One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere as well as a historic landmark on the New York City skyline. Opened in October 2014, the building soars to a symbolic 1,776 feet in height to honor the year the Declaration of Independence was signed and is the tallest structure in the new WTC Complex.
Also known as One WTC, 1 World Trade Center, 1 WTC, and Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center is the main building in the 19-acre World Trade Center Complex in Lower Manhattan. The building stands at the northwest corner of the complex and is bordered by West Street, Vesey Street, Fulton Street, and Washington Street. With entrances on all four sides of the building, visitor and tenant traffic flow is smoothly integrated into the building’s design.
The cubic base of One World Trade Center is covered in more than 2,000 pieces of glimmering lustrous glass and has a footprint the same size of the original Twin Towers. The tower of One World Trade Center soars to form eight isosceles triangles with a perfect octagon at the center. The top of the building is crowned with a square glass parapet that acts like a kaleidoscope, reflecting vibrant light that changes throughout the day as the sun moves from east to west.
The One World Observatory – the building’s observation deck – opened to the public in May 2015 and rises almost a quarter of a mile above street level. A 408-foot spire with a mast and communication platform ring sits at the very top of the building. At night, the building’s spire beacon emits a horizontal beam of light that can be seen from miles around, evocative of NYC’s port lighthouses of old.
The lobby of One World Trade Center is 55 feet tall and includes 55,000 square feet of retail space. The building’s 3 million square feet is served by 54 high-speed destination dispatch elevators. The property is LEED Certified Gold and features life-safety systems that go above and beyond what the New York City building codes require. Notable One World Trade Center tenants include Condé Nast, Servcorp, the General Services Administration, Moody’s, and Ameriprise Financial.
The entire World Trade Center Complex includes five high-rise office buildings: One World Trade Center, 2 World Trade Center, 3 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, and 7 World Trade Center. In addition to designing One World Trade Center, architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill also designed the 7 World Trade Center, the New York Mercantile Exchange, Worldwide Plaza on 8th Avenue in New York, and Willis Tower in Chicago.
One World Trade Center is located in the Financial District office submarket of Manhattan. The Financial District is bordered by the East River to the south, the Hudson River and Battery Park City office submarket to the west, and the Two Bridges and Tribeca commercial real estate submarkets to the north. The Financial District is one of the densest office submarkets in Manhattan. Other large office buildings near the World Trade Center Complex include 100 Trinity Place, 30 Vesey Street, the Gillespie Building, and One Liberty Plaza.
