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One World Trade Center

1 World Trade Center Reaches Midway Point

One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center is in the works.

Let’s take a moment to celebrate a major milestone. The Associated Press reports that the steel construction of 1 World Trade Center – formerly the Freedom Tower – has reached the midway point. Many New Yorkers felt that the only salve that would heal the wounds of September 11 would be the day that the ground was broken. Now, the fact that the 1 World Trade Center site has reached the halfway point helps to soothe the scar just a little bit more.

The building is expected to be comprised of 104 stories and it reached the 52nd story mark on Thursday, rising 600 feet into the sky despite years of developmental delays. With its antenna, the building will rise to 1776 feet, making it the tallest structure in the city’s storied skyline.

Despite rechristening the building to “1 World Trade Center” in a bid to lure corporate tenants, locals still refer to the site as the “Freedom Tower.”

How does the news that 1 World Trade Center is halfway done make you feel?

One World Trade Center

One World Trade Center Sparks Bidding War

One World Trade Center
One World Trade Center is in the works (photo courtesy of Gothamist).

Things are heating up in the bid to buy into the as-yet-unfinished One World Trade Center, aka Freedom Tower, a 1,776-foot tower (by the way, didn’t something important in our nation’s history happen in 1776?) that will add 2.6 million square feet of office space to Ground Zero. When the current builder, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, opened up a bidding competition in January, six of the United States’ biggest developers threw their hats in the ring. But according to The Wall Street Journal, the recent dropout of Boston Properties Inc. means that only two finalists remain.

On one side of this epic face-off is the family-run Durst Organization, which has specialized in Midtown apartment and office buildings for the better part of a century and most recently completed the Bank of America Tower in Bryant Park. On the other side is Related Cos., a gargantuan international developer responsible for building such mammoth edifices as Columbus Circle’s Time Warner Center.

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