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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials unveiled new plans on Wednesday for a Freedom Tower at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks which addresses police concerns that the building's previous design left it vulnerable to attack.
The revised plan features a heavily reinforced concrete core, steel bars on every floor and a lobby set back from the street and draped in protective panels of titanium and stainless steel, designers said.
The Freedom Tower, the proposed centerpiece of the rebuilding at the site known as Ground Zero, was sent back to the drawing board in May due to police concerns that the building would be too close to street traffic to protect it from the threat of a car or truck bomb.
"There's no question that this is a huge symbol," said James Kallstrom, former FBI chief in New York who is overseeing security plans. "Terrorists have attacked it two times before. It would be naive of us to think they wouldn't try again."
Gov. George Pataki, who with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others unveiled the new design at a Manhattan news conference, said he was so confident in the building's safety that he would be "honored" to have one of his children work in it.
"What we've come up with now is even better than the original," Pataki said. "I think it will be very safe."
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when two hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center, killed 2,749 people. A bomb attack in 1993 killed six people.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement he approved of the new design, which he said would better "protect the building against bomb blasts, which our counterterrorism experts agree present one of the greatest threats to such iconic structures."
Developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease to the site owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the new building "is ready to proceed."
"It has the blessing of the police department of New York and the Port Authority and, with that, we're moving forward," he said.
The footings of the building are scheduled to be laid in the first quarter of next year, and completion is set for 2010, he said of the building, which has no committed tenants yet.
Seventy floors are designed for occupancy.
Like the earlier plan, the new Freedom Tower will be 1,776 feet tall to symbolize the year the United States declared its independence.
Sides of the slender new building are sliced into eight faceted triangles, four pointing up and four down, so at its midpoint it is octagonal, said architect David Childs.
Its roof will be 1,362 feet and the parapet 1,368 feet -- the heights of the two fallen twin towers, he said.
"In a subtle but important way this building recalls, but in a very new shape, those buildings that were lost," he said.
It will be set back an average of 90 feet from nearby West Street. The earlier set-back was 25 feet. Other safety measures include stairs and sprinklers encased in a core that is three feet thick in most places.
Monica Iken, whose husband died in the twin towers, said she wants stringent security measures to be applied to the memorial planned on the 16-acre Ground Zero site as well. Family members say having only two ramps for access into the memorial itself could be dangerous.
"If they say it's safe, we hope it's true," Iken said. "Now they need to go back to the drawing board and address the rest of the memorial."
Original plans for the Freedom Tower were unveiled in late 2003 after a public competition
Check out the slide show
The revised plan features a heavily reinforced concrete core, steel bars on every floor and a lobby set back from the street and draped in protective panels of titanium and stainless steel, designers said.
The Freedom Tower, the proposed centerpiece of the rebuilding at the site known as Ground Zero, was sent back to the drawing board in May due to police concerns that the building would be too close to street traffic to protect it from the threat of a car or truck bomb.
"There's no question that this is a huge symbol," said James Kallstrom, former FBI chief in New York who is overseeing security plans. "Terrorists have attacked it two times before. It would be naive of us to think they wouldn't try again."
Gov. George Pataki, who with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others unveiled the new design at a Manhattan news conference, said he was so confident in the building's safety that he would be "honored" to have one of his children work in it.
"What we've come up with now is even better than the original," Pataki said. "I think it will be very safe."
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when two hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center, killed 2,749 people. A bomb attack in 1993 killed six people.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement he approved of the new design, which he said would better "protect the building against bomb blasts, which our counterterrorism experts agree present one of the greatest threats to such iconic structures."
Developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease to the site owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the new building "is ready to proceed."
"It has the blessing of the police department of New York and the Port Authority and, with that, we're moving forward," he said.
The footings of the building are scheduled to be laid in the first quarter of next year, and completion is set for 2010, he said of the building, which has no committed tenants yet.
Seventy floors are designed for occupancy.
Like the earlier plan, the new Freedom Tower will be 1,776 feet tall to symbolize the year the United States declared its independence.
Sides of the slender new building are sliced into eight faceted triangles, four pointing up and four down, so at its midpoint it is octagonal, said architect David Childs.
Its roof will be 1,362 feet and the parapet 1,368 feet -- the heights of the two fallen twin towers, he said.
"In a subtle but important way this building recalls, but in a very new shape, those buildings that were lost," he said.
It will be set back an average of 90 feet from nearby West Street. The earlier set-back was 25 feet. Other safety measures include stairs and sprinklers encased in a core that is three feet thick in most places.
Monica Iken, whose husband died in the twin towers, said she wants stringent security measures to be applied to the memorial planned on the 16-acre Ground Zero site as well. Family members say having only two ramps for access into the memorial itself could be dangerous.
"If they say it's safe, we hope it's true," Iken said. "Now they need to go back to the drawing board and address the rest of the memorial."
Original plans for the Freedom Tower were unveiled in late 2003 after a public competition
Check out the slide show
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