On July 9, the work of the 2 World Trade Center, the skyscraper that will occupy the north-eastern corner of the complex, between Vesey, Fulton and Church Street. The tower will become the new world headquarters of American Express and will complete the commercial part of the rebuilt campus after the attacks of 11 September 2001. The opening ceremony took place a few weeks after the 25th anniversary of the attacks, in the presence of Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the leaders of the companies involved.
The new building will be located at 200 Greenwich Street, just north of Oculus. It will be 1,226 feet, about 374 meters, and will have 55 floors, distributed on an area of almost two million square feet, equivalent to about 186 thousand square meters. It can accommodate up to 10 thousand employees and will be directly connected to the metro and PATH trains through the underground structures of the World Trade Center. Completion is expected in 2031.
American Express will own the building and will occupy all the offices, while the land will remain of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has granted it through a long-term lease. The company will maintain until the end of the work the current headquarters at 200 Vesey Street, on the other side of West Street, where it has been located since 1986. It is a move of a few hundred meters: American Express, founded in 1850, spent most of its history in Lower Manhattan.
The project was developed by Silverstein Properties and designed by Foster + Partners. The tower will consist of several overlapping and backward volumes, with terraces obtained from the points where the facade changes section. The renderings show six large gardens at the corners and other green spaces distributed along the building: altogether more than one acre, that is more than four thousand square meters. The seat will be fully electric, will use high efficiency energy systems and will aim to obtain a LEED environmental certification.
It’s at least the third project for that lot. Norman Foster had already been chosen in 2005 and the following year had presented a 78-story tower, recognizable for the tilted cover formed by four large robes. In 2015 the project was entrusted to Bjarke Ingels’ BIG studio, which immaginated a building of over 80 floors consisting of overlapping blocks to host News Corp and 21st Century Fox. The two companies renounced the transfer a few months later and the yard remained firm, waiting for a company willing to finance and occupy a tower of that size.
The agreement with American Express solved the problem that had blocked the 2 World Trade Center for almost twenty years: the absence of a great initial occupant. The pandemic had made the project even more complicated, because many companies had reduced the space for offices and postponed the decisions on the new premises. American Express instead chose to buy the entire building, avoiding Silverstein Properties having to build an immense tower and then search for the individual tenants. The project, according to the Port Authority, will not receive funding or public incentives.
The state of New York estimates that the yard will employ more than two thousand trade unionized workers and will generate in total 3,200 jobs in the city during construction. The expected economic impact is around $5.9 billion for New York City and $6.3 billion for the entire state. These estimates also include activities related to the construction site and future presence of employees, suppliers to transport to shops and restaurants in Lower Manhattan.
The 2 World Trade Center is the last piece of reconstruction, but more precisely it will be the last commercial skyscraper on campus. On the nearby lot of the 5 World Trade Center there is a predominantly residential building, still without a construction date. The new headquarters of American Express will then close the part of the office plan, which began over twenty years ago and continued with the memorial, the museum, the Oculus, the Perelman Performing Arts Center and the other towers that today surround the tanks built on the footprints of the Twin Towers.
L’articolo Jobs for the World Trade Center’s latest commercial skyscraper proviene da IlNewyorkese.
