Terra-Cotta Phoenix

For three days after the 9/11 planes struck, fires burned within the terra-cotta shell of 90 West Street, at the southern border of Ground Zero. Steel debris from the falling twin towers had gashed its 100-year old skin and sliced through the spandrels. The copper roof peeled, the balustrade melted. Two office workers, trapped in an elevator, were killed, but somehow, miraculously, everyone else inside the 23-story structure escaped. Rumors spread on September 12th that it was on the verge of collapse.

When rescue teams and inspectors first entered the smoldering ruin, The New York Times reported, "Charred wreckage dangling from the ceilings and heaped on the floors cast strange shadows in the light streaming from rescue equipment outside."

Four years later, the tale of 90 West Street is the only architectural story at Ground Zero that's had a happy ending so far. While the government and designers wrangle over ever changing plans for the World Trade Center lot, 90 West - designed by Cass Gilbert - has quietly, classily become a popular rental building with 410 apartments.

At peak times during its two-year, $148 million restoration, some 200 workers were scrambling around the site at once. The gold-accented cream terra-cotta shaft and marble-inlaid granite base look better than they have since Gilbert signed off in 1907. The restorers involved only use superlatives to describe the experience...

Click here to read full story featured in Traditional Building Magazine (August 2005).