# Lifestyles & Discussion > Science & Technology >  One World Trade Center named tallest US building

## Zippyjuan

Had it not been a potent symbol would they have called a 400 ft TV antenna part of the building? Now it will be that "patriotic" 1776 feet tall and the tallest building in the country (and third tallest in the world). 




> Those aspirations of global supremacy fell by the wayside long ago, but New York won a consolation prize Tuesday when an international architectural panel said it would recognize One World Trade Center as the tallest skyscraper in the United States.
> 
> The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, considered a world authority on supersized skyscrapers, announced its decision at simultaneous news conferences in New York and Chicago, home to the 1,451-foot Willis Tower, which is being dethroned as the nation's tallest building.
> 
> Measuring the height of a building would seem to be a simple thing, but in the case of the new World Trade Center tower it is complicated by the 408-foot-tall needle atop the skyscraper's roof.
> 
> The council's verdict rested on a conclusion that the needle should be counted as part of the building's total height. Without it, the tower would be just 1,368 feet tall, the same height as the original World Trade Center. That would make it smaller than not only the Willis, but also a 1,397-foot apartment building being built a short subway ride away near Central Park.
> 
> Speaking at his office in New York, council chairman Timothy Johnson, an architect at the global design firm NBBJ, said the decision by the 25-member height committee had more "tense moments" than usual, given the skyscraper's importance as a patriotic symbol.
> ...


More at link. http://enews.earthlink.net/article/t...e-77827495865c

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## eduardo89

> Had it not been a potent symbol would they have called a 400 ft TV antenna part of the building? Now it will be that "patriotic" 1776 feet tall and the tallest building in the country (and third tallest in the world).


Antennas are usually not counted in total height, but spires are.

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## specsaregood

I'll just put this here.

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## eduardo89

It's unfinished in that picture (and it should say "minaret")

This is what it will look like when completed:



This is what it looks like at the moment:

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## VIDEODROME

Just a TV tower?  

I was think Tesla Death Ray to hit any incoming aircraft.


It seems kind of weird in the age of Cable and Satellite and Internet Streaming Video to invest so much into broadcasting Television from a tower.  Are these people living in the 1990s?

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## eduardo89

> It seems kind of weird in the age of Cable and Satellite and Internet Streaming Video to invest so much into broadcasting Television from a tower.  Are these people living in the 1990s?


It's more than just for TV, good luck getting an LTE connection, or any mobile service at all for that matter, without antennas.

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## Danke

From the lakes of Minnesota.

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## GunnyFreedom

> Just a TV tower?  
> 
> I was think Tesla Death Ray to hit any incoming aircraft.
> 
> 
> It seems kind of weird in the age of Cable and Satellite and Internet Streaming Video to invest so much into broadcasting Television from a tower.  Are these people living in the 1990s?


I am sure it carry WAY more signal than just broadcast tv.  I used to swap/repair radio transmitters and receivers for WAN/LAN bridges and I'd be shocked to my core if this spire didn't already have a good 50 of these on it.

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## Zippyjuan

> It's unfinished in that picture (and it should say "minaret")
> 
> This is what it will look like when completed:


Thanks for the pictures.  They said they were not going to do the "shroud" over the spire after all. That made it more controversial as to whether or not the spire should count as part of the height.  In the end, they said it was still a "permanant" part of the building. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/travel...t-us-building/



> As the building was originally designed, the needle atop the tower was to be enclosed in a radome, an architectural structure made of fiberglass and steel. But the proposed radome -- short for radar dome -- would not be able to be serviced or maintained, so the cladding plan was nixed.





> The council, an independent organization that certifies the official height of skyscrapers and acknowledges record-setting buildings, counts spires and structural elements in its height calculations. But it doesn't count antennas, signage or flagpoles, which are considered "functional-technical equipment subject to change."

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## enhanced_deficit

While this is impressive, does not seem prudent to be advertizing stats like this as long as US is funding occupation of Palestinians in mideast considering recent history. Also counting fancy antenne in building height will only start the race to build highest antennas among US cities looking for highest building rank:


*One World Trade Center tower declared highest in U.S.* *The Council on Tall Buildings says the  tower's spire is an integral part of the structure and should be  counted, making the official height 1,776 feet.* 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The spire atop One World  Trade Center in New York is included in the official height of the  tower, a committee has ruled.                                                  (Gary He / European Pressphoto Agency / May 10, 2013)                                         







                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           By Tina Susman                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     November 12, 2013, 6:43 p.m.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   NEW YORK  Building experts  declared New York's new World Trade Center tower the highest skyscraper  in the country Tuesday, knocking Chicago's Willis Tower from the spot it  has held for nearly 40 years and answering the burning question in  high-rise circles: When is a long pointy thing protruding from a roof  more than just a long pointy thing?
                                                                                          When it's a spire,  according to the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban  Habitat, which said the Lower Manhattan building's 408-foot spire was  permanently attached to the structure and crucial to its overall  character.
 That sets it apart from antennas, flagpoles, lightning rods and other  building additions that are purely functional and not part of the  aesthetic design, the council's chairman, Timothy Johnson, said at a  news conference in New York. As he spoke, officials of the council  an  international nonprofit organization recognized as the arbiter of  high-rise heights  delivered the news at a separate media conference in  Chicago.
                                                                                                                                                                    "Conceptually, from the  architect's point of view, it's a major part of the building, and we  agreed," said Johnson, describing the spire and lights housed within it  as a "welcoming beacon" reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty's golden  torch. "In a way, a light of memory," Johnson said of the spire, which  had always been part of the building plan.
 What changed, and what raised questions as to the structure's  ultimate height, was the design around the spire. Originally, it was to  have been encased in fiberglass panels. Last year, the building's  architects dropped the panels, a move that saved millions of dollars in  construction costs and ensured that the spire would be easier to  maintain.
 That put the council in the position of ruling on whether the spire  was a fancy antenna or part of the building's official "architectural"  height.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...0,438050.story

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## Dr.3D

LOL, bet there is a building in Denver Colorado that is *higher*.

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## eduardo89

> Thanks for the pictures.  They said they were not going to do the "shroud" over the spire after all. That made it more controversial as to whether or not the spire should count as part of the height.  In the end, they said it was still a "permanant" part of the building. 
> 
> http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/travel...t-us-building/


Ah yes, reading the debate on SkyScraperCity Forums I can see that. It seems that it was $20 million cheaper not to clad the antenna and make it into a true spire. This ruling certainly is controversial.

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## moostraks

Great so after making it such a sizable target and crowning it as a jewel to be treasured and evidence of the American spirit to overcome the turrarists, any bets how long until tptb are able to incite some home grown or ME folks to attack so they can roll out the drones here? We just need one more biggie imo to eliminate any vestige of belief in a right to privacy.

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## pcosmar

so what?

This is even a story worth printing?

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## vita3

Inside Job.

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## parocks

> Inside Job.


False Flag.

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## jllundqu

BS... The Sears Tower has more floors than One WTC.  They put some stupid "spire" on it to make it that tallest and get crowned the new king of tall buildings in the US.  The Sears Tower should just put some dumb spire on top to make themselves 1776+1 feet tall, just to piss them off.

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## jllundqu

And who the F__K is the "Council on Tall Buildings"????  Can I start a "Council to Review the Naming of Stupid Councils?"

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## FindLiberty

USA's highest, woo hoo!  Now I can sleep soundly once again knowing this is one nation, _barely_ under god.

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## Dr.3D

I dare say, all of the buildings in Denver Colorado are higher than One World Trade Center.

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## jllundqu

Sears Tower  = Willis Tower

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## enhanced_deficit

> Inside Job.





> False Flag.


They technically are not always same thing.  Tonkin gulf attack on US boats was both "inside job" and "falser flag".  Operation Suzanah/Lavon Affair attacks on US/UK buildings were just "False Flag".


*Abu Zubaydah*
Son of a Palestinian refugee, Abu Zubaydah moved to the West Bank as a teenager, where he joined in Palestinian demonstrations against the Israelis. 


*100,000 Palestinians have a score to settle with Israel*
 Nov. 13, 2013
The IDF is calling these incidents “atmosphere attacks” - acts inspired by the tense atmosphere in the West Bank. 

*Exclusive: Abu Zubaydah wanted to 'bring America to its knees' after 9/11*

    by Jason Leopold

  November 12, 2013                          11:00AM ET                      

               The Guantanamo detainee's diary reveals complexity of Al-Qaeda'€™s milieu in months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks
         Topics:Abu ZubaydahInternationalGuantanamo Bay



Smoke billowing after attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.Marty Lederhandler/AP

              Zain Abidin Mohammed Husain Abu Zubaydah, one of the highest-value  detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was building a network to wage a war  that would "bring America to its knees"  before he was captured in 2002, his personal diaries show. In the  document, Abu Zubaydah recounts the chaotic aftermath of the 9/11  attacks on the United States and the toppling of Afghanistan’s Taliban  regime, which provided shelter for men like him and Osama bin Laden.
 After describing how he helped fellow fighters flee from Afghanistan  to Pakistan, Abu Zubaydah writes of forming a network of trainers  capable of teaching skills like bomb making in a new organization with  ambitious plans to attack Israel. He notes that he returned to  Afghanistan with $50,000 "to participate in any jihadist operation against the Jews" that he intended to carry out in Iran or Pakistan.

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## GunnyFreedom

> I dare say, all of the buildings in Denver Colorado are higher than One World Trade Center.


I dare say that the citizens of Colorado are higher than those in at least 48 other states.

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## eduardo89

> And who the F__K is the "Council on Tall Buildings"????  Can I start a "Council to Review the Naming of Stupid Councils?"


Yes, you could. The Council on Tall Buildings a private non-profit.

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## dannno

> I dare say that the citizens of Colorado are higher than those in at least 48 other states.


You mean on weed or altitude

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## Dr.3D

> I dare say that the citizens of Colorado are higher than those in at least 48 other states.


LOL, I never thought about it that way.  They have more than one way to be high.  

Now tall is a different story.

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## GunnyFreedom

> You mean on weed or altitude


Um.  Yes. 




> LOL, I never thought about it that way.  They have more than one way to be high.  
> 
> Now tall is a different story.


I dunno man, Kenny isn't exactly dwarfish.

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