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By JOAN LOWY
Scripps Howard News Service
December 28, 2004
- Bird lovers are worried that one of the world's most high profile construction projects - a 1,776-foot tall office tower being erected on the site of the former World Trade Center in New York - will turn out to be a giant death trap for birds.
The Freedom Tower is expected to be the world's tallest building when it opens in 2009. Plans call for the building to be enclosed in glass, wrapped on the outside with steel cables for support, and crowned with radio towers and wind turbines to supply electricity. Computer generated images on the Web site of the building's developer, Silverstein Properties, show a graceful, brightly illuminated skyscraper.
But scientists and bird enthusiasts say more than a billion birds are killed every year in the United States by slamming into windows or circling lights atop skyscrapers until they are so dazed and confused that they crash.
"Everything that could possibly be bad for birds about a building they are doing," said Rebecca Creshkoff, 47, an avid birdwatcher and member of New York City Audubon.
The Audubon Society and New York New Visions - a coalition of 21 architecture, planning, and design organizations that came together after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the trade center to advise on the rebuilding of lower Manhattan - have warned the project's architects and Silverstein Properties that the new building could prove especially deadly for birds.
"We've made them aware of the problem," but developers "are not under any obligation" to adjust their projects for bird safety, said Margaret Helfand, an architect and founder of New York New Visions.
Janno Lieber, Silverstein Properties' project director, said the company has hired a bird consultant to assist in designing the tower.
"In addition to our broader environmental approach, we are investigating a number of strategies for making the new buildings at the World Trade Center bird-friendly," Lieber said in a brief statement supplied in response to an inquiry.
Construction of the project began this year. The first three years of work are expected to take place below ground.
The trade center towers, among the world's tallest buildings before their destruction, were also particularly dangerous for birds, Creshkoff said. After complaints from bird lovers, the Port Authority, which managed the buildings, helped reduce the problem by turning off lights atop the towers during spring and fall migrations, she said.
"I feel an obligation to do something because if you don't work to protect what you love, what meaning is there in life?" Creshkoff said.
On the Net: www.silversteinproperties.com
www.nycaudubon.org/home/