Interesting - so lightning damaged it. I guess that would do it, though you would think they would have seen that coming. Sounds like they’ve found a solution now at least.
here’s another good example, though low in quality you can at least see how luminous the beacon is.
now I wish we had that right now-- I didn’t ever even know that was a thing.
At least it seems durst is taking some initiative and it’s in the shop… although it confuses me why they left it up there turned off for years- perhaps they were waiting to do it at the same time as the tv antenna work (they’ve been doing the third section lately)
The BMU’s are actually gone now. They removed them within the last few weeks. They are completely replacing them. I believe by the summer. Not sure how they currently plan to wash the observatory windows though.
The void window ones are still there. I assumed the broken roof rig has been gone for a while now
They did the observatory windows right before the busy holiday season so they’ll be good till the summer. In the meantime, they’ll have no way of cleaning them I guess
Yeah they were just removed a few weeks ago. Hopefully they are on track for complete replacement by the summer as previously stated. The tower desperately needs a good scrub.
The temporary rigs made it look worse imo—
Mainly cause there’s these ugly holes in the building for months, but also because before the dirtiness was even, now everything is relatively clean except for the angles that the temporary rigs couldn’t reach which are turning grey compared to everything else.
I bet they only did it because of the Condé lawsuit
Hmm. Nothing can officially happen until that temporary loading dock is gone so I’m not sure why the signage is up already. Anyway. Nice render of the East Plaza. I hope that seating will actually be there. The complex desperately needs a good place to sit.
Well, the lobby work is almost done and once the dock goes they just have to throw down some nice stone facade like on the observatory side. My guess is they’ll have it done before the end of the summer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Be8C_E7gH6_/?taken-by=cheryl.hills
Photocred: @cheryl.hills on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/BevTRt-gJAy/?taken-by=vinweasel_
Photocred: @vinweasel_ on Instagram
Beautiful photos…
anyone have any idea what all the junk on the parapet is? There’s more and more in every photo it feels
like, compare with the photo from December with the helicopter. There’s a ton of stuff on the rings, especially between the bottom two.
The whole point of the rings is to provide a place to mount antennas. So as you see more stuff there, they’re actually starting to look like they were intended to.
The renderings showed identical, evenly-spaced antennas just to be pretty, but that was never remotely realistic.
Sure hope we can get this tower a 1300+ foot tall sibling…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfgGQcSANs8/?taken-by=cheryl.hills
Photocred: @cheryl.hills on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd5Pt2UjP-g/?taken-by=doubleshockpower
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfbF9vWDMj2/?taken-by=doubleshockpower
Photocred: @doubleshockpower on Instagram
Does anybody know what’s happening with the BMU these days?
the voids are still there and very, very ugly
Conde Nast is shrinking their footprint inside 1 WTC. Not so sure how I feel about this. On one hand I think it’s good. They will be subleasing their unused floors to other tenants which brings more companies into the tower, but then at the same time if they cant sublease for some reason than the floors remain empty.
Hey guys, this is my first post. I was reading along for about 2 years I guess, but now I decided to finally join in. So… Hi. 
Anyway, I do have a question. Does anybody know, if these (movable) roadblocks on the north and south of 1WTC will stay there forever, even after the VSC/PAC are finished? I could understand if the one on the north side stays, because the entrance (?) for the VSC will be there, but the one on the south side? Does it have to stay there because of security reasons?
It’s understandable for sure, but this way Vesey and Fulton street will never be normal usable streets, just like Liberty.
Maybe one day they will be removed but they will be there for the foreseeable future. Liberty and Vesey have not been part of the street grid since the morning of 9/11 and probably won’t be again the next several decades. I honestly don’t get why. The bollards that surround the entire complex and all towers I guess aren’t enough?
All of the permanent vehicle gates (the ones with curved “teeth” that come up out of the road) are installed, AFAIK. Some are operating, while others are not, yet. The temporary gates are just there until the whole VSC complex is finished, is my guess.
Anyway, this is the plan:
I do hope that they maintain the permanent gates. It still bothers me that they spent all that money on pretty rotating gates around Wall Street, then just let them fall apart. The temporary gates they use there now are hideous.
@rbrome
Thank you very much, that plan is very informative and insightful.
But seriously, when the whole WTC complex (and even more) is a “safe zone” why did they even bother opening these streets again? They could have elevated most of it like the original Trade Center did, have all the vehicles mostly under ground and still make it more open for pedestrians.
Anyways… I have to say that this does not really bother me, because I absolutely do love the new Trade Center. It was just something I was wondering.
Oh the neighborhood groups were not happy when this plan was announced. It is kind of silly to restore a street grid without actually opening the streets. With most authorized traffic going directly to/from the VSC anyway, it’s not even clear who will drive on most of these “streets”.
In the end, I’m actually quite happy with it, because this whole area will effectively be one big pedestrian zone. FiDi would benefit from a lot more car-free streets. In any other major world city, a historic district with narrow winding roads — like most of FiDi — would be car-free or at least very limited-access (authorized delivery vehicles only, etc.) I’ve been all over Europe, and when this is done, it works well. It’s frustrating that NYC is still so stubbornly car-oriented when most residents don’t even own a car.
