to open for the 10^th anniversary,” Bloomberg, who is chairman of the memorial and museum, added.

One World Trade Center has reached the 80^th floor, with a floor being added weekly, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey executive director Chris Ward said, making it the tallest building in Lower Manhattan.

“I often refer to this site as an enormous game of pick-up sticks, where if you touch one thing, you’re touching something else,” Ward said. “Finally, with One World Trade Center, New York will have a new exclamation point in its skyline. New Yorkers take pride in their skyscrapers and as the building reaches its towering apex it will become a vital part of this city’s life.”

Larry Silverstein said that progress at the site had been “remarkable,” and that “reshaping the skyline had been a challenge of many lifetimes.”

“After 9/11, it took some time to develop a plan that reconciled all the different goals that New Yorkers had for the rebuilt trade center site,” Silverstein continued, “beginning with an appropriate memorial that will honor the memory of the 2,752 people who died here on 9/11.”

Other news shared at the event included the fact that the foundation work on Two World Trade Center and Three World Trade Center is complete and each has reached sidewalk level. Work on the Port Authority Transit Hub, which must be completed before a Frank Gehry-designed performing arts center starts taking shape, is also under way.

Some key details have yet to be decided, however. For example, Mayor Bloomberg shared that funding for the performing arts center building, which officials hope to begin constructing in 2015, isn’t in place and hasn’t been figured out. Joe Daniels, president and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, also said that his group is waiting to learn of the federal government’s funding commitment to the museum before setting a ticket price for museum entry.