Jeffrey Durkin, director of Breadtruck Films, has shared with us this insightful short film on Oculus in New York City. The film provides a “A ‘visual essay’ about the destruction, re-birth, and vision that shape Santiago Calatrava’s train station at ground zero”.
The Transportation Hub is conceived at street level as a freestanding structure situated on axis along the southern edge of the “Wedge of Light” plaza. As described in Daniel Libeskind’s master plan for the site, the Plaza is bounded by Fulton, Greenwich and Church Streets to the North, West and East respectively and Tower 3 to the south. It links the procession of green, urban spaces that extend along Park Row from City Hall Park to St. Paul’s churchyard, to the gardens of the WTC Memorial and Battery Park along the Hudson River.
The arched, elliptical structure – the Oculus – is approximately 350’ long, 115’ across at its widest point and rises to a height 96’ above grade at its apex. The structural steel ribs that form the Oculus extend upward, like outspread wings, to form a pair of canopies that rise to a maximum height of 168’ above grade.