Last year, it was reported that the Port Authority was ditching plans to use shimmering "prismatic glass panels" to make the bunker-like base of 1 World Trade Center look less bunker-like. But now it looks like the base of tallest building in NYC (if not the U.S.) won't look so ugly.
The Post's Steve Cuozzo featured a new rendering of the base, "a shimmering, richly textured facade on four sides of glass, stainless steel and aluminum. While bickering goes on over the iconic office tower’s crown, its street-level face is just as vital — not only to Condé Nast employees who will move in by 2015, but to the millions of visitors to the 16-acre WTC site."
The previous prismatic panels caused worries that they were easily break and the project was stopped after $10 million had been spent. Now, the new panels—which Cuozzo describes as "vertical glass fins protruding from panels of stainless steel slats. The fins will be arrayed in patterns that will vary as they move up the facade"—are expected to cost $40 million.
