Winter Gardens (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / Hoboken / New York City, New York
 food court, shopping mall, atrium
The Winter Gardens is a 120-foot, 10-story glass-enclosed atrium with a retail and dining plaza, completed in 1988. Part of the World Financial Center, it was designed by Cesar Pelli, along with the rest of the World Financial Center. The glass-vaulted atrium houses various plants, trees and flowers, and shops. The rear of the building opens onto the World Financial Center Plaza and the North Cove Yacht Harbor on the Hudson River. The glass if framed by green-painted steel. A ground-floor palm court has park bench style seating.

It was severely damaged from the collapse of the World Trade Center's North Tower on September 11, 2001. Reconstruction of the Winter Gardens required 2,000 panes of glass, 60,000 square feet of marble flooring and stairs, and sixteen 40-foot Washingtonia robusta palm trees at a cost of $50 million. Reopened on September 17, 2002, the Winter Garden was the first major structure to be completely restored following the attacks. Pelli Clarke Pelli conceived a new glass-walled east face, essentially creating what has become a popular Ground Zero viewing platform at the top of the stairs. The new Glass Pavilion serves as the new front door for the Brookfield Place complex. The glazed-glass box is supported by two white, 53-foot columns that are double-layer diagrids of curved pipes with an elliptical shape in plan that shifts asymmetrically as they rise to the ceiling.
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Coordinates:   40°42'47"N   74°0'55"W

Comments

  • Personal stories okay? I've done a lot of WTC-area oversight. The area resonates with me as with so many. Circa 1996 I visited the WTC from out-of-state with the new family. The parents were NY-ers and in my kid-years we visited many museums, but never the WTC or the Statue. During this visit, I was determined to just be a happy tourist --museum-learning a different time. Saw the sights, snapped photos, great time. Atop the WTC though, it was crowded, the air was humid and stale, the building swayed, and the group was getting line-weary. (I'm still heartbroken that I let my "let's go to the tippy top deck" get shot-down in grumpy "next time" responses.) We crossed from WTC via the footbridge to the Wintergarden here. We were bushed ---aching feet. Family getting grumpy. Lots of walking. Long day. We sat on a park bench near a palm tree in the enclosed atrium. There was a Godiva shop there too. Bought delightful choco-truffles and just let them melt onto our tongues. Mmmmm ooh ho ho ho ---chocolate therapy. Spirits somewhat restored, on to the the Lady. Fast forward to 9-11-01. All of it was such a kick in the gut. Friends involved. Aye yie yie. Saw photos of the Wintergarden's glass arches crushed and the footbridge half-crushed. One news photo showed the ashen blasted atrium interior and there was very bench we used ---now with a firefighter's SCOT-pack dropped upon it. Circa 2003 finally got to do a pilgrimage to Ground Hero. Seeing the remnant of the footbridge still standing was like the Star Spangled Banner still-flying feeling ---then also so spooky to actually go inside a still-standing fragment of the former complex I had been in before. Then --sort of remembering how to go after all that time-- we weaved our way through the corridors to the Wintergarden because I was determined to see that fragile glassy survivor too. I was relieved to see the Godiva was still there. As if it were some manner of tourist-commercial act of defiance, I needed to relocate the bench, buy a chocolate, and sit there enjoying it --maybe a tiny way to hope that the terrorists hadn't won. It a tasty but glassy-eyed moment. So, many years never told, that's my Wintergarden comment. A detailed photo page including images of the footbridge remnant and of my Wintergarden half-crushed is here: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/wtc-01-07/wtc-01-07.htm
This article was last modified 8 years ago