Piano World Home Page Forums General Discussions 9/11 - - Never Forget Rebuilding on Ground Zero

Yes Derick, the proposal is being prepared by architects Skidmore Owings & Merill for Larry Silverstein, the real estate developer who holds the 99-year master lease for the World Trade Center development. Under the terms of the lease, he has sole discretion of what to build or not build on the site, subject to review of the Port Authority, the actual landowner. I think that he has the right to replace the towers exactly as they were, or to build the same amount of space of equivalent prestige/stature/whatever you want to call it. So while the PA has oversight over whatever Silverstein wants to do on the site, if they try to play that hand too heavily, he has the ability to walk away from the lease and the redevelopment, and pocket his insurance payout - which will be either $3.5 billion, or $7 billion, depending on the outcome of the ongoing insurance dispute. Silverstein had the towers insured for $3.5 billion "per occurrence," and has been making the case that the two planes hitting the towers were actually two occurrences. The insurers are saying that since the two planes were part of a coordinated act, it is actually one occurrence. The insurance policy language seems pretty clear cut, to favor the insurance company's position. But the insurers may end up agreeing to a settlement to avoid a legal battle that would be expensive and a disaster on the PR front, to the tune of somewhere between 4.5 and 5 billion dollars - the estimated actual replacement cost of the towers. (this is all per a WSJ article from yesterday or the day before) Time will tell.

One change I would make from the design described in the Architectural Record article: If I were Silverstein, I would require that the new building be at least one foot taller than the old ones.

Thanks Dwain. I didn't read your original post carefully enough causing you to repeat some it. Sorry about that.

Would you build the tower 1 foot taller just to show the terrorists we are not intimidated?

One more question, how much do you think it would cost to build such a tower?

Derick

No problem, Derick. Yes, I would want to send an in-your-face signal that we will not be intimidated by terrorists. Surely everyone must realize that to do anything less would be to have lost in the eyes of those who would destroy us. In addition to the symbolic remembrance and filling the need for replacement office space, the design has to serve as a symbolic middle finger to the terorists.

As far as the cost, our clients know our firm has a reputation for generating pretty accurate cost estimates, but skyscrapers definitely aren't our specialty, and NYC isn't our turf, so I couldn't even give a guess.

A good friend/former client is a construction project manager for a Manhattan-based CM firm (in the past, she has served as the project manager for the renovation of Madison Square Garden & started as PM for the Lincoln Center renovation before moving on). Now you've got me curious; I'm going to ask her what something like that would cost.

I'd be interested in finding out how much such a building would cost just for the sake of curiosity.

Since the original WTC was insured for 3.5 billion, I was wondering if that's what it would cost to rebuild them. And, if that were the case, would it cost about 1.75 billion to build just one tower.

Obviously, I have no architectural background. But billions of dollars for a building (minus the land) floors me.

Derick

Here's something considerably smaller that costs about 3 billion dollars each:



But you know, a billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to.

As far as replacement cost, I think the WSJ article mentioned that it would cost around 5 billion to replace the two towers. Their internal memos showed that Silverstein's group was quoted premiums for 5 billion in coverage, and they balked at the expense. Other memos noted that they worried that they were underinsured at 3.5B. That's why the insurance battle is so important; if it's only one occurrence, Silverstein doesn't have enough to rebuild in kind.

5 billion, wow. But if you compare the WTC to that 'little' plane, 5 billion is a bargain.

Derick

Isn't anyone afraid that the terrorists might try and knock it down again? After all, the reason the trade towers were the targets was simply because they stood so tall above the NY skyline and were easy targets (the bigger they are the harder they fall), right?

PS This whole business really reminds me of the animals' windmill in Geroge Orwell's 'Animal Farm'