It will stand at a symbolic final height of 1776 feet and was once known as the Freedom Tower. But when it came time to brand 1 World Trade Center, the Port Authority and the Durst Organization turned to the London-based design firm Wordsearch, whose portfolio includes logos for The Broadgate Tower in London and Related’s Hudson Yards development on the far West Side. Last week, the Commercial Observer unveiled the logo and, judging from reactions in the comments, the response has been lukewarm, to put it mildly.
“We hired them because they are the best of the business,” Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for The Durst Organization, told the Observer. Many initial suggestions for a 1 WTC logo that were drafted in 2009 included the entire tower. But Wordsearch – which spent nearly a year creating the logo – opted to focus only on the spire in order to acknowledge the tower’s much broader significance and context.
Regardless of how you might feel about its logo, when completed next year 1 World Trade Center – and its 3 million square feet of commercial office space – is slated to receive a LEED Gold rating from USGBC. It will also boast a broad range of advanced building technologies and office tenants, both of which we’ve discussed extensively to date here at gbNYC.
Note that the image to the left of 1 WTC under construction was taken on Saturday, April 7, 2012 looking west along Fulton Street towards the World Trade Center site.
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After looking at the previous designs for a logo, this one isn’t bad, but I prefer one of the versions from the team out of Iceland. Simple, but strong.
Thanks for the comment! I like the nod back to the 70s here. The second one from Bjarnason (using the entire tower as the “1″ in the logo) is interesting too.
The new logo is fine. I’m just relived that the building will not be officially referred to as the Freedom Tower.
I wonder, however, if off-shoring the logo work contributed in some degree to increasing the project’s carbon footprint? Surely there was at least one or several round trip transatlantic flights involving the Port Authority and the London-based Wordsearch. I see that the design firm has one London location and another contact in the UAE, but no offices in New York or locally in North America. I’m not aware of how intellectual property deals work, but it would seem to me that considering the cost and high profile nature of the project, an in-person visit would be required on either or both ends.
If that’s the case, doesn’t the outsourcing of artistic works violate the intent of LEED’s use of local material? After all, New York is the capital in this hemisphere for advertising design. Why not take advantage of the resources that are unique to the project’s site?
Thanks for the comment. I think it’s a good thought, but perhaps more relevant in the context of a high-profile foreign architect who is commissioned to perform a building’s conceptual design while a domestic, licensed architect (or firm) serves as “of-record.” Either way, I don’t think there are any imminent plans within LEED to address the “outsourcing of artistic works” as you suggest. But perhaps there should be.