New Freedom Tower Design Unveiled

New Freedom Tower Design Unveiled
The redesigned Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, planned to become America's tallest building, will be a monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna, the architects said on Wednesday.

Symbolic of the Declaration of Independence, the reworked 1,776-foot (541-meter) centerpiece of the World Trade Center site unveiled by architect David Childs will have a base sheathed with rolled, heat-treated glass over concrete.

The tower is planned as a symbol of New York's revitalization after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which claimed more than 2,700 lives at the World Trade Center.

Rebuilding has been dogged by almost five years of acrimony over designs, security, insurance and control of the 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site at Ground Zero.

The new design uses a high-tech laminated safety glass, which if attacked by a truck bomb would shatter into falling pebbles, not break into flying shards.

The previous design featured a 200-foot (61-meter) metal and concrete base, added after New York police said the building would be vulnerable to truck bombing. The design was also criticized for looking too bunker-like.

The new plan for the building - construction began in April and is hoped to be completed by 2011 - was made after consulting New York police counterterrorism experts