I’ve Got It: A Glass Prism Bunker!

The big question is What Will Nicolai Ouroussoff Think? We’ll see:

Eager to avoid creating a fortress that overshadows the World Trade Center memorial, the architects of the Freedom Tower unveiled a new approach yesterday. They would clad its 187-foot-high, bomb-resistant concrete base in a screen of glass prisms rather than metal panels.

This and other notable refinements were described by the building’s lead architect, David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He spoke at an awards ceremony held by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 7 World Trade Center, overlooking the Freedom Tower site, which is under excavation.

Even after the revisions, the building would still evoke the twin towers in its height and proportions. Its rooftop parapet would be 1,368 feet above the street, as was that of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower.

It turns out that in another important respect, the Freedom Tower would echo the twin towers: it would have a sky lobby. Tenants headed to the upper floors of the 102-story building would take express elevators to the 64th floor and then transfer to local elevators.

If all goes according to plan — and almost nothing has at ground zero — the $2 billion, 2.6-million-square-foot Freedom Tower would be completed in 2011.

In the first redesign last year, the base of the tower was to rise 200 feet and perhaps be clad in stainless steel, aluminum or titanium. Though Mr. Childs envisioned these panels as enlivening the almost windowless facade, others despaired about its monolithic quality. The phrase “concrete bunker” was tossed around.

“There were a lot of concerns that this was going to look like a fortress,” said Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for which Silverstein Properties is developing the Freedom Tower. “I think David’s artistic skills should alleviate many of those fears.”

Backstory: Impenetrable! Impregnable!