So just how tall is 7 World Trade anyway? Duh, 52 stories, right? Well yeah, but, like, no. Huh. A Curbed reader who attended the Open House New York/Skidmore, Owings & Merrill tour of the vacant office building got caught up in an interesting subplot:
it seems that 7 World Trade is not 52 stories after all, as has generally been reported. According our tour guide -- Nicholas Holt of SOM -- listed as the building's "Senior Technical Architect" on the SOM logo-encrusted "Fact Sheet" handed out for the occasion -- the building is actually only 47 stories. As we were all standing there on the, um, 47th floor, Holt -- clearly blindsided into the confession -- had to own up after someone from our group mentioned having seen the elevator skip from 5 to 11 on the trip up. It's about marketing, apparently. Companies like the prestige factor of buying into a higher floor, so -- by common consent in the industry -- buildings credit themselves an additional floor for every 10 vertical feet of mechanical space. This means -- per the SOM Fact Sheet -- that Number 7 actually has only "42 tenant floors." Which is where the SOM Fact Sheet starts bending itself into have-our-cake-and-eat-it-too knots. Follow this, if you can:
"Tenant floors will begin at the 11th floor above grade; the entire building is 52 stories. The first 10 floors are dedicated to building services and a Consolidated Edison substation that supplies electrical service to Lower Manhattan."
And the space between 5 and 11? That's where the fairies live.
This may be common practice in the biz, but our minds are still kinda blown. Actually, we didn't undertsand any of that. Above view from the 52nd (47th?) floor comes via NewYorkology.
· Night Light at 7 World Trade [Curbed]
· 7WTC: Worth The View? [Curbed]