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Ground Zero work remains incomplete after 20 years

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press
Published: September 10, 2021, 6:04am
4 Photos
A woman walks by the colorful murals that surround the foundation for 2 World Trade Center, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in New York. Planned as the second tallest skyscraper at the site, 2 World Trade Center, might someday reach 80 stories. Developer Larry Silverstein has said he wants to sign an anchor tenant for the tower before starting construction.
A woman walks by the colorful murals that surround the foundation for 2 World Trade Center, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in New York. Planned as the second tallest skyscraper at the site, 2 World Trade Center, might someday reach 80 stories. Developer Larry Silverstein has said he wants to sign an anchor tenant for the tower before starting construction. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (mark lennihan/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

NEW YORK — Two decades after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete.

Two planned skyscrapers, a performing arts center and a church are still unfinished at the site, which plays host Saturday to the annual ceremony honoring nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks.

Visitors to the commemoration will find a place that no longer has the feel of a construction zone, though, even as the work continues.

The memorial plaza with its twin reflecting pools opened in 2011. One World Trade Center — the spire originally known as the Freedom Tower — opened in 2014, as did the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. An underground transit hub and shopping mall opened in 2016. Three other glassy towers built to replace those lost in the attack are open.

Here is a look at the unfinished work:

  • 2 WORLD TRADE CENTER: Planned as the second tallest skyscraper at the site, 2 World Trade Center might someday reach 80 stories. But for now, just a low stump of a building exists as a placeholder, covered with colorful graffiti-style murals at the northeast corner of the Trade Center site.

Developer Larry Silverstein has said he wants to sign an anchor tenant for the tower before starting construction.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the now-90-year-old says he is confident a tenant will be found so the Norman Foster-designed tower can be built in his lifetime.

  • PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: After years of delays, the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center is under construction just to the west of 2 World Trade Center’s future site and is scheduled to open in 2023.

Once finished, the arts center’s top floor will house a flexible set of spaces that can be configured into one, two or three theaters for drama, dance, film and music. Free performances will take place on a small stage on the lobby level.

“All of the components are automated, so the walls move, the floor and the seats move,” said the center’s president, Leslie Koch.

Perelman, the banker and investor, secured naming rights with a $75 million donation. Besides that gift, the $500 million center is being built with private donations and $100 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

  • GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH: The long-delayed construction of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine, replacing the only house of worship destroyed in the attacks, is now proceeding briskly after years of delays.
  • 5 WORLD TRADE CENTER: Construction has yet to begin on the tower that will replace an office building, occupied by Deutsche Bank, that was damaged and contaminated by debris from the collapsing twin towers. The original building was demolished between 2007 and 2011.

The LMDC and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in recent years chose a partnership to develop the now-cleared land as a 900-foot tower with office and retail space in addition to 1,325 apartments.

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