If you visit Manhattan this year be sure to stop at One World Trade Center (also 1 WTC), and the Freedom Memorial. It is important both to remember, and to educate future generations of the horrors of war, and the ongoing quest for peace.
One WTC refers to the primary building of the new World Trade Center complex. It is also the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. The 94-story, supernal structure, which shares a name with the former North Twin Tower, stands on the northwest corner of the new 16-acre World Trade Center site.
On May 10, 2013, the final component of the skyscraper’s spire was installed, making One World Trade Center the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world at the time by pinnacle height. Its spire allows the building to reach the planned height of 1,776 feet. This is a symbolic reference to the year of the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
One World Trade Center opened for business on November 3, 2014. The complex includes three other high-rise office buildings, located along Greenwich Street, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located just south of One World Trade Center. A decade of planning and construction was part of a heartfelt effort to memorialize and rebuild, following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex during the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001.
The World Trade Center’s logo, revealed in August 2014, was designed by the firm Landor Associates and is shaped like a “W”.
Each black bar, the empty spaces, and the “W” itself, symbolizes something, giving the logo at least six meanings.
-Each of the five bars in the logo represented the five towers that populate the new World Trade Center.
-The top half of the logo features bars cut off at a 17.76-degree angle, evoking One World Trade Center’s 1,776-foot height.
-There are two white columns at the top symbolizing the Tribute in Light memorial.
-The three black bars at the top also symbolize the Twin Towers’ trident-shaped columns.
-The two black bars at the bottom also stand for the twin pools of the 9/11 Memorial.
-The logo, as a whole, is in the shape of a “W”, which stands for both the former “World Trade Center”, and the present “Westfield World Trade Center”.
Landor Associates was awarded a $3.57 million contract in 2013 to design the logo. Douglas Riccardi, the principal in the design firm, stated, “Its strength is its ability to be seen in many different ways. You could never get more meaning in five little bars.”
“The problem is that people may not bother to find out what the meanings are.”