by Lionel Bascom February 29th, 2008 1 comment

USA Today Reports:

The completion of a permanent 9/11 memorial in New York is at least two years away, and the Tribute Center is the sole space near Ground Zero where a visitor can hear the anxious radio transmissions of a firefighter inside the south tower; see a twisted steel beam from the Trade Centers core; study the ID card of a husband who never made it home.

It has become a destination in its own right, and on Monday, less than a year and a half after it opened, the center welcomed its 400,000th visitor, a man from Kent, England, and his wife.

I said if I ever came to New York, this would be one of the first places I would come, said John ONeill, 23, a personal trainer from Galway, Ireland, who visited the center the day after it reached the milestone. Its overwhelming.

The $3.4-million center, opened in September 2006, was to be an interim space for remembrance and education while the permanent memorial, complete with a museum and Freedom Tower spiraling 1,776 feet high, was built at the World Trade Center site.

Now, some segments of the memorial complex will open at least a year later than originally planned. The tree-lined plaza, featuring waterfall-filled pools where the towers once stood, will not open until 2010, and the visitors center and museum will be unveiled in 2011. Freedom Tower is scheduled to open in 2012.

The new timeline reflected a more realistic schedule that became clear after construction began, says Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site. Well work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible.

The Sept. 11th Families Association created the Tribute Center. The memorial will be built, says Jennifer Adams, the centers co-founder. It will be beautiful when its built, but we need something from now until then.

Permanent Link

Tags: bascom, card, Centerâ, com, completion, construction, core, core study, day, destination, education, England, families association, February, firefighter, Freedom, freedom tower, Galway, galway ireland, Ground, ground zero, half, high, home, husband, Ireland, Itâ, jennifer adams, John Oâ, Kent, kent england, Link, Lionel Bascom, Memorial, milestone, Monday, museum, Neill, New Jersey, New York, News, personal trainer, plaza, port authority of new york and new jersey, project, radio, radio transmissions, realistic schedule, right, s center, September, south, south tower, space, Steel, steel beam, steve coleman, Temp, timeline, Today, trade, tribute, twisted steel, US, usa today, visit, way, wife, World, World Trade Center, world trade center site, year, Zero

WTC’S ’1ST SPROUT’

By TOM TOPOUSIS, NY Post

A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL:Digital renderings show the progress planned for the World Trade Center site, including the Freedom Tower breaking street level this year.

March 17, 2008 — The reborn World Trade Center will begin rising above street level this spring – when the Freedom Tower’s steel frame emerges from its 80-foot-deep construction pit, officials say.

The tower itself is now just 10 feet from street level, Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris said.

“We expect it to reach past street level in a few months,” he said.

Shorris and Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein, who is building three office towers at the site, said virtually every project at the World Trade Center is now under construction after years of cleanup, design and site preparation.

A time-lapse rendering of the 16-acre site prepared by the Port Authority shows the project coming together over the next five years like a massive jigsaw puzzle, with more than 10,000 construction workers assembling the pieces.

By the end of this year, the Freedom Tower’s steel will be racing skyward, while a steel base for the memorial is being set in place. And foundations for Silverstein’s three towers and the Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub will be under construction.

By the end of 2010, the Freedom Tower and Silverstein’s Towers 2 and 3 will reach rooftop level, and the memorial plaza will be complete and ready for the planting of more than 400 trees.

Silverstein’s Tower 2, the second tallest at the site, will have topped out by the end of 2011.

“By the end of 2012, as they say, it’ll all be over but the shouting,” Shorris said at a New York Building Congress luncheon last week.

“What is falling into place is a construction-coordination machine of truly unprecedented complexity.”

The four towers inside the perimeter of the original World Trade Center site will include 141,000 tons of steel and 593,000 cubic yards of concrete.

A fifth tower is planned a block away on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building. That tower is slated to be complete by the end of 2012.

Just to clear sites for Silverstein’s three towers, the Port Authority excavated and hauled out enough dirt and rock to fill Giants Stadium.

Silverstein, who acknowledged that “things haven’t always gone as smoothly or as swiftly as everyone – including me – had hoped,” predicted that the final outcome in five years will create a new economic engine in lower Manhattan.

But Silverstein said the proof of progress for New Yorkers made skeptical by delays and missed deadlines will be the visible construction now shaping up.

“There has not been this much going on at the site since the cleanup concluded close to six years ago,” he said.

tom.topousis@nypost.com

Tags: acre, Authority, Building, Calatrava-designed, cleanup, com, Congress, construction, construction coordination, cubic yards, design, developer, Digital, digital renderings, director anthony, end, Executive Director Anthony Shorris, Freedom, freedom tower, Giants Stadium, Ground, ground zero, jigsaw, jigsaw puzzle, larry silverstein, LEVEL, Manhattan, March, Media, Memorial, New York, News, next five years, NY, NY POST, office, office towers, OTHER, PIT, place, planting, plaza, Port, port authority, Post, preparation, progress, project, rendering, rooftop, Santiago, santiago calatrava, shouting, spring, SPROUT, Steel, steel base, steel frame, street, time lapse, TOM TOPOUSIS, tons of steel, Tower, tower 2, Towers, trade, transit, transit hub, unprecedented complexity, US, war, way, week, WHOLE, World, World Trade Center, world trade center site, wtc, year, Zero

You can watch the entire Christening Ceremony of the USS New York online courtesy of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. Simply click on this link ngc.com  and then its in the upper righthand corner. Enjoy!

Tags: Christening Ceremony, Media, News, Speeches, USS New York