World Trade Center now officially open for business

[Tender Branson]

More than 13 years after the original towers were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, New York's World Trade Center has re-opened for business.

Employees at publishing giant Conde Nast are starting to move into the 104-storey One World Trade Center.

The $3.8bn (£2.4bn) skyscraper took eight years to build and is now the tallest building in the US.

It is 60% leased and the government's General Services Administration has signed up for 275,000 square feet

"The New York City skyline is whole again," Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the restored site, said in a statement.



The 1,776ft (541m) tall skyscraper is at the centre of the site, which includes a memorial in the footprints of the old towers and a museum, opened this year.

An observation deck at the top of the building will eventually be open to the public.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29884205

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Expensive symbolism

[Joe Republic]

[bedstuy]

Expensive symbolism

Yeah, you're right, we really should have built a modest split level ranch house at West and Fulton in Lower Manhattan. 

[traininthedistance]

Expensive symbolism

Yeah, you're right, we really should have built a modest split level ranch house at West and Fulton in Lower Manhattan.  

Man, I just love how, instead of increasing capacity, or getting to a state of good repair, or doing anything that would help riders, we built this $4 billion dollar money pit which features f**king slippery marble platforms because of course the starchitect is always right and totally cares about the functionality of his masturbatory monuments.

Thanks Port Authority.  Putting a cheapo split-level ranch house there instead may very well have done less damage.

(Yes, I know this isn't the Freedom Tower.  The Freedom Tower's okay by me.  But this is an object lesson– in the same place, run by the same folks– of "expensive symbolism" at its very worst.)

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Thank you Obama !

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Man, if I were overly patriotic, this would be big news.

[King]

The really shocking news here is that a magazine publisher has enough money to occupy this entire building in 2014.

[Simfan34]

Wait, they're leaving the spire like that?

Yep, cost-cutting.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Expensive symbolism

Yeah, you're right, we really should have built a modest split level ranch house at West and Fulton in Lower Manhattan. 

The $30M in public funds ($30M was raised privately too) for the Flight 93 memorial may be more of a waste pound for pound, since it's on a cheap ugly piece of land and no income potential like a NY city skyscraper has.