After years of disputes whether the site of 9/11 should be preserved as a memorial or reconstructed as a skyscraper, 3 World Trade Center (WTC) opened today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in its three-story glass lobby. The 1,079-ft.-tall, 80-story office building features LEED Gold standard for energy efficiency. The pulchritudinous tower was designed by Pritzker prize-winning architect, Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and features 2.5 million sq.-ft of rentable space.
Located at 175 Greenwich Street, 3 WTC’s steel framing system encircles a reinforced concrete core and is defined by its load-sharing system of K-shaped bracing. The tower’s gravity system has few interior columns and no perimeter columns, creating unobstructed 360-degree views. Owen Steel Company (an AISC member and certified fabricator) fabricated 27,000 tons of structural steel for the tower’s gravity system.
Read more about 3 WTC here.