The construction of 2 World Trade Center, a planned 1,230-foot commercial supertall skyscraper in Manhattan's Financial District, remains indefinitely stalled as part of ongoing delays affecting major New York development projects. Originally designed by renowned architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners and being developed by Silverstein Properties, the 62-story tower represents the final missing piece of the 16-acre World Trade Center complex reconstruction and is expected to provide 2.2 million square feet of premium office space upon completion.
The proposed skyscraper occupies a full city block with strategic boundaries including Vesey Street to the north, Fulton Street to the south, Church Street to the east, and Greenwich Street to the west. Construction work on the building's underground foundation and substructure initially began in 2007, but the project came to a complete halt in 2012, with no meaningful construction progress occurring in the more than decade that has followed. Currently, the unfinished base structure remains covered by temporary corrugated metal sheds that feature colorful artistic murals, while the eastern portion of the property has been repurposed as a seasonal outdoor beer garden during warmer months.
The project's complex design history traces back to 2005, when Foster + Partners first unveiled an architecturally striking concept featuring four distinctive columns that would culminate in an elegant crown of diamond-shaped elements. This original design was specifically oriented to slope gracefully toward the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, creating a powerful symbolic connection between the earth below and the sky above, representing both remembrance and hope for the future.
However, the project underwent a complete architectural transformation when Silverstein Properties entered into negotiations with Fox Corporation, which expressed interest in becoming the building's anchor tenant. To better accommodate the specific operational needs of the major media company, Bjarke Ingels of the internationally acclaimed Bjarke Ingels Group was brought in to completely redesign the structure, unveiling his innovative vision during the summer of 2015.
Ingels' revolutionary design concept featured a distinctive stacked block approach with a cascading series of stepped setbacks crowned by landscaped outdoor terraces. This design drew inspiration from the numerous green rooftops that characterize the nearby upscale Tribeca neighborhood. The architectural massing was cleverly designed to present a singular, monolithic appearance when viewed from the eastern perspective, creating a complementary dual silhouette alongside the existing One World Trade Center that would evoke memories of the original Twin Towers while looking toward the future.
Unfortunately, this promising design concept was ultimately abandoned when Fox Corporation made the corporate decision to remain at its established Midtown Manhattan headquarters rather than relocate to the World Trade Center site. Following the collapse of the Fox deal, Foster + Partners returned to lead the project with yet another new architectural proposal, this time abandoning the distinctive diamond-shaped crown element that had been widely praised and favored by many in the architectural community and general public.
Foster's 2021 design proposal was specifically tailored to meet the requirements of Deutsche Bank, which had emerged as a prospective anchor tenant for the massive office tower. However, like the previous iterations before it, this particular plan also failed to materialize into a concrete development agreement, leaving the project once again without a major tenant commitment.
In 2022, Foster + Partners revealed their latest architectural iteration when American Express surfaced as a potential anchor tenant for the long-delayed project. This newest design concept strategically borrows elements from Bjarke Ingels Group's popular 2015 stacked volume design while simultaneously retaining the distinctive staggered crown feature that had been developed for the previous Deutsche Bank proposal, creating a hybrid approach that combines the best elements of previous concepts.
The most recent design has been further refined through a series of updated architectural visualizations released earlier this year, which prominently highlight the addition of a striking spire element to crown the building. The configuration of the cutouts designed to accommodate pocketed outdoor terraces has also been slightly modified to improve functionality and aesthetics, though the overall building massing and the extensive use of floor-to-ceiling glass windows and thin façade louvers have been retained from previous versions.
According to industry sources, negotiations between developer Larry Silverstein and American Express are reportedly still ongoing, though no significant updates or announcements have been made public for several months. With the approaching 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks scheduled for next year, the future of this final piece of the World Trade Center complex's reconstruction remains highly uncertain, leaving questions about whether this symbolic project will ever reach completion.
