NEW YORK — The silvery, 1,776-foot skyscraper
that rose from the ashes of 9/11 to become a
symbol of American resilience opened for business
Monday, as 175 employees of the magazine
publishing giant Conde Nast settled into their first
day of work in their new offices.
One World Trade Center's official opening marked a
symbolic return to some sense of normalcy for the
site where the towers toppled more than 13 years
ago.
"The New York City skyline is whole again," says
Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns
both the building and the 16-acre World Trade
Center site.
Steps away from the new tower are two memorial
fountains built on the footprints of the decimated
twin towers, a reminder of the more than 2,700
people who died in the terrorist attack.
Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker
and Vanity Fair, is expected to move in about 3,000
more employees by early next year, eventually
occupying 25 floors of the $3.9 billion, 104-story
tower, the nation's tallest building.
Amid Monday's celebratory tour of parts of 1 World
Trade Center, Conde Nast officials declined to
comment on employees' possible fears about
working in the new building.
Foye counters that it's "the most secure office
building in America." And its chief architect, T.J.
Gottesdiener, said the high-rise was built with
steel-reinforced concrete that makes it as terror
attack-proof as possible — much stronger than the
original towers that collapsed on themselves when
the hijacked planes hit.
The stairwells are built with a hardened concrete
core, and wider to allow firefighters to move while
people exit. The building's mechanical systems are
also encased in hardened concrete.
"If my son told me he had a job in the trade center
Tower 1, I would have no qualms about him being
there," Gottesdiener said.
After 9/11, he said, architects took pains to figure
out new ways to make a high-rise safer, working
with the New York Fire Department, buildings
officials and police, while learning from new
techniques from construction in cities worldwide.
Finally, computerized simulations were used to
calculate what would happen with people in the
building.
One World Trade Center is 60 percent leased, with
another 80,000 square feet 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, and the China
Center, a trade and cultural facility, will cover
191,000 square feet.
The space is at the top of the global price range, at
$69 per square foot below the 63rd floor, and $80 to
$100 going up.
The eight-year construction of the 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, which started
moving in last week, and 3 World Trade Center,
which is slowly rising.
The area has prospered in recent years. About
60,000 more residents now live in the area — 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 while
haunted by the past.
"The city and the world were watching us, and we
had to do it right, to do it better than before,"
Gottesdiener said. "And we did it, we finally did it."