7 World Trade Center

There are two buildings that have been named 7 World Trade Center, one of which has yet to be completed.

1984-2001

The first building, built 1984 - 1986 and opened in March 1987, collapsed on September 11, 2001 in the September 11th terrorist attacks. It had 47 floors and was 570 feet (174 meters) in height. The architect was Emery Roth & Sons. The building stood north of the main World Trade Center complex, across Vesey Street. Larry Silverstein financed the project.

The Central Intelligence Agency's New York office was in 7 World Trade Center. Also, the Department of Defense, Immigration and Naturalization Services , the Internal Revenue Service, major New York banks, and the Securities and Exchange Commission archive of filings on such sensitive cases as the Enron and World Com bankruptcies, as well as a host of unrelated businesses. [1]

This was the setting of the 1988 movie Working Girl.

Destruction of 7 World Trade Center

On the morning of September 11, the North Tower of the World Trade Center (1 WTC) across Vessey Street collapsed, showering tons of debris near 7 WTC as well as other buildings within and around the World Trade Center complex.

7 World Trade Center collapsed hours later, at 5:20pm in the afternoon. The cause of the collapse is disputed. The south-east side of the building was damaged due to events of that day, but many have questioned why it finally fell. A total of 42,000 gallons of Diesel fuel were stored in five tanks within the building, which some believe could have caused the destruction.

In addition, two other factors may have contributed to the building's collapse: the unusual architecture of 7 WTC, and a fire that burned in the building for over seven hours. Firefighters had abandoned the building, and let the fires burn. The sprinkler systems may have failed when water pipes were damaged from the 1 WTC debris. The 7 WTC was built on top of an existing Con Ed substation, such that the building was cantilevered over the substation at the fifth floor.

2005

The second building, a rebuilt replacement for the original, began construction in early 2002 and is to be complete by the end of 2005. The building will be 52 floors but with a narrower footprint at ground level than its predecessor as the course of Greenwich Street will be restored. The architect was David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. This building is not included in the World Trade Center master plan by Daniel Libeskind and thus does not share the new architectural design of the rest of the site.

External links

• http://www.wtc7.net
• http://sirdave.com/pullit.mpg
• Wired New York 7 World Trade Center
• "How to fight terrorism" Peter Dale Scott.