The Port Authority has released renderings of the plan for the World Trade Center Transport hub, and they look fantastic. With an arched, spiny roof and striking curves, the hub — though it will only serve as a train station and vestibule to the new WTC — has more in common with Bilbao’s beautiful international airport than with Grand Central Terminal (they have the same designer, after all).
It’s hard to believe that this extravagant plan is actually more conservative than the original, but prohibitive steel costs nixed an even more bizarre structure with almost no support beams and way more skylights. It’s always safe to be pessimistic about these kinds of things, but the target date for completion is 2012. [Yanko]
