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THE TRIBECA TRIB SEPTEMBER 2012
7 World Trade, at left, reflecting the Goldman Sachs building, on right.
4 World Trade, the south side, reflecting 115 Broadway.
MIRROR RORRIM Reflections on the World Trade Center Site
T
PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY CARL GLASSMAN
he towers rising from the World Trade Center site are mirrors of rebirth, their glass facades playing off each other and the buildings around them in surprising and sometimes wonderful ways. Surprising because the reflected imagery displayed on these new structures—the six-year-old 7 World Trade Center and the lofty 1 and 4 World Trade Center—is anything but static and predictable. Where we stand and the time of day we stand there, the weather and the season, too, can make all the difference in this gallery of infinite abstractions. The variety of visual experiences will only become richer when the other planned buildings— World Trade Center 2 and 3—finally rise and grow glass skins of their own. Walking by the site these days, I nearly always look for something new that one tower or another has to offer. I’ve also had the good fortune to observe and photograph (with a telephoto lens) the buildings from high up in one or another of the other structures, allowing even more possibilities. Seen from the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center, for example, a much distorted Tribeca comes into view on one face of 1 World Trade Center; towers to the east can be seen on another. The Millenium Hotel provides an impressionistic view of uptown and clouds in the late afternoon sky, but only from high up in 4 World Trade Center. (See the photos on pages 26 and 27.) Carol Willis, the director of the Skyscraper Museum, notes that we can enjoy the surfaces of these magnificent curtain walls much as we would their architectural forbears. “It’s the same as if you are looking at a beautiful building of foot-thick limestone from the 1800s or the Amiens Cathedral,” she says. “The way a material catches and plays with light is one of the enduring qualities of architecture across the ages.” For more photographs and additional information on this project, go to mirroredrisings.com. PHOTOS CONTINUE ON PAGE 26
4 World Trade Center, reflecting buildings to the south. Photographed from the World Financial Center Winter Garden.
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SEPTEMBER 2012 THE TRIBECA TRIB
MIRROR RORRIM Reflections on the World Trade Center Site CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25
PHOTOS BY CARL GLASSMAN
CLOCKWISE:
4 World Trade Center, reflecting the afternoon sky.
4 World Trade Center, reflecting Century 21 department store, and 1 Liberty. Photographed from the 70th floor of 1 World Trade Center. 4 World Trade Center, reflecting the World Financial Center.
The Millenium Hotel, with the Woolworth Building, reflecting uptown Manhattan. Photographed from 4 World Trade Center. RIGHT:
1 World Trade Center, reflecting Manhattan north and east. Photographed from the 48th floor of 7 World Trade Center.
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THE TRIBECA TRIB SEPTEMBER 2012
FROM LEFT:
Sept. 11 Museum, reflecting the World Financial Center.
4 World Trade Center, reflecting 1 Liberty Plaza.