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On april 25, 2005, The High-Rise Pages was the first media source in the world to report about a possible redesign of Freedom Tower in New York City, in order to make it taller. Only few days after the press release of The High Rise Pages, official sources indeed announced that Freedom Tower will be redesigned! The official reason however is the security situation of the building. CNN and other media sources reported about the redesign of Freedom Tower, confirming the official statement that the redesign is meant to make the building safer. However, it is said that the New York authorities have a very strong wish to bring back the title of the tallest building in the world to New York City. According to an anonymous US engineer that contacted The High-Rise Pages, the main objective of the redesign is to create possibilities to make the building taller than the design suggests, even after construction is well on its way! The wish to have an "open end design" that can absorb additional floors during construction, is supposed to originate from the development of a huge tower in the Arab world, called Burj Dubai Tower. Burj Dubai Tower is under construction right now and will reach at 2313 feet when completed in 2008. Both the old and the new design of Freedom Tower suggest New York's future icon will 'only' stand 1776 feet (reflecting the year of independence). So judging by the design, America will lose with 537 feet (164 meters) from the United Arab Emirates. After analyzing the new design and the statements of Chief architect Childs and New York governor George Pataki, The High Rise Pages has reasons to believe that the redesign indeed is meant to make Freedom Tower the tallest building in the world! Read the headlines, rumors and facts and give us your opinion! June 29, 2005 Today, CNN revealed the redesigned Freedom Tower in New York City. Chief architect David Childs explicitly stated the new tower will have the exact same height as the previous design (1776 feet) and that the main objective of the redesign is making the building more safe. The High Rise Pages has 4 reasons to believe the new design is also an attempt to develop conditions that allow Freedom Tower to become the tallest building in the world. 1) The actual structure of the old and new design of Freedom Tower are indeed the same height at 1776 feet. But in the old design, about one third of the structure was no more than a steel skeleton and a spire. In the new design, the actual building appears to be much taller than in the old design! 2) The new design has a massive reinforced 200 feet tall base, making the building strong enough to carry many more floors than the current design does. 3) The previous design had a conic shape with a wide base and a very narrow and angled roof. Thus making it difficult to increase the height of the building or to attach a very large and heavy spire. The new design appears to be much wider at the top and has a flat roof. This way, suddenly all options are open: even during construction one could decide to add more floors! The new wide roof also gives much more opportunity to add a heavier and taller spire later on. 4) The year of completion has been postponed to 2010, 2 years after the planned completion of the Burj Dubai Tower. This should give New York enough time to adjust Freedom Tower to the height of Burj Dubai Tower. Considering the nature of the new design and planning of Freedom Tower, The High-Rise Pages predicts that during construction of Freedom Tower, additional floors will be added to make Freedom Tower the tallest building in the world! The emotional bond the design has with the exact height of 1776 feet (1776 is the year of US independence) can be implemented in many ways. There will be no need for the building to be exactly 1776 feet tall. Perhaps making a memorial in Freedom Tower (at a height of 1776 feet) to all men and women who died while protecting the freedom and independence of the USA is also an option. And perhaps there could be a physical connection between this Freedom Memorial and the WTC memorial at Ground Zero.
May 5, 2005 Today, CNN officially confirms that Freedom Tower will be redesigned! The official reason for this is the security situation of the building. But At the bottom of the article, CNN suggests an obvious element of competition between Freedom Tower and Burj Dubai Tower. CNN says Burj Dubai Tower is "shrouded in mystery" and according to CNN it "could be taller" than Freedom Tower. The facts however show different. Burj Dubai Tower is already under construction and when completed it will be 164 meters (539 ft.) taller than Freedom Tower in its current design. Remarkably, CNN uses the headline 'Reaching for the skies' when comparing Freedom Tower to Burj Dubai Tower. 'Reaching for the skies' is the title of one of the articles on The High-Rise Pages since 1997.
April 25, 2005 Freedom Tower will be built on the site of the former World Trade Center and was supposed to be the tallest building in the world in its original design. However, an Arab initiative has created some stiff competition! Soon after the development of Freedom Tower started, the city of Dubai announced its plan for the Burj Dubai Tower. When completed this building will be 164 meters (537 ft.) taller than Freedom Tower. Burj Dubai Tower is now already under construction! The High-Rise Pages has received a so far unconfirmed message from a designer from a large US architect firm who claims that Freedom Tower is being redesigned to make sure it will be taller than Burj Dubai Tower (besides making it more safe). The High-Rise Pages asks the audience for conformation of these rumors. Is there anyone out there who knows more about this? Please mail us at hnetten@xs4all.nl. |
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