World Trade Center One

2015

Architect: David M. Childs
Address: 285 Fulton Street, Manhattan

As Samuel Johnson said about dogs in his Dictionary, everyone knows what this is. Critics of this massive replacement for Yamasaki's twins abound, but every time I stop and look at this subtle design by SOM's David Childs, I see something new--whether it's standing close to either the north or south sides to watch the building turn into some kind of a two-dimensional triangle, or watching, at night, how the glowing base seems to make the rest of the building seem like a David Blaine magic trick. I'll probably shoot this again from other angles, and I'll probably re-shoot from here minus the construction cones and the UPS truck (though really, these objects are as much part of any NYC building as anything else), but nonetheless, this is one of my favorite views of Tower One--looking west from Fulton Street, perfectly framed between Fulton's north and south side buildings, with a bit of the Oculus peeking through on the bottom left. Well, onwards.