New York City: Thirteen years after the 9/11
terrorist attack, the resurrected World Trade
Centre 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 Centre “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
Centre 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 Centre.

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.
http://gistscrib.com/after-13-years-world-trade-centre-re-opens/

congrats.but what took them so long

Awwwwww

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