Posted on 04/25/2009 9:42:30 AM PDT by Doctor13
The crowning memorial at Ground Zero was supposed to be the "Freedom Tower," a glass tower stretching into the heavens and restoring New York's skyline and America's pride.
Freedom Tower model by architect Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.
Last month the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey changed the name from Freedom Tower to "One World Trade Center." The explanation from Port Authority chairman Anthony Coscia was all about business, "As we market the building, we will insure that it is presented in the best possible way -- 1 World Trade Center is the address that we're using."
It's a bit fishy that the same month the Port Authority decides freedom is no longer a marketable virtue, Beijing company Vantone Industrial leases floors 64 through 69 in the tower (or, we should say, the building "formerly known as the tower").
The Port Authority also has decided that Chinese-made glass is the way to go in the construction of the building.
Despite the fact that three American glass manufacturers, including Pittsburgh-headquartered PPG Industries, spent months working with the tower architects to plan and develop a new kind of glass for floors one through 20, none of these American companies was awarded the contract to make the glass. The shun is reverberating in central Pennsylvania, too. One of PPG's main plants is in Carlisle.
Scores of American workers right here in the midstate -- not too far from where another of the planes went down that fateful Sept. 11, 2001 -- will no longer be a part of building the new tower.
That "honor" is going to Chinese workers, mainly because they get paid so little.
The decision puts a crack in the veneer of what should have been a great American monument. Now it might as well be stamped "Made in China."
I regret that I could not figure out how to include the photo of the tower that appears in The Patriot-News. If someone can, please add it to the editorial posted.
My apologies.
And then when the glass, for no apparent reason, begins to explode, then they will wish they had trusted American glass makers.
“Made in China” ping to you, Jack.
Corzine knew about these conditions last year when he signed the Memorandum of Understanding WITH China.
>>>Shoot any union or mobster that tries to skim anything off the top
bump
Happens all the time. I once spent months working with a firm that makes big red tractors fixing a design issue. The production contract went to - China. They solve their own continuing problems now.
Hey, China is the biggest foreign holder of our debt. When China speaks, we listen and it goes far beyond what construction materials we use in a building or what name we give it. This is what happens when you become the world’s biggest debtor nation.
Does that include the mob that runs DC which creates a business environment so hostile American companies can't compete with overseas manufacturing? I hope so!
Thank you sooooo much!
TANKS,Jack,,,
I look for more of this “Made by Chi-Coms” in the USA...:0/
So they are going to ship sheet glass 13,00 miles +/- from China to NYC. Glass which is fragile, ship it 13,000 miles over, hopefully, very calm seas. Surely I am not the only one who can see the problem with this.
When they could buy the stuff in central/western PA , what 300 miles at most from NYC,they are going to ship the stuff 13,000 miles or more. I am shaking my head and wondering what is wrong with the people behind the project.
It's called "quality control".
The pieces that make it unbroken get stamped "Passed by Inspector #9...you get eggroll!"
Glass is sturdier than you think. Glass for skyscraper exteriors are rated to be extremely impact resistant in case of birds running into it, not to mention capable of weathering gale force winds. Also, it probably is cheaper to ship from China to New York than from Pennsylvania to New York. Ocean transport costs fractions of what it costs for truck and rail normally and with the decline in the Baltic dry index it’s the next best thing to free.
That’s probably true ... IF the glass were from almost any other country overseas. But from China, it will probably make it here in one piece ... only to probably shatter when the first gust of wind hits it.
Or maybe it will give off some chemical fumes that will make people sick.
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