New Vision

A view of Freedom Tower from the east. — SPI dBox

An artist's view of Freedom Tower from the east. On Sept. 17, 2006, it was announced that federal and state officials have agreed to rent half the 1,776 foot tall tower's office space as part of a deal that would ultimately split the rebuilding of the site between developer Larry Silverstein and the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

An artist's rendering released by Silverstein Properties, Inc. on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, shows the view of three proposed designs for the remaining towers at the World Trade Center site during the day.

An artist's rendering released by Silverstein Properties, Inc. on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows three proposed designs for the remaining towers at the World Trade Center site. The towers would join the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, left, in downtown Manhattan's skyline. Still to be designed are a performing arts center, a visitors center and a fifth tower, possibly residential, to be built just off the 16-acre site.

Architects Fumihiko Maki, from left, Lord Norman Foster and Lord Richard Rogers discuss their conceptual designs Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, in New York. The three World Trade Center office towers will be built along the eastern portion of the site.

Gov. George E. Pataki, center left, stands with, from left, architect Fumihiko Maki, World Trade Center developer Larry A. Silverstein, architects Daniel Libeskind, Lord Norman Foster and Lord Richard Rogers, as they unveil conceptual designs Sept. 7, 2006, in New York. The designs joined plans for the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower skyscraper, an 8-acre memorial surrounding the spots where the twin towers stood.

An artist's rendering released by Maki and Associates on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows the proposed design for 150 Greenwich St., a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. The Maki tower is the first scheduled to begin construction and the only with committed tenants; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, and city officials have committed to take space there.

The proposed design for 150 Greenwich St., a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. Architect Fumihiko Maki, of Japan, called his 61-story tower an "abstract, minimalist" creation and said it would be clad in a perforated aluminum that would make it the lightest-colored of the three buildings.

An artist's rendering released by Richard Rogers Partnership on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows the proposed design for 175 Greenwich St., a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. The architect called it "a very slim tower, clearly structured, clearly legible" and said he wanted to create an effect of reaching into the sky.

An artist's rendering released by Richard Rogers Partnership on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows the proposed design for a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. Rogers proposed a slender 71-story tower with crisscrossing columns up and down its sides, topped by 100-foot spires at all four corners.

An artist's rendering released by Foster and Partners on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows the top of a proposed design for 200 Greenwich St., a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. The skyscraper topped by four shiny diamonds that would light up lower Manhattan at night was one of three new designs unveiled Thursday for the remaining office towers to be built at the WTC site.

An artist's rendering released by Foster and Partners on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows a proposed design for 200 Greenwich St., a tower to be part of the World Trade Center site. Architect Norman Foster designed the tallest of the three buildings - at 1,254 feet it will be taller than anything in the city except the Empire State Building.

Construction continues on the Freedom Tower, right, Tuesday, July 15, 2009 in New York. — AP/Silverstein Properties, Inc.

An artist's rendering released by Silverstein Properties, Inc. on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, that shows three proposed designs for the remaining towers at the World Trade Center site. The three new towers would descend in height from the iconic Freedom Tower in a spiral around the memorial, which sets twin reflecting pools above the spots where the towers stood in a tree-filled plaza.

The World Trade Center site is seen from Tower 7. The conceptual designs for the three World Trade Center office towers that will be built along the eastern portion of the site were unveiled Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, in New York. The buildings will join the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower around a transit hub and face a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Gov. George E. Pataki speaks to the press Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, in New York, as World Trade Center developer Larry A. Silverstein listens before the unveiling of conceptual designs for three office towers that will be built along the eastern portion of the site.