By: Karen Matthews
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - A 750-foot glass and steel office
tower with better fireproofing and wider stairs for quick
evacuation, will be built on the site of one of the smaller
buildings to collapse at the World Trade Center complex.
The plans, unveiled Wednesday, represent the first major
rebuilding project at the World Trade Center to be announced.
The 52-story building at 7 World Trade Center - across the
street from the main trade center site - will be sleeker and five
stories taller than its predecessor, which collapsed in a raging
fire several hours after the twin 110-story towers were
destroyed in the Sept. 11 attack.
"The fact that this building is going up now and going up
here, right on the site of the old No. 7, says that we will not
be intimidated by the terrorists," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Architects are still laboring to create designs for the larger trade
center site. Although those plans will not be made final until next
year, developer Larry Silverstein and his architect, David Childs
of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, said their design for 7 World Trade
would serve as a model.
The main site is owned by the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey; Silverstein is the leaseholder.
The new building, scheduled to open in late 2005, has been
designed with stairs 20 percent wider than required by the city
code, sturdier fireproofing than required, and an internal antenna
system for improved communication by firefighters and police.
Rescuers have complained of radio trouble on Sept. 11.
The first 10 stories will be occupied by a Con Edison power
company substation; other tenants have not been determined.
The original 7 World Trade Center housed a Con Ed substation,
the mayor's Office of Emergency Management and other
government and financial offices. It had been evacuated
when it fell, and no one died there.
Silverstein said that $800 million in insurance proceeds will
cover most of the new building.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, second from right,
and real estate developer Larry Silverstein, right, as
construction workers look on at the construction site of the
new 7 World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York,
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2002.
(AP Photo/Ed Bailey)
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