WTC #2: Ground Zero Memorial and Towers

Invited Competition as Team United Architects

(FOA with GLF, KKA, RUR, IF and UN Studio)

Location: New York, USA

Client: Lower Manhattan Port Authority

Date: 2002 Competition

Total Area: 927,000m²

Brief: Parking; Traffic interface inc. subway stations, bus terminal, PATH train tunnel to New Jersey. High-rise towers and Memorial for the World Trade Centre Ground Zero site

Team credits:

United Architects (FOA with GLF, KKA, RUR, IF and UN Studio)

FOA Partner in charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Project Architects: Daniel Lopez Perez, Nerea Calvillo

Structural Engineer: Ove Arup and Partners, London

Services Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Engineers, NY. Edwards and Kelsey Engineers Inc, Walker Parking.

In our proposal for the new WTC, the site as a living memorial would develop over time, with the entire World Trade Center site – from the earth to the sky – becoming both a monument to the past and a vision for the future. We would leave the footprints, and the zone connecting them, free for a future memorial. The entire site is a monument to the tragedy of 9/11. The United Towers form a protective border that encircles and completes the memorial while forming a vast sacred public space for the city. Like a cathedral, a vast urban void space is formed at the centre of the site. In this sacred space of the memorial, immense arches tower over the plaza and expansive public spaces are laid out to optimise the flow of people and create an inviting sense of openness. The site surface is returned to grade where pedestrians can walk across the site freely in all directions.

1. With 112 stories and 10.4 million square feet in a single contiguous building, this single building, built in five phases, would not only be the tallest and largest building in the world – it would also be the safest.

2. Each sloping tower contains its own independent stairway, connected at every 30 floors by areas of refuge. From any point in every building there are many ways for people to exit – they can go down, but they can also move horizontally into an adjacent building. At 800 feet in the air an immense 200,000ft2 “City in the Sky” would connect the towers with an educational center, gardens, shopping, cafes, a sports center, and a conference center. Throughout the complex, vertical sky gardens are arranged every five floors thereby enhancing the working environment and allowing a maximum amount of sunlight into the floors.