Seven World Trade Center

David M. Childs, FAIA of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill L.L.P., working with glass artist and designer James Carpenter, has used natural light and reflectivity to create a shimmering animated façade whose appearance is quietly transformed with the changing patterns of sunlight and weather.

Unlike other buildings in the new WTC complex that had to go through a several year long process of quarrels and lawsuits, this building was approved without extra hassle within a few months of September 11, 2001.

The building exterior is covered in 538,420 square feet of glass.

To counter large shards of flying glass resulting from a terrorist attack, glazing is laminated tempered safety glass.

The culmination of the ceremony was raising the last I beam to the top, signed by hundreds of workers (similar to the ceremony of placing the first structural I beam a few months before).

A parallelogram in shape, the 741-foot high building contains 42 tenant floors averaging 39,750 rentable square feet over a 10-level base incorporating the Con-Edison substation. The rentable area totals approximately 1,700,000 square feet.

The building was topped out on October 21, 2004 during a ceremony in which Larry Silverstein (the World Trade Center complex developer) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were present.

The fireproofing material that coats the steel structure is 5 times thicker than is required by code.

The building is clad with low iron content ultra-clear 'water white' glass.

Smaller and airier than its predecessor ( Seven World Trade Center), the building features a slender glass pylon that marks both the entrance to the World Trade Center and the Gateway to the Future downtown district of New York.

Pulling back from its eastern property line, the tower creates a view corridor to the tip of Manhattan letting in light where previously none existed.

The creation of a Greenwich Street corridor marks the beginning of the re-linking, meshing, and sewing together of two disparate parts of Manhattan: Tribeca and the Financial District.

The ground floor has a secure, 45-foot high stone and glass entry lobby for tenant and visitor access on the east side of the building facing Greenwich Street.

The north and south sides of the building, along Barclay and Vesey Streets, house a Con Edison substation. A loading dock with five bays is accessible from Washington Street.

Floors 11 through 52 are tenant office floors served by five elevator banks and three service elevators, two of which are oversized.

Typical office floors have 10-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, nine-foot clear ceiling heights and 45’ lease spans that are virtually column free.

The base is conceived as a block of stainless steel that is carved or sculpted from within to create the 45-foot high lobby and front door to the tower.

The building's fast completion (relative to the rest of the complex) has given it considerable importance as an outpost of redevelopment, towering over the rest of the site that was only being prepared for construction, and serving as the location for various WTC presentations and press-conferences.

A construction worker fell to his death on September 29, 2004.