Twenty-four hours after One World Trade Center officially eclipsed the Empire State Building as the tallest structure in New York City, it was back to business as usual at the world’s highest-profile development site. On Monday afternoon, ironworkers had secured a pair of 26-foot-long steel interior columns that brought One World Trade Center’s height to 1,271 feet above street level.
At that moment, the tower edged out 81-year-old Empire State Building by 21 feet.
Fanfare aside, the milestone offered an opportunity to take stock of commercial development at Ground Zero. Two years before its scheduled opening in early 2014, One WTC is about 55 percent leased – much of that on the strength of last year’s blockbuster 1 million-square-foot commitment by Conde Nast.
