A long-delayed project to erect a performing arts center at Ground Zero is finally picking up steam. New York City has stepped up to the plate with $44 million to help build the center’s below-ground foundation, according to the Associated Press.
The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a deal last week that will have the city repay the Authority for the work at the World Trade Center site.
Good news for anyone eagerly anticipating the new World Trade Center PATH and subway hub designed by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava: Earlier this week, the Port Authority awarded an $86 million contract to Long Island-based Sorbara Construction Corp. to get the ball rolling on the project.
According to NJ.com, the firm will provide the concrete floor slabs, beams and walls that will comprise the sculpted components of Calatrava’s epic Transit Hall — which, along with the 9/11 Memorial and the 1,776-foot-tall WTC 1 (aka the Freedom Tower), is already being hailed by officials as another aesthetically pleasing, architecturally significant addition to the World Trade Center site.
Continue reading Sorbara Construction Scores $86 Million WTC Contract
If you live or work within a 1 mile radius, you might not have a difficult time procuring a $5 dollar footlong.
Now for those who work at the World Trade Center, they won’t either as workers have called a new Subway trailer their lunch home a top the construction site.
It’s a far cry from a PB&J and thermos, but it’s a close meatball hero. Who doesn’t like the smell of fresh baked bread at the office?
A few years from now, New York University students may be calling the World Trade Center’s Tower 5 their “dorm.”
That’s right, according to the New York Post, NYU officials are eying the yet-to-be-built tower as part of an ambitious 20-year plan to expand by a whopping 40 percent, adding 6 million square feet of housing, classrooms and administrative space in the process. Around half of that behemoth square footage will likely be added in the school’s current Greenwich Village neighborhood, but space constraints in the area have forced NYU to look elsewhere for the rest of the expansion. That’s where the WTC and Lower Manhattan figure in to the plan.
As of today, Ground Zero has its first hotel.
The World Center Hotel, which had already begun construction when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit, is finally, officially open for business on Washington Street on the southern tip of the World Trade Center rectangle.
So what is the hotel like? For starters, it boasts unimpeded views of the Ground Zero construction, including the Freedom Tower and the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, as well as breathtaking views of the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline and the surprisingly beautiful New Jersey skyline (yes, you read that correctly). And for the weary traveler looking to drink in these views and a few tasty beverages, the World Center Hotel also has its own bar, the View of the World Terrace Pub, located on the top floor.
To our knowledge, the PATH trains at World Trade Center are not capable of flatulence. But that certainly didn’t stop the station from reeking of gas this morning.
Four worker had to be treated for minor injuries when smoke from the welding they were doing triggered an automatic fire extinguisher in the station’s signal room, releasing halon gas into the station. The Fire Department of New York, which was on the scene to investigate, told The New York Times that none of the injuries were serious and may have occurred in the workers’ scramble to flee the scene.
Continue reading World Trade Center PATH Station Has a Bad Case of Gas
The fragments are smaller than a fingernail, but endless amounts of hope for the families of victims of September 11th still waiting to find identifying remains from their loved ones, nearly 9 years later.
48 instances of human bone have been found during reconstruction. The bone fragments were retrieved from otherwise inaccessible areas of the World Trade Center site.
Scientists at the Freshkills landfill have already started work to cross reference the remains with their DNA database.
As we all recognize, first responders of the September 11th attacks had sacrificed their lives, their healths and as some doctors have found — their sense of smell.
The sense of smell is important for a human’s first line of defense against chemical poisons or spoiled foods. Nearly 22 emergency responders, construction workers and other crewmen reported a loss of smell for more than two years after their exposure to the World Trade Center site. An astounding 74% were unable to recognize irritants through smell as reported by doctors at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.
If you’re thinking that this study might have been released a bit tardily, you are not incorrect. According to an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The findings could not be published until now, in the online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, because it took until last year for the Mount Sinai people to extract personal histories for the over 100 subjects.” The studies indicate that there exists subsequent damage amongst the subjects olfactory nerves that may not be regained without nasal steroids and other treatments.
Like most longtime Battery Park City residents, there is a hole in our hearts where two towers used to be. It’s almost 9 years since the terrorist attacks occurred at the World Trade Center — we can’t help but be reminded that something terrible here happened when we pass the busloads of tourists and people hawking “Tragedy” books outside our door.
It has been previously announced of an initiative to build an Islamic mosque at 45 Park Avenue — the former site of the Burlington Coat Factory and merely 600 feet from the World Trade Center site.
The Mosque called the Cordoba House would be a 15 story Islmanic center which would include a mosque, performing arts center, meeting rooms and a recreational facility. According to its proponents, Daisy Kahn and her husbnd Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf members of the American Society of Muslim Advancement seek to “reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that extremists are spreading.”
A formal vote is scheduled to be heard tomorrow (May 25) before the Lower Manhattan Community Board. However, reaction to the plans for the Mosque have been mostly negative. Prompting action from September 11 Victim family members as well as creating websites and Facebook pages in protest of the mosque.
As of today, the Facebook page described as 1,000,000+ people who disapprove of building a mosque at Ground Zero! has over 72K members showing a strong solidarity against the initiative. There is also a dedicated website Nomosqueatwtc.com which is dedicated to highlighting their protest — as well as selling bumper stickers. The latter efforts are a bit suspicious … nevertheless a strong showing of anti-mosque sentiments.
How do you feel about it ? Do we have room in our hearts and in our home for Muslims in NYC to worship?