Planar in World Trade Center rebirth

An artist's impression of the Winter Garden - due to open in September 2002 The 110-ft wide wall forms the new fa‡ade of the Winter Garden, the celebrated glass dome, which was designed as a centrepiece to the World Financial Center.Its original fa‡ade of Canadian granite, and the bridge which linked it to the World Trade Center, were both destroyed in the terrorist attack which brought down the twin towers.The new fa‡ade is seen as the most critical element in a œ34m renovation.

The wall of double-glazed Pilkington Planar uses panels of 12 mm Pilkington OptiwhiteT with 6 mm Pilkington K GlassT and 15mm Pilkington OptifloatT Clear with 14mm laminated Pilkington K Glass, backed by 19mm Pilkington Optifloat clear fins.

Architects Cesar Pelli & Associates, who designed the original building, wanted the fa‡ade to "create a sense of opening and entry, space and light" and to provide an unofficial viewing balcony for the reconstruction at the former trade centre site.

With the twin towers gone, the four much smaller glass and granite towers of the World Financial Center and the Winter Garden itself, are now visible from Broadway and are enjoying a new prominence. Mr Pelli said he hoped the new fa‡ade would "help make the area desirable for other enterprises and businesses and help lead to the return of pedestrians" in a place once dominated by monumental structures.