Thursday, February 26, 2009

WORLD TRADE CENTER

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center

World Trade Center

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World Trade Center

The twin towers of the World Trade Center in March 2001.


World Trade Center were the world's tallest buildings from 1972 to 1973.*
Preceded by Empire State Building
Surpassed by Sears Tower
Information
Location New York City, NY, U.S.
Status Destroyed since 9/11/01
Constructed 1: 1966–1972
2: 1966–1973
Destroyed September 11, 2001
Height
Antenna/Spire 1: 1,727 ft (526.3 m)
Roof 1: 1,368 ft (417.0 m)
2: 1,363 ft (415.3 m)
Top floor 1: 1,355 ft (413.0 m)
2: 1,348 ft (411.0 m)
Technical details
Floor count Both had 110 floors
Floor area Both had4,300,000 sq ft (400,000 m2)
Elevator count Both had 99 elevators
Companies
Architect Minoru Yamasaki
Emery Roth & Sons
Structural
Engineer
Leslie E. Robertson Associates
Contractor Tishman Realty & Construction Company
Owner Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

*Fully habitable, self-supported, from main entrance to highest structural or architectural top; see the list of tallest buildings in the world for other listings.

The World Trade Center (sometimes referred as WTC or Twin Towers) was a complex in Lower Manhattan whose seven buildings were destroyed in 2001 in the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks.

The original World Trade Center was designed by Minoru Yamasaki in the early 1960s using a tube-frame structural design for the twin 110-story towers. In gaining approval for the project, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed to take over the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad which became the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). Groundbreaking for the World Trade Center took place on August 5, 1966. The North Tower (1) was completed in December 1970 and the South Tower (2) was finished in July 1971. Construction of the World Trade Center involved excavating a large amount of material which was used in making Battery Park City on the west side of Lower Manhattan.

The complex (sometimes abbreviated WTC and informally called the "trade center" or the Twin Towers) was located in the heart of New York City's downtown financial district and contained 13.4 million square feet (1.24 million m²) of office space.[1][2] The Windows on the World restaurant was located on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower, while the Top of the World observation deck was located on the 107th floor of the South Tower. Other World Trade Center buildings included the Marriott World Trade Center; 6 World Trade Center, which housed the United States Customs; and 7 World Trade Center, which was built in the 1980s. The World Trade Center experienced a fire on February 13, 1975 and a bombing on February 26, 1993. In 1998, the Port Authority decided to privatize the World Trade Center, leasing the buildings to a private company to manage, and awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the complex, one into each tower, in a coordinated suicide attack. After burning for 59 minutes, the South Tower (2) collapsed, followed a half-hour later by the North Tower (1), with the attacks on World Trade Center resulting in 2,750 deaths. 7 World Trade Center collapsed later in the day and the other buildings, though they didn't collapse, had to be taken apart because they were damaged beyond repair. The process of cleanup and recovery at the World Trade Center site took eight months. The first new building at the site was 7 World Trade Center which opened in May 2006. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), established in November 2001 to oversee the rebuilding process, organized competitions to select a site plan and memorial design. Memory Foundations, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was selected as the master plan, which included the 1,776-foot (541 m) Freedom Tower, three office towers along Church Street and a memorial designed by Michael Arad.

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