Across WTC & Downtown

Above, looking southeast across the WTC site; that's the US Realty Building in the distance above Tower 2 construction.  Below left, south to the West Street Bldg.


Above right, looking south from the West Side Highway above Battery Park City; the new 1 WTC is on the right.  Below, the pointy American International Building seen across town from near the same spot.

World Trade Center Construction

Tower 3, at the southeast corner of the site

The new 1 WTC (aka Freedom Tower, left) reflected in 7 WTC

Above and below, the top of the new 1 WTC from the Westside Highway.  The wind that day and the charcoal tufting of the tarp made the sight a little unsettling, especially lower left.

7 WTC's Clear Complexion 2

Above, 7 WTC from the Manhattan Bridge on a foggy day.

Left, from 6th Ave. in the Village, a 7 WTC wannabe (the "Trump Soho") that proves a reflective surface cannot redeem crappy design.  Note how the charcoal cutout up top helps suggest an overlord gazing down on his realm.  And note 7 WTC in the distance to its left.

Below left, 7 WTC from the Williamsburg Bridge.  Below right, from Trinity Place, across the Twin Towers site.


Both below are from near City Hall Park to the east.


And finally, the shot below is from a ways up the West Side Highway.


[ 7 WTC's Clear Complexion 1 ]

7 WTC's Clear Complexion 1

The surface and detail of a building can affect viewers in the same visceral way size and shape do.  So even a huge box like the World Trade Center's 7 WTC, above, can avoid crushing its surroundings if it has a good complexion.

Of course a reflective surface that mirrors the sky and other buildings makes that easier (and if too many buildings were reflective the city would turn into a giant light-amplifying death ray) but 7's surface is not just reflective -- it has a translucent depth that embodies the thought put into it.


An example of a thoughtless, ugly surface is right across the West Side Highway, at the World Financial Center (WFC), just above and below left.  Its surface looks like brown plastic mailing tape, and the "grand entrance" on the complex's south side, above right, should come with a warning that -- like Lot's wife leaving Sodom -- bad things will happen if you take a good look at it.  You will turn into plastic.

The WFC towers look best when light hits them at the angle below left, but still worse than the most clichéd shot of 7 WTC, below right.


Even 7 WTC's corrugated chrome looks good, below.  Note the speeding pigeons near the bottom left.


[ 7 WTC's Clear Complexion 2 ]
[ The See-Through Skyscraper, City Room ]