The Oculus: The building that replaced New York City’s World Trade Centres

New York City, one of the most sought-after places in the USA and the world is no less than a dream city. It is known for its evolving culture, historical museums, and iconic sky-touching towers. But that's not all. It is also famous for its civic structures, which are highly celebrated and explored daily by thousands of New Yorkers and tourists alike.  

One such is the Oculus World Trade Centre, the transportation hub located in the Manhattan region. It was established in 2002 and took 14 long years to complete (7 years behind schedule). In fact, it was finally opened to the world in February 2016. Do you know why it was built? Read on to know!  

The Oculus: New York’s architectural treasure 
Yes, The Oculus was indeed built to represent the New York City’s position in the transportation sector. However, it turned out to be more extensive and mightier than expected and even had a moral cause behind its construction. 

Turns out, it was built in place of the twin World Trade Centres after the 9/11 terror attack that shook the world. No wonder, the whole of USA believes that "The Oculus NYC" symbolizes the true, diverse and iconic spirit of New York as well as their entire nation. It was globally renowned architect Santiago Calatrava who had designed the new transportation hub in Lower Manhattan right after the 9/11 attacks.  

Also called The Oculus Transportation Hub, it is jointly owned and managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It serves millions of people every week via its 12 subway lines, the World Trade Center PATH station, and numerous retails shops. In addition to weekly activities, farmers' markets, art exhibits, musical performances and retail events, the main floor is bustling with commuters, shoppers, and tourists. 

The Oculus: A symbol of hope  
If you ever get a chance to visit New York City, you can observe how the orientation of the building acts as a constant reminder of the 9/11 attacks. In fact, the infrastructure is designed in such a way that on every September 11, from 8:46 a.m. (when the first plane had hit the towers), until 10:28 a.m. (when the second tower had collapsed), it gets perfectly aligned with the solar rays. Not only that, its floors get illuminated by sunlight that streams in from its central skylight, flooding it with light and hope, and as a reminder of the tragic day. 

The building also exhibits metal ribs that jut upwards in a manner that depicts a dove, poised to take flight in a young boy's hands. As we all know, dove represents peace. This symbolises to the world that New York continues to be the city of hope, irrespective of the obstacles and challenges it endures. The inspiration for this building was the architect’s own Mother and Child model that he had built more than 15 years before undertaking the project.  

Built with steel having thickness less than an iPhone 
When the Oculus was in the design stage, it was meant to cover a total area of 365,000 square feet, out of which 225,000 square feet was to be reserved for retail and restaurant space. Here, the challenge was the thickness of the steel as the architect had realised that it couldn’t be even 1/8 of an inch off, to ensure structural soundness of the entire building. It was soon discovered that the only way out was to use a special slim steel and fireproof coating for a rough texture and capacity to resist the distinctive curves. To cut a long story short, approximately 11,500 tonnes of steel were commissioned for the project, and four companies across the globe collaborated to make it. Guess how slim it turned out? Thinner than an iPhone. How amazing is that!  

The Oculus is home to the world’s most expensive train station 
Architect Calatrava is known for prioritising aesthetics over everything else; and this led to the delayed construction process. This, in turn, also caused the final cost to exceed the original budget of USD 2 billion, and eventually doubled it. And guess what? Much of this money went into building the train station, making it the most expensive train station in the world.  

The Oculus almost had a flying roof 
In the earlier plan of the building, the structure was supposed to have retractable roof "wings"  much like a Venus flytrap, to make it look like a flying bird. However, the plan was scrapped at the last minute because of the escalating costs and design constraints. Instead, the skylight panels were made static, serving the purpose of daylight.