LOWER MANHATTAN — 14 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the World Trade Center complex is finally feeling like an active part the city again.
While more work lies ahead, the past year has seen major progress on the site, inching towards a not-so-distant future when all reconstruction will be complete.
After years of delays, the towering One World Trade Center opened for business last fall, with media giant Conde Nast as its anchor tenant. In the spring of 2015, the soaring building’s observation deck, with spectacular views — as well as overpriced restaurants, bars and gift shop — launched for the public.
The building's Observatory — which opened in May — is another busy tourist location in the complex, joining the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, as well as the 9/11 Museum, which opened in 2014. More than 1 million people have visited the museum since it opened in May, and more than 10 million people have visited the memorial plaza since it opened in 2011.
Another important milestone in 2015: a plan was finally locked in to move ahead with the long-stalled construction of 2 World Trade Center. The building, the last tower that will be constructed on the site, secured 21 Century Fox and News Corp as its anchor tenants, and announced a new terraced design by Bjarke Ingels. Once complete, in 2020, the skyscraper will be the second tallest (behind gleaming 1 WTC) within the complex, rising 1,270 feet.
Over the past year, tenants, including the Port Authority and the City of New York, have taken up space in minimalist, 72-story Tower 4, while Tower 3 is pushing toward its 2018 completion date. Three WTC, set to rise 80 stories, will be home to media advertising company Group M when it finally opens its doors.
Even closer to completion this year is the $4 billion WTC transportation hub designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The station, with massive, steel “wings” on its exterior, will connect the PATH trains to 10 subway lines, including an underground passage to Battery Park City. The hub is slated to fully open in late 2015, with its grand oculus in view, though a section of the hub, a platform to the PATH, opened in July.
Some other projects at the complex, however, remain up in the air.
A performing arts center is on the horizon but, according to reports, architect Frank Gehry will no longer be designing the space and the budget for the project, which has no construction start date, was cut.
Another project in limbo is Tower 5, which was supposed to rise where the Deutsch Bank building once stood, south of the World Trade Center site. A temporary public plaza recently opened on the site but it's unclear what will ultimately be built there.
