New York - A time-lapse animation of the New York City skyline from the 1500s to the present will briefly but prominently feature the pinstripe facade of the World Trade Centre's north tower. The World Trade Centre towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on Sept 11, 2001.
The three-dimensional animation will be shown during a lift ride on the way to the One World Observatory, on levels 100, 101 and 102 of the One World Trade Centre building. Five lifts leading up to the observatory will offer visitors the 47-second experience. The panorama will be screened across nine 75-inch, high-definition monitors in each lift.
The video takes visitors through New York City's development from a peaceful riverfront settlement to a city where buildings compete to be the tallest.
The New York Times said in an article on Apr 19 that the "descent experience is more fanciful," as the lift cab "appears to leave the confines of the tower entirely and sail around it in a great arc before re-entering through windows that slide apart".
Chairman and chief executive of Legends Hospitality, the company chosen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2013 to operate the observatory, said that there would have been no way around the tragedy on Sept 11.
"The event is certainly a key part of history," he said. "We did not think you could ignore it. Having it appear in the year it did and disappear in the year it did was the respectful way of addressing the fact that it was part of the landscape," he was quoted as saying in the New York Times article.
You can watch the time-lapse here, or visit the observatories website at https://oneworldobservatory.com/
