One World Trade Centre reaches 100 floors
2012-04-02 23:19
New York - The new World Trade Centre has reached a milestone: The skyscraper being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the 2001 terror attacks is now 100 storeys high - on its way to becoming New York's tallest building.
Another 1.22m, and it will surpass the Empire State Building. That should happen within weeks, Steven Coleman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said on Monday.
One World Trade Centre is expected to be finished by next year, its 104 floors towering over lower Manhattan.
But feet not storeys determine whether a building ranks as the tallest. The twin towers, built in the 1970s, were New York's tallest structures until destroyed in the 11 September 2001, attacks.
The Empire State Building then became the city's tallest building at 381m.
At 101 floors, One World Trade will reach 382m above street level. Upon completion, it will be 417m to its rooftop.
There's a special twist when it comes to counting floors.
One World Trade grew from 93 storeys to 100 just since last week. That's because six floors don't actually exist; the numbers were skipped to make up for the building's massive base, plus mechanical equipment taking up space.
Conde Nast has signed a lease to move in by 2014, along with the China Centre representing that country's business and cultural links to the United States.
With a mirror-like glass surface, One World Trade stands tall above the 6.5ha site where other new buildings also are rising.
The rebuilt site includes the National September 11 Memorial & Museum commemorating the acts of terror that took almost 3 000 lives in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
- AP
