NAME: Freedom Tower

AGE: Just conceived, expected birthday in 2009

NATIONALITY: Pure-breed American

CLAIM TO FAME: The structure that will replace the lost Twin Towers

FINALLY the argument about what to do with Ground Zero is over and the concerned parties have come up with the design of the new building that will replace the destroyed Twin Towers of New York. The empty spot of the Twin Towers in the skyline of New Jersey will be filled by a twisting, shimmering glass structure topped by energy-generating windmills and a spire that evokes the Statue of Liberty.

The plan and model of the building, unveiled at a public ceremony on Wall Street, was produced after months of contentious negotiations between Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind, who designed the overall five-building site plan, and David Childs, the lead architect for the Freedom Tower as the new structure will be called.

The Freedom Tower, which majestically twists and narrows as it rises, is estimated to cost $12 billion, much of it expected to be paid by insurance on the Twin Towers. One new skyscraper is to be built at the site each year after the expected completion of the Freedom Tower in 2009, finishing the five-building complex by 2013.

The proposed tower will be 1,776 feet high, the number in honour of the year America declared its independence from England. The Twin Towers stood at 1,350 feet. There are to be 60 occupied stories, including 2.6 million square feet of office space, rooftop restaurants, and the viewing floor up to a height of 1,100 feet. The space above reaching to 1,500 feet will contain a lacy structure of tension cables similar to those on the Brooklyn Bridge and wind-harvesting turbines to provide 20 per cent of the building’s energy, the architects say. A spire, symbolic of the Statue of Liberty’s arm holding up a flaming torch, will rise a further 276feet to 1,776feet. There is to be a memorial to the 2,752 victims at its centre,

Many New Yorkers have opposed such a tower at the World Trade Centre site for fear that the world’s tallest building would be the target of yet another terrorist attack. But architect David Childs outlined several features that he said would make the Freedom Tower “the safest building in the world,” including wider staircases, a separate stairway and elevator for fire-fighters, “blast-resistant glazing” and more public stairways with direct access to the street.

However, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani — who won the informal title of “America’s mayor” for leading New York through the trauma of the September 11 — lashed out at plans to redevelop the devastated World Trade centre site, saying a fitting memorial to those who died was being sacrificed to office space.

Whatever people may say about the about-to-be-built Freedom Tower, one thing is clear. Once constructed, it is going to be the most visited tourist attraction in America, another symbol of commercialization of sentiments, a typical American trait.