Oculus Skylight Not Opening on 9/11
The $32 million WTC Oculus skylight will not open this year on September 11th.
The $4 billion Calatrava-designed WTC Oculus starting leaking this past winter, forcing the Port Authority to patch up the 355-foot skylight with $30,000 of flextape. The $32 million dollar skylight is retractable; designed to open on September 11th each year and illuminate the space with sunlight during the exact time planes hit the Twin Towers. The skylight is operated by 40 individual glass panels, which must each individually open or close – controlled by software that often requires restarting multiple times to get it to work properly.
Today Curbed broke the news that the Port Authority is still determining how to fix the skylight and will it will not open this year: “Under the advice of expert consultants, we are conducting engineering analysis on the Oculus skylight operating systems and reviewing carefully the best approach to repair a complex, one-of-a-kind architectural feature,” a Port Authority spokesperson told Curbed in a statement.
