One World Trade Center, New York

“After 9/11, construction just stopped,” says Ahmad Rahimian, director of building structures at WSP in New York, who led the structural design of One WTC. “The entire engineering and construction community was trying to understand what had happened and see what lessons we could learn to make future buildings better. We knew that current building codes would not be sufficient, so we had to design a building for a future code that had not been written yet.”

To do this, the team reviewed best practice from around the world and consulted the emergency services and the designers of emergency systems. But fundamentally, it came down to a judgement call. The team didn’t want to make new rules that would be too conservative and cause a dramatic increase in costs. Solutions had to be reasonable while clearly addressing the issues. Gratifyingly, when the new building codes were finally produced, many of the solutions that the team came up with had been adopted.

The design of One WTC is very different from that of the twin towers. While those structures were held up by external steel columns, this one has a hybrid concrete-and-steel structure. The key to its strength is a massive, extremely strong concrete core. This rises all the way to the uppermost stories, acting as the building’s primary support to resist gravitation, wind and seismic loads and impact, as well as housing all means of egress. Steel beams set into the concrete core support the floors, enabling vast column-free expanses. The core contains two interlinked access stairs and a dedicated first-responders’ stair — to allow first responders to climb the building quickly in the event of an emergency, while people escape — a feature that is now standard in New York building codes.

Concrete Stronger Than Any Rock

The core is made of ultra-high-strength concrete — 14,000 psi. “It’s much stronger than any rock you could find,” says Rahimian. This strength also helped reduce the thickness of the walls, maximizing the leasable area, while minimizing the weight of materials required. Replacing more than 50% of the cement content with industrial byproducts further cut the carbon footprint of the building, and more than 95% of the steel in the structure is recycled, contributing to a LEED Gold environmental rating.

Above ground the architects were responsible for perhaps the most highly visible façade on the planet. Aesthetics were therefore of paramount importance. Aside from the sheer size of the building, it’s the way that it catches the light that makes the greatest impression, the luminescence of the structure somehow lightening its monumental presence on the skyline.

This is thanks to the floor-to-floor glazing. The exterior of the building is composed of 1 million square feet of specially developed glass. It has a very high U-value to maintain comfortable conditions inside the building and support the LEED Gold rating. It’s also highly transparent, with a reflective, mirror-like coating that creates a constantly changing kaleidoscope. The corners are clad in laser-finished stainless steel that glints in the sunlight.

“It reflects the sky and the buildings around it, and when the light hits it a certain way you can see right through it,” says SOM’s Gottesdiener. “Sometimes it glows a bright orange or red. It’s got a very beautiful quality to it.”

Office Space Flooded with Natural Light

Of course, notwithstanding its symbolic and monumental role, One WTC is a commercial office building. On entering, workers are immediately faced with the interior’s most impressive feature: a 50-foot high atrium. Above that, there are four levels of mechanical space, before the office floors begin on the 20th story. After 71 stories, there are further mechanical floors topped by a three-story public observation deck on levels 100-102.

“It has to function as a very stable, very efficient environment where people want to come and work,” says SOM’s Gottesdiener. Key to this appeal are generous 9ft 6in ceiling heights and column-free expanses of up to 45ft from the core to the perimeter, as well as the floor-to-floor glazing. “We wanted to allow as much natural light to penetrate the building as possible. People don’t have to turn on the lights 90% of the time, because there’s so much natural light flooding in.”

Three World Trade Center, located opposite the WTC Memorial and Cultural center, will be 1,172 feet high. The 80-story building has unusual design with an exposed steel structure. The building includes office and trading floors above five levels of retail. The three-level high lobby offers tenants and visitors a view onto the WTC Memorial.

In 2006, Seven World Trade Center was the first building completed in the WTC complex. Not only was it constructed quickly, but it included a host of life-safety and environmental features never before incorporated into a commercial skyscraper. The first 10 floors house an electrical substation servicing the entire lower Manhattan area.