On Monday, One World Trade Center, will hit the point of construction that makes it the tallest building in New York City. The workers on the project will construct steel columns that will put the unfinished skeleton of the building at 1,250 feet into the sky. The structure will pass just over the observation deck of the Empire State Building. The milestone being hit on Monday is just one of many as the ‘Freedom Tower’ will not reach its final height until sometime in 2013. By that time it will be the tallest building in the United States and the third tallest building in the world. Those bragging rights come with an asterisk though because of the 408-foot tall needle that will be on the roof of the tower. If you do not count the 408-foot needle, the building will be the second tallest in the country, behind the Willis Tower in Chicago.
The Empire State Building is measured from the base of the building at the sidewalk all the way up to the top of the needle-antenna on its roof. When you measure the Empire State Building that way, it stands at 1,454 feet, which is much higher than the ‘Freedom Tower’ measures on Monday. Many architectural purists claim that antennas should not be counted when measuring the height of buildings. Those purists say that antennas are much more like antennas rather than a piece of construction or architecture. The antenna can be removed and attached anytime, much like a piece of furniture sitting on the roof of a building. The antenna on the roof of the Empire State Building was added in 1952.
If you do not count the antenna, the height of the Empire State Building measures at 1,250 feet high. Those numbers made the building the tallest in the world from 1931 to 1972.
There are some interesting things that come into play when measuring One World Trade Center. The roof of the tower is to stand at 1,368 feet high, according to design plans. This is the same height as the north tower of the World Trade Center. When the building is complete, the roof will be adorned with a 408-foot cable-stayed mast, which will make the total height of the building 1,776 feet, hence the name ‘Freedom Tower.’
