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The 15th anniversary of 9-11 has passed, but in addition to being a milestone year, 2016 also marked the first time that the Oculus of Santiago Calatrava’s extravagant and over-budget Transit Hub was opened as part of the observance.
Amid all the delays and hoopla over the place being the world’s most expensive train station or mall (take your pick), it’s been forgotten that Transit Center was originally designed to come alive as its own memorial to the victims of the WTC attacks. The structure is positioned so that the sun beams into the interior of the building every September 11 at the exact minute the North Tower collapsed.
In Calatrava’s original proposal for the Hub, the entire roof was meant to retract for the occasion, but that idea was eventually value-engineered into long skylight running along the spine of the roof. Nonetheless, the effect is still powerful, as these Instagram photos show.