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One World Trade Center about to open for business â wait until you see the view!
The 104-story, $3.9 billion tower opens its doors to publishing giant CondĂ© Nast Monday. The company will occupy floors 20 to 44. Youâll have to wait until Spring 2015 to check out the 120,000-square-foot observation deck on the 102nd floor.
BY RICH SCHAPIRO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 9:02 PM
Welcome to the top of the world.
Soaring 104 stories into the sky over lower Manhattan, the majestic One World Trade Center is slated to open early next week after 13 years of fits and starts.
âThe New York City skyline has been restored,â said Patrick Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority, which co-owns the building along with the Durst Organization.
âŠThe sprawling space on the 102nd floor, operated by Legends Hospitality, is slated to open in spring 2015.
From the unfinished deck, one can see as far as the Catskill Mountains to the north and the Jersey shore to the south.
Gazing out to the west, one has to look down to catch some of the helicopters zipping across the Hudson River.
To the east, the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges look almost like toys. The view extends to Kennedy Airport and beyond.
Foye called it a âbest-in-class observation deck.â
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Finally, Tenants at One World Trade Center
Move By Condé Nast Is Emotional for Some, Sign of Economic Progress for Others
By KEIKO MORRIS
Nov. 2, 2014 9:06 p.m. ET
Louis Medina, a security guard at One World Trade Center, couldnât control his emotions as he thought about Monday, the first day at work for the skyscraperâs first group of office workers, 175 employees of publishing giant CondĂ© Nast.
âEven 10 years from now, my son will ask me or my daughter will ask me, and I will be like, âI was there when the building opened [and] my job was to protect the building,â â said Mr. Medina, before succumbing to tears. âA lot of people donât get a chance to be a part of history even if it is a small part.â
Mr. Medinaâs passion represents just one of the layers of meaning surrounding the reintroduction of daily office life on the site where more than 2,700 people lost their lives in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
For many, Mondayâs milestone is largely economic, evidence of the continuing reinvigoration of lower Manhattan. And for CondĂ© Nast, the move from Times Square to One World Trade Center symbolizes a corporate pivot toward the digital future for the company that produces the New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair.
And then, of course, there are the more mundane concerns.
âMy biggest fears about this are getting all my crap packed in time and the certainty that the first three days in the new building I am accidentally going to take the train here [to the Bryant Park stop],â said Devin Gordon, senior articles editor at GQ, whose team is scheduled to move on Dec. 12.
But mostly he is looking forward to the move. âI am a subscriber to the environment affecting productivity and creativity, and I think we can all use a change of scenery.â
The CondĂ© Nast employees who start work Monday at One World Trade Center, including Chief Executive Chuck Townsend, are the first of some 3,400 of the companyâs workers who eventually will occupy 1.2 million square feet in the 104-story tower over the next several months.
When it agreed in 2011 to move into the tower, CondĂ© Nast took on the mantle as a pioneer in lower Manhattanâs revitalization, much as it did for once-scruffy Times Square when it moved there in 1999 from Madison Avenue. The move also tracks broad shifts within the company itself.
âWe are moving into a full media company, offering a broad number of platforms, most of them digital platforms, and that process transforms the entire culture,â Mr. Townsend said. âSometimes the surroundings really contribute to a change in culture.â
âŠThe introduction of regular office life to the building is expected to help speed its office leasing. In May, the owners cut asking rents nearly 10% to $69 a square foot for larger tenants on the towerâs middle floors.
Since then, the building has signed about 100,000 square feet of deals with six tenants, according to Durst, which manages leasing with Cushman & Wakefield Inc. That represents about 3.3% of the towerâs office space. Overall, One World Trade Centerâs office space is slightly more than 58% leased.
Prospective tenants still ask questions about the towerâs safetyâbut far less frequently, said Tara Stacom, executive vice chairman at Cushman, who is leading the firmâs leasing team at One World Trade Center.
âTime has moved on and New Yorkers are so resilient and forward thinking,â Ms. Stacom said. âI donât get the questions like we used to when we first started out.â
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Douglas Durst Talks Queens, Midtown and WTC
BY Guelda Voien, November 4, 2014 12:22PM
1 World Trade Center
Things at what is now the tallest building in the U.S. are âgoing extremely well despite the stories [in the paper],â Mr. Durst said. The recent kerfuffle about the cost of construction was misleading, he claims. âA lot of the cost of construction, which is $4 billion, went into things that arenât being valued,â in the math that is being circulated, he said. âFor instance all the retail is part of the construction cost, but ⊠the Port Authority kept it, and made a substantial deal with Westfield.
There are a lot of things in the building that serve the entire campus,â that arenât being taken into consideration, he said. âAnd, as the article points out, trains run under the building, which adds to the cost.â That follows, we suppose. The Journal also points out that the observation decks, three floors among the office space on the towers higher floors, will add almost $59 million a year to the buildingâs coffers. Still, Mr. Durst underscores, the building is already generating returns. âThere is cash flow for the building as of now,â he said.
And what about more tenants for the tower, which is now âscraping 60 percentâ leased, according to Durst Organization public relations? âWe expect to have more announcements soon.â
1 WTC after the long journey is now complete.
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Public has embraced gorgeous new World Trade Center
By Steve Cuozzo on December 21, 2014
https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/1212wtcmem01che.jpg?w=400
Yogi Berraâs eloquent observation, âNobody goes there any more, itâs too crowded,â applies to the new World Trade Center. The only ones staying away are smarter-than-thou pundits who have no idea what theyâre talking or writing about.
A visit to the WTC reveals gazillions of people swarming over every walkable square foot. They stroll over as much of the 16 acres as construction and security barriers allow, gaze up at the skyscrapers, photograph loved ones and, yes, touch the 9/11 victimsâ names engraved around the memorial pools.
Itâs a wonder, because the new WTC is barely half-finished and large sections remain impassable.
The two completed office buildings are as yet little occupied. Stores, restaurants, and the 100th-floor observatory wonât open until next year. Neither will the Santiago Calatrava-designed Transportation Hub.
There are no public toilets. Thereâs barely a place to sit â the memorial ground benches are too low for settling in.
Yet the place swarms with life even on raw December days. Take Cortlandt Way, the new Cortlandt Street extension thatâs barely an alley scrunched between 4 WTC and the 3 WTC construction site.
Nobody minds that itâs buried under, and narrowed by, a jungle gym of scaffolding. Everyoneâs thrilled silly that a âstreetâ now runs through the WTC, unlike at the old Twin Towers superblock.
https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/1217wtcmem10che.jpg
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10 things New Yorkers can look forward to in 2015
By Ivan Perieria on December 29, 2014
1 World Trade Center: The newest city attraction will be 1 World Trade Centerâs observatory, which will open in the spring. Visitors will have access to the panoramic views from the 100, 101st and 102nd floors of the tower, which is the tallest in the western hemisphere, as well as a dining area.
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Credit: Doug Mataconis ; NYC Skyline | Outside the Beltway
Older but nice. Makes for a good wallpaper.
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Great photo, Chris. I love 1 WTC.
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Nice!
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I wonder when will the communication rings will be filled in with broadcasting tenants and when the last little section of the podium on the east side will finally be cladded.
So, progress on the cleaning of WTCâs glass. Thatâs good. They still have a way to go tho.