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World Trade Center Tansportation Hub unveiled
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Surpassing the high expectations of city and state World Trade Center rebuilding officials, world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava unveiled his design for the site's new transportation hub. The design evokes the image of a bird in flight and promises to deliver natural light to the PATH train platform 60 feet below ground.
Calatrava presented the design on January 21 at the Winter Garden, alongside Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, WTC master planner Daniel Libeskind, and Port Authority officials, all of whom showered praise on the innovative and evocative design.
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Transportation Hub Video Animations
Interior view
Exterior view
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"Santiago Calatrava's design puts into form the way we all feel," said Port Authority Vice Chairman Charles Gargano.Architect David Childs, who collaborated with Libeskind to design the site's "Freedom Tower," said about the hub's design, "Not only is it going to work well, but it will be a true inspiration to those who pass through it. It's an emotional solution. This is an A plus."
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| Santiago Calatrava |
Praising the design's creativity and strength, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke to the way he imagines it will be viewed by future generations. "They'll see confidence in our investment in a stunning gateway to what will always be the 'Financial Capital of the World,'" he said. "And they'll see optimism -- a building appearing to take flight -- just like the neighborhood it serves."
The $2-billion hub will sit at the northeast corner of the site at Church and Vesey Streets and is expected to form an underground connection between the World Financial Center and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed Fulton Street Transit Center. Through it, pedestrians will have access to Hudson River ferry terminals, PATH trains, 14 subway lines, and, potentially, a direct rail link to JFK International Airport.
By 2020, the Port Authority expects the hub to serve 250,000 commuters and visitors daily.
Calatrava, who presented his plan in English rather than his native Spanish, explained that in addition to designing a transit station that would fit into and connect the landscapes of the region, he based his design on the image of a child, hands outstretched, setting free a bird. On stage before a crowd of hundreds, Calatrava sketched the image of the bird over different perspectives of the station, correlating its wings to the two 150-feet-tall canopies and its body to the hub's steel-ribbed arches.
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| Calatrava vision was a child setting free a bird |
"The building is built with steel, glass, and light. They will all be equal building materials," he said. "The station appears transparent, and also guards you with its wings."
To bring an even greater sense of open air and natural light to the station's concourse, mezzanine, and platform levels, Calatrava designed the hub's ceiling to retract -- an architectural innovation most common to sports arenas.
"I find it extraordinarily exciting that the building actually moves," said Childs, noting, "though opening windows is not a new idea."
Inside the station, each level will be free of vertical columns for a greater sense of light, movement, and openness."The light will arrive at the platform, and visitors will feel like they are arriving in a great place. A welcoming place," said Calatrava. "And the building itself will embody the memory [of 9/11]."
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| Model shows how the building fits into the World Trade Center site |
The presentation made clear the camaraderie between Libeskind and Calatrava, who called the original master plan a guide of design as well as one of inspiration and stated that the transportation hub "articulates with Libeskind's beautiful plan. The station fits like a centerpiece in the middle of the plaza."
With Calatrava's initial design of the WTC transportation hub completed, the Port Authority is continuing work with the Federal Transit Administration -- which is funding the hub's construction -- to complete the environmental review process. The hub's first phase of construction is to build a permanent WTC PATH terminal, slated for completion in late 2006. The hub in its entirety, which Pataki said has yet to be officially named, should open by 2009.
For more information about the temporary PATH station now open to the public, click here.
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