Silverstein Properties, New York’s Two World Trade Center tower’s developer, has chosen to go with original architect Foster + Partners, after months of indecision.

BIG was hired after he derided Foster + Partners for their initial design, which had proposed a faceted glass tower, as opposed to BIG’s stacked glass boxes with setbacks forming large terraces.

Larry Silverstein, Silverstein Properties’ chairman, said it is leaning toward BIG, but no decision has been confirmed.

“We can go in either direction. Which way, we are not sure yet. The probabilities are, and knowing the user we are talking to today, it will come down to Bjarke Ingels,” Silverstein says according to the New York Post.

Newscorp and 21st Century Fox signed on as tenants, then BIG was commissioned to design the tower.

Both media companies requested BIG’s redesign would be more desirable than Foster’s design, “more suited for an investment bank than a modern media company.”
Foster’s design will introduce Two World Trade Center tower’s newest address as ¬200 Greenwich Street building.
The project will include 223,000 sqm of office space and 12,000 sqm of retail both at street level and as part of an underground concourse.

“It is an honour and a tremendous responsibility to play a role in hastening the rebirth of the World Trade Center,” said Lord Foster, Foster + Partners.

“When Foster and Partners participated in the LMDC’s innovative design study in 2002, we viewed the renewal of the World Trade Center in part as the catalyst for the regeneration of all of downtown Manhattan.”

Sarah Buckley

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