David Childs, born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1941, is one of the most important architects in the United States. He is a partner of the architectural studio Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). Three of his greatest works are the John F Kennedy International Airport, the Bertelsmann building and the One World Trade Center.
The One World Trade Center. It is the main building of the World Trade Center complex. The architect is David Childs from the Skidmore studio, Owings and Merrill (SOM) and Daniel Lineskind. The construction of the project began on April 27, 2006, in 2013 the construction was completed and inaugurated in 2014.
The project began after 9/11. Almost immediately a contest to choose the future design of the reconstruction of the World Trade Center was organized and in December 2002 the design of Daniel Libeskind was chosen, however that would not be the final design due to the controversy that the first design generated. The final design was approved in 2005.
For safety measures and to avoid another tragic accident, a 57-meter concrete base was added and a stainless steel and explosion-resistant glass facade was used. The building also has 91 cm thick reinforced concrete walls, three wide stair lines and a ladder line exclusive to firefighters. It also includes reinforced glass
The building has 242,000 m^2 of office space, as well as an observation deck and a large antenna. The tower starts as a square whose edges rotate when the height increases which forms another small square. The square base is rotated by 45o.
The building culminates with a glass parapet located at 415m-417m high. Supported by a mast at the top of the is a television antenna which rises from a circular support ring, similar to the torch of the Statue of Liberty, reaching 541 m. At the top of the antenna is a beam of light that is turned on every night and reaches 300 meters above the building.
The building has a height of 1776 feet, which refers to the year of the independence of the United States. The height in meters would be precisely 541 m and consists of 94 floors, which makes it the largest skyscraper in all of New York, surpassing even the Empire State. Despite being the tallest building in the United States, the 1WTC fails to surpass the Burj Khalifa or the Shanghai Tower.
The 1WTC is located in the World Trade Center area where there is also the 2wtc, 3wtc, 4wtc, 7wtc a memorial museum to remember the victims of 9/11 and the Transportation Hub, an important metro station that improves transport connections.
