Construction Update: The New World Trade Center

One World Trade Center, view from New Jersey

New York YIMBY reader Scot submitted the above photos from New Jersey, which showcase the new World Trade Center towers on the Downtown skyline. The facades of both buildings are now almost complete – narrow stripes of bare skeleton where construction elevators exist remain, out of view – and the result certainly isn’t disappointing. The glass on One World Trade Center looks sleek and modern, almost succeeding in distracting the eye from the tower’s monstrous antenna.

Still, One World Trade Center’s cladding is far from the mirrored sheets of 150 Greenwich Street, and the former ‘Freedom Tower’ makes no pretense about blending into its surroundings – as the sickly-brown antenna proves, especially when contrasted against the seamless facade of Maki’s masterpiece.

The gap between the two towers will eventually be filled by 175 and 200 Greenwich, though there has been no recent word on leasing activity at either tower. Construction on the Calatrava-designed Transit Hub continues, and The Port Authority recently released a photo of the station’s marble – at least a total price-tag of $4 billion can buy quality stone.

Ancillary residential towers will rise before vertical momentum resumes at either 175 or 200 Greenwich, and 56 Leonard is already on its way up. 99 Church and 50 West Street will both likely rise starting later this year, as the Downtown residential market continues its rapid recovery. With the addition of the Trade Center’s massive office towers, some slender new residential peaks will do well to balance out the Lower Manhattan skyline.

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