7 World Trade Center

The 7 World Trade Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed in 2002 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with David Childs as lead architect, and built between 2002 and 2006, for a reported $700 million dollars, in New York, NY.

Its precise street address is 250 Greenwich Street, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The 7 World Trade Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2006. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• AIA Architecture Merit Award in 2006
• MASterworks Award in 2008

The new 7 World Trade Center was built on the same site as the original building, which was damaged by debris from the Twin Towers and by internal fires until its collapse on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, following the tragic terrorist attack. It was the third building to collapse and the first in the new World Trade Center complex to be inaugurated..

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with David Childs as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 7 World Trade Center a reality:

• WSP Cantor Seinuk in charge of Structural Engineering
• Tishman Construction as the Main Contractor
• Permasteelisa Group in charge of Facade Consultancy
• OTIS Elevators as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Silverstein Properties as the Main Developer
• Jaros Baum & Bolles in charge of MEP Engineering
• Jenny Holzer as the collaborating Artist

The 7 World Trade Center can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The 7 World Trade Center uses a frame structure made of steel columns and poured concrete over metal decking slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

The structure combines steel perimeter columns with a central core reinforced with steel diagonal beams, which house the elevators and services.

After the attacks of 9/11, safety became a primary design variable, and so all steel components are coated with high-adhesion spray-applied fireproofing, and the building is equipped with redundant sprinkler systems.

Unlike the original 7 WTC, wider and pressurized stairwells were used, along with structurally reinforced evacuation routes.

The new building is also designed to withstand progressive collapse: if one part is damaged, the structure redistributes the loads.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features

light-blue tinted and reflective glass, with separations between floors which create a sense of rhythm as the building rises.

The lower floors of the building are clad with heavy laminated structural glass, backed by a perforated steel screen and high-strength tensioned steel cables to absorb lateral loads from wind, earthquakes, and explosions. Behind the metal mesh is a panel of blue and white LEDs whose intensity gradually changes throughout the day..