“but it would be interesting to follow the history of the WTC, and learn how the PA came to own it, how that changed the world, etc.”
It “belonged” to the PA from the beginning. It was a public construction project, run by the PA, for the PA and it was 100% a PA run building until just a few months before 9/11, when they finally sold a 99-year lease on the building - just the building, not the land. The land was taken by eminent domain by a city-state “development” agency and is considered “city” land.
It was a “white elephant” building for most of its existence (part of the reason the PA did not - could not - sell a lease on it), requiring city, state and federal agencies to be cajoled into taking leases there so that it’s occupancy rate would not be a drag on the finances of the PA.
Using 100% public funds and public borrowing, NY city and state used the PA as the builder, developer, managing agent for the project.
When it was completed and ready for leasing its office space (taking much longer and costing much more than budgeted), the bottom dropped out of NYC commercial office high-rise construction market (with the millions of square feet of public financed available office space hitting the market at once).
In fact the city’s largest builder of commercial office space at the time (Carl A. Morse, Inc. - they built the Sears Tower in Chicago), left the commercial high-rise construction market in NYC shortly after the opening of the publicly financed WTC.
Had the WTC never been built, dozens of smaller builders - commercially viable buildings - would have been built with private capital and private builders all around the Wall Street area. With the publicly financed WTC bringing so much office space into the Wall Street market, the project chased a lot of the private capital away, for many years.
In fact, it was only just a few years before the PA finally leased the WTC to Silverstein - indicating, the occupancy rate could finally survive without political cajoling of politically sensitive offices - that commercial high-rise construction in lower Manhattan was having a rebound.
In addition to all of that, the construction innovations incorporated into the WTC are probably what led to its collapse and most likely would have been too expensive for a private developer to risk. But, when you are using public funds - debt of the PA - go ahead, risk it.
In my opinoin, what led to its collapse, were the two airplanes that crashed into it on a clear blue September morning.
In my opinoin, what led to its collapse were the two airplanes that crashed into it on a clear blue September morning.
The WTC was a Rockefeller brain child. Nelson and David were the point men, but a couple of the other brothers were also involved.
Nelson was in love with international style high rises and large public projects. He overbuilt most of the state university campuses during his long reign, and you can still see the results of his destructive urban planning mentality in Albany. People used to say that he had an “edifice complex.”
Old man Rockefeller made the family fortune, but the Rockefeller brothers were trained up as socialists. The old robber baron helped build the country but his do-good heirs have done much to undermine it since. Among other things, they pretty much singlehandedly kicked off the international population control movement, doing good by killing people.
fascinating stuff - thanks.