The new World Trade Center

Factual Questions
1

I was reading an article on CNN.com about the new plan for a 1,776 foot tall building to replace the old World Trade Center towers. Now, as I was reading, I saw that the architect has calculated the arc of the sun so that on every September 11, between 8:46 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. (the times that the two planes hit), the buildings will cast no shadow. Now, someone explain to me how anything that tall, at that degree of latitude, can produce no shadow. I mean in New York? How does this work?

Link to the article: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/02/27/wtc.architect/index.html

2

I think they won’t put a shadow on the memorial pit-thing. I’m almost positive I read this just last night.

3

I see where that’s what he claims. I still say it’s poppycock. If he wants to claim that through some optical illusion the buildings do not appear to cast a shadow, fine. But unless they are vampire buildings, they will cast shadows.

Furthermore, I doubt that the times for whatever this “effect” will be cannot be predicted that accurately. The exact location of the sun in the sky on September 11 each year will vary slightly. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have to have leap years.

4

I got the idea from the article that it specifically referred to the memorial site, that the buildings would not cast a shadow on the memorial site only during those times.

5

" To commemorate those lost lives, I created two large public places, the Park of Heroes and the Wedge of Light. Each year on September 11th between the hours of 8:46 a.m., when the first airplane hit and 10:28 a.m., when the second tower collapsed, the sun will shine without shadow, in perpetual tribute to altruism and courage. "

http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/press/

6

Oh, yes: Google, dude, Google.

First hit on “Libeskind shadow”, dude.

7

The selection report says:

Slide from the original presentation showing the layout

The confusion seems to stem from the second sentence in Cardinal’s quote from the site. It looks like it can stand-alone, but it really only applies in the context of the previous sentence.

8

Well, if the folks who built Newgrange could figure out how to do something similar 5,200 years ago, I have no doubt that it’s possible today.

9

Here is the sun position data for 8:40 AM (closest I could get) from New York City for the next 6 years. That’s a 0.3 degree range which doesn’t seem like a problem. In the next ten minutes, it only moves about 2.3 degrees. So the shadow would still generally fall in the correct place within about a minute of the proper time.



           Altitude   Azimuth
2003       33.8       116.7
2004       33.7       117.0
2005       33.7       116.9
2006       33.8       116.8
2007       33.8       116.8
2008       33.7       117.0
10

I stand corrected.

11

1,776 feet. Cool number!

How tall is this in relation to other buildings and structures like the Stratosphere in Las Vegas? Seems T-A-L-L.

12

It would be the new record-holder, B&I.

13

Does the “no shadow” info explain the odd formation/slant of the roof of the building(s)?

14

Does the building being 1776 feet high have anything to do with that year in history? As in the Declaration of Independence being signed? Sorry if this is obvious.

15

According to this article, it won’t be the tallest for very long.

16

That is exactly what the height represents.