The original plan for BIG’s 2 World Trade was supposed to be built on top of the stump with the columns shifting on the base floors to support the new design on top. But apparently just a few months after the unveiling, I had a security worker tell me that demolition of the whole foundation was considered. And a few years later images of a new architectural model of BIG’s Two World Trade was posted, showing a whole different steel structure and a slightly different footprint with the south face having a slight angle included
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^^ Model photos by Radii Inc., showing the later variation of Ingels’ design:
Compared to the version seen in an early promotional video – it seems the transfer structure moved from the ground floor to the upper podium levels:
Another two renderings that show different iterations of the transfer structure:
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20160416044948/http://aiany.aiany.org/148737.pdf
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I was just scrambling to find that PDF and couldn’t find it. Thank you @ThreeWentDown and Internet Archive
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There were 2 reasons Fox did not move downtown and the loading dock was one of them.
Yet there are logistical issues at 2 World Trade Center, and the companies have a history of failing to pull the trigger on major real estate moves.…Given that the foundation has been built, the two sides are assessing whether the structure can accommodate the changes they want for television studios.
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IIRC, the reason the foundation was built is that it contains important, active mechanical equipment for the Oculus. (They tried to get clever and hide one building’s mechanicals in a whole other building.) That makes demolishing or significantly changing this foundation exponentially more complex and expensive.
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Found something relevant in this internship opening at the Port Authority, which names this building specifically: https://www.jointheportauthority.com/jobs/13716696-summer-intern-major-capital-projects-infrastructure-and-development
“The Major Capital Projects Department has overall program management responsibility for the development of the World Trade Center Campus, including capital construction of campus infrastructure and oversight of tenant construction including new buildings like as 2 World Trade Center.”
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Someone apply and start turning things around as a summer intern
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Are there any renders of what a 2001 foot building would look like on this site?
If this offer was available in 2017, I would’ve done it. Took classes at Fiterman Hall.
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The Foster design will fit very nicely into ‘Greenwich Row’ (as I call it) – the smooth glass half bookends 4WTC’s mirror facade, while the louvred southern half and vertical fins give its own character that kind of relates to 3WTC’s expressed I-beams.
Photo by Fabio Achilli (CC BY 2.0)
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I also believe the west face is also supposed to be mimicking the Twin Towers. You see two towers right next to each other, with the two terraces on top of the “two towers” looking like the dark mechanical cladding on the Twins
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Wow I hadn’t put that together but I think you’re right — it looks just like the classic silhouette.
My argument with anybody saying that 1 & 2 WTC should try to duplicate the Twins is that they simply can’t ever look like the Twins. Blame the siteplan — the 1 & 2 WTC sites are too far apart and they’re perfectly in-line instead of offset like the Twins were.
This is a great little nod to the originals without trying to force something into the site that doesn’t fit.
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Oh wow, I didn’t even notice! 
What’s the current design?
Foster + Partners has not officially revealed the redesign yet.
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Whatever is chosen, I hope they just get on with it and dont choose something “again” and then let it sit for 2 decades “again”.
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Per: @ThreeWentDown
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Well I see they’ve demolished WTC 3 in the 24th century and WTC 2 is still waiting for an anchor tenant. 
Always nice to see depictions of cities in the far future.
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And still haven’t covered the spire. 
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The original aerial shot is from 2014, when 3 World Trade was a seven-story stump
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