October 25, 2006—New York Governor George Pataki announced recently that the Freedom Tower, World Trade Center Office Towers 2, 3, and 4, as well as the World Trade Center Memorial and Memorial Museum will all be designed to achieve the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Gold certification requirements.
This announcement was made five years after the attacks, and includes an entire package of energy and environmental measures that will be incorporated into the design of the WTC redevelopment. Plans for the Freedom Tower and other facilities at the WTC site will feature state-of-the-art energy technologies to better protect environmental resources, utilize renewable energy sources, and maximize energy efficiency.
These buildings join more than half a billion square feet of construction projects already involved with the LEED program, including World Trade Center 7, which was certified as LEED Gold in March 2006. These facilities will also be built to a design standard that is 20 percent more efficient than the New York Energy Conservation Construction Code, according to the announcement.
Governor Pataki also announced an agreement with Silverstein Properties that calls for the Freedom Tower and each of the World Trade Center Office Towers to utilize cutting-edge fuel cell technology to increase efficiency and provide secure clean on-site power generation. These fuel cell installations, totaling 4.8 MW of power generation, will reportedly constitute one of the largest fuel cell installations in the world.
