A step toward the future

As the first building erected at the World Trade Center site since September 11, 2001, and with the site’s master plan then still in the works, 7 World Trade Center established a vision for the future of the district. It set a new benchmark for environmental performance as one of New York City’s first highly sustainable office towers, and transformed the public realm by restoring the Manhattan street grid and reconnecting the surrounding neighborhoods for the first time in three decades.

Creative illumination

Light is at the heart of the building’s design. The tower rises like a shimmering glass shard, with a curtain wall that reflects the ever-changing sky. At street level, the podium is clad in a perforated steel screen created in collaboration with artist James Carpenter. Behind the metal scrim sits a panel of blue and white LEDs whose intensity gradually shifts throughout the day. In the spacious lobby, a captivating light installation by the artist Jenny Holzer draws the attention of passers-by.

Restoring Greenwich Street

In the 1970s, the construction of the original 7 World Trade Center erased a large portion of Greenwich Street from the map. As an important corridor on the lower west side, the street had linked several neighborhoods, from Tribeca to Battery Park. In 2002, SOM convinced the developer of the new 7 World Trade Center, Silverstein Properties, to build on a smaller footprint than before—therefore giving up a significant amount of the available floor-area ratio. The slimmer building made way for the resurrection of Greenwich Street, knitting downtown neighborhoods back together. What’s more, it created space for a triangular park across from the building that provides views and natural light.

Setting a sustainability standard

The desire to create model for sustainability guided the design process at every turn—the structural steel is recycled, the building is insulated, rainwater is reused, and ample natural light reduces electricity use. Each of these strategies and more made 7 World Trade Center the first commercial office building in the world to achieve LEED-C/S Gold certification.

Over the next 15 years, the design not only influenced the aesthetic and material choices of the World Trade Center’s future towers, but also—through SOM’s sustainable, people-oriented, and civic-minded approach—helped to establish the values that would guide the revitalization of the symbolic, emotionally charged site.