One World Trade Center; New York NY; (1966-1977); Modern

Minoru Yamasaki was born December 1,1912 in Seattle, Washington and died February 6, 1986. He was an American architect most famous for his controversial building, the World Trade Center (built in New York City, New York.) Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects pushing forward improvements in architecture during the 21^st century, and defined an era of New Formalism along with his partner Edward Durrell Stone; a style of architecture making use of classical columns and symmetrical elements, and combining them with ornate materials and concrete to form shapes such as umbrella shells, waffle slabs, and folded plates. The son of John Tsunejiro Yamasaki and Hana Yamasaki, Minoru Yamasaki attended High school in Seattle graduating, and enrolling in the University of Washington’s program in architecture in 1929. He graduated with a Bachelor in Architecture. He enrolled at the New York university for his master’s and graduated. He worked at the firm Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon (designers of the empire state building.) He then moved to Detroit where he began working for the firm Smith Hinchman and Grylls who helped him to avoid the Internment of Japanese-American’s during WWII. Yamasaki left the firm in 1949, and began his own partnership, which began with the design of Ruhls Bakery in Detroit. He was given a D.F.A. from Bates College and began his firm Yamasaki and Associates, which closed due to Bankruptcy on December 31, 2009.

IN 1962 Port Authority sent a letter addressing Yamasaki asking him if he wanted to work on the project worth $280,000,000. Yamasaki believed that there had been a zero mistakenly added and called Mr. Sullivan, the head of the project. When he was informed that the amount was correct, Yamasaki said that he believed the project was too large, and his fifty-five-person office could not undertake the project. He was told that he would be the chief architect that would be able to put together a design group. In the end he designed the Building with Emery Roth and Sons with a total staff of 135 architects. The World Trade Center, once built, rivaled the two iconic structures of New York, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire state building, in both stature and beauty. Manhattanites deemed the building its nickname “The Twin Towers.” These towers were the tallest pieces of architecture in the world from 1927-1974, standing at 1,776 feet and 1,792 feet to their tips, until they were surpassed by the Sears tower in Chicago, Illinois. The World Trade Center housed 500,000 working people and 80,000 visitors on weekdays. The World Trade Center was intended to increase international trade and sort economic prosperity in New York and New Jersey. The facility was a physical embodiment of world peace bringing together communication, information, proximity, and convenience for businesses and financial stakeholders.

The original site was a 17-acre site made up of 14 small irregular blocks, yet because they only held small retail tenants which were divided by narrow streets Yamasaki, happy that there were no buildings worth saving, demolished and created a singular superblock. The design was created to help improve its surrounding vehicular traffic by simplifying and expanding roads, adding parking for 2000 cars, while it also improved pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians also had an underground pathway between the trade centers and allowed direct access to three subway lines on PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) along with a direct transit to New Jersey.

The first goal of the building itself was to create a space of tall and low buildings that combined with a significant open space at the bottom. The open space was a 5-acre plaza that featured a paved garden and a 130-foot circle of flower boxes. In this space people could admire the height of the buildings, yet when walking closer towards its façade smaller details would unveil. The buildings around the Trade Center helped to alleviate the noise from traffic and add a more human scale to the plaza. The surrounding sidewalks were widened so that people could enjoy walking and looking at the surrounding wonders rather than worrying about the people also occupying the area. The building included a double height lobby and an observation space for its visitors. The building utilized a tube structure, and the exterior walls used vierendeel trusses; each façade included 59 17-inch columns on a 40 inch grid created to allow more light and to help people with a fear of heights similar to Yamasaki’s. The columns were extruded beyond the the glazing by 12 inches to add shade to the building and the columns merged three into one to add more light into the lobby. Yamasaki did not find the color of aluminum impressive so he was about to add a steel structure onto the façade of the building, however Alcoa came out with a cheaper solution of aluminum and silver, which was used. The tower had a simple plan which was a 208 square foot by 208 square foot square with chamfered corners surrounded by its 135-foot core that was made of 47 steel columns. The core contained all of the buildings services (elevators, stairs, washrooms, and mechanical shafts) and helped to open up the building that already contained an open floor plan. The building contained one of the first sky lobbies that allowed people to switch from an express elevator to a local elevator.

When approaching the building the person is confronted with a space that is encased by surrounding buildings built at a human scale, while the Trade Center stuck out representing the much larger scale being applied within the city. When entering the public plaza inspired by Meccas assembly of holy sites, the person is confronted with a sculpture of the world created by Fritz Koenig surrounded by a fountain and flowers adding the aspect of nature and peace into the area. Once closer to the Trade Center the aluminum columns represent the structure used in Islamic architecture that inspired Yamasaki. Once inside, the building allowed as much sunlight as possible into the space, and the white interior helped to create an even brighter space; the walkways wrapped fluidly though the space stopping to highlight views of the landscape outdoors.