One World Observatory

One World Observatory sits atop One World Trade Center — the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 541 metres (1,776 feet, a deliberate reference to the year of American independence), built on the site of the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001. The observation deck on floors 100-102 provides a 360-degree view of New York from a height that makes the Empire State Building look modest and reveals the full geography of the city — all five boroughs, the harbour, the bridges, and the ocean.

The elevator ride is part of the experience — the 'Sky Pod' elevators ascend 102 floors in 47 seconds, with LED screens on the walls displaying a time-lapse animation of New York's skyline evolving from forest to Dutch settlement to present-day metropolis during the ascent. The 'See Forever' theatre on the 102nd floor uses projection technology to lift a screen and reveal the actual view — a theatrical reveal that is corny and effective in equal measure.

The building itself, designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, rises from the northwest corner of the World Trade Center site in a form that tapers from a square base to an octagonal tower. The memorial pools — two square voids marking the footprints of the original Twin Towers, with water cascading into them — sit adjacent to the tower, and the combination of the memorial's absence with the new tower's presence creates a site that holds grief and recovery in simultaneous tension. The 9/11 Memorial Museum, underground between the pools, is one of the most emotionally powerful museums in the world.