NEW YORK — It’s all about the view. And One World
Observatory, which opens to the public May 29 on the 101st and 102nd floors of
One World Trade Center, popularly known as Freedom Tower, delivers not one, but
many views, only some of which are real.
A “welcome hall” on the entry concourse consists of a video
wall with the faces and voices of the men and women who built the tower,
echoing a technique used in the neighboring September 11 Memorial Museum.
Sky Pod elevators that shoot up to the observatory in 47
smooth seconds are lined with panels depicting simulated time-lapse chronology
of a New York landscape that metamorphoses from farmhouses, fields and forests
into a city of skyscrapers, with the Twin Trade Towers that were destroyed on
9/11 appearing briefly, then fading away.
Visitors emerge from the elevator into an entryway lined
with more video panels offering close-ups of New York.
Then, it’s into the “See Forever” theater. A two-minute show
of time-lapse photography and shots of the city from all angles — above, below
and sideways — is projected onto a wall consisting of varied rectangular blocks
that evoke the geometry of a city that was built into the sky.
Following this homage to New York and its people, at the
very end of the presentation, the wall slowly, slowly lifts to reveal a
panoramic view of the real New York.
It’s highly produced, a touch melodramatic and
unquestionably spectacular.
“We thought we had a chance to redefine the observatory
experience,” said Dave Kerschner, president of Legends, which operates the
observatory. “The star of the show is the view itself.”
True stars deserve grand introductions, and the observatory
has given Gotham the entrance it deserves in a 360-degree, floor-to-ceiling
experience. Helicopters fly below. Planes wing by, seemingly at eye-level. Fact
sheets assert that visitors can see as far as 50 miles.
A tour guide using City Pulse’s technology to change images of the city shown on screens. Photo Credit: Kate Rice
To the south, the Statue of Liberty, tiny and doll-like,
overlooks a harbor where the wakes of ferries and barges crisscross. Manhattan,
Brooklyn, the Bronx and New Jersey are in full view.
In the streets surrounding the Trade Center, a bevy of
cranes and scaffolding stand as the hallmarks of a city that continues to
rebuild.
There’s a lot more to the observatory.
The Sky Portal, a circular panel of glass on which visitors
can take in real-time views of the streets 1,250 feet below, is the highest
observation platform in the Western hemisphere.
Two City Pulse units, 10 rectangular high-definition video
screens, are arranged in a circle taller than the tour guides who staff them on
each side of the 101st floor, one unit on the north side, one on the south. The
guides’ arm sets employ blue-tooth technology that enables them to change the
views with a sweep of an arm, offering visitors a chance to delve deeply into
many aspects of the city.
Adding quiet drama to the experience is the mostly
unacknowledged yet undeniable fact that the observatory is housed in a building
that, phoenix-like, rose from the ashes of 9/11.
Some of the construction workers featured in the entry hall
video talk about watching the Twin Towers fall and how that animated them when
helping to build One World Trade Center. When the Sky Pods descend, their walls
show the cityscape of today, including a long look at the twin memorial pools
next door, which trace the outlines of the original Twin Trade Towers.
And there are other, unscripted, reminders.
On Thursday, among the sightseers craning their necks, back,
back and still farther back, to see the tower rising into the clouds, were a half-dozen camouflage-clad members of
the U.S. Air Force’s 107th Air Wing.
One World Observatory’s Sky Portal shows real-time images of the streets immediately below. Photo Credit: Kate Rice
In the city for Fleet Week, they, like other visitors,
slowed to check out the observatory entrance. Finding that it won’t officially
open until May 29, they moved on. But a
cop stepped out from the concrete pylon he had been leaning on to stop them.
“Thank you for serving,” he said, sticking out his hand to
shake theirs.
Whatever new structures and features are added to this site, they will always be a
part of Ground Zero, a hallowed piece of real estate haunted with emotions and
memories that never seem to fade.
Tickets and information are available at
oneworldobservatory.com. Tickets are $32 for visitors ages 13 to 64, $26 for
children 5 to 12 and $30 for those over 65; children under 5 are admitted free
but must have a ticket.