“See Forever,” commands the tagline of One World Observatory—a jewel perched atop One World Trade Center that offers unrivaled vistas of Manhattan and beyond. On a clear day, you nearly can see forever: south to Coney Island and north to the suburbs of Westchester, past Roosevelt Island and beyond to Queens, and west to the Palisades that hug the curve of the Hudson. You can also time travel back to the days when the Lenape fished the riverbanks right up until the moment time-stamped on your ticket.
From the 102nd floor, 1,268 feet (386.5 m) up—the highest public vantage point in New York—panoramic skyline views tell the grand story of the metropolis. Capturing the imagination, the observatory vistas reveal a teeming center of culture and commerce, a physical terrain shaped by ancient geological forces, and an arena of human endeavor that stretches from prehistory to the present. With its unparalleled perspective on the region, One World makes clear that this supertall skyscraper could exist only in New York, and that the city itself is an integral part of One World Trade Center’s identity.
Blurring the line between media and architecture, One World immerses guests in New York’s ever-changing story, from the bedrock up. What sets it apart from other world-class observatories is a series of interactive experiences that begin even before visitors board high-speed elevators to the top. Traveling along a corridor’s length of vibrant cinematic narratives, guests hear first-person stories told by the men and women who built One World Trade Center. These accounts give a human face to the tower’s larger-than-life statistics and create the sense that one is hearing about its design and construction from a trusted friend.
Sky Pods, five state-of-the-art ThyssenKrupp elevators, among the fastest in the world, take visitors up to the observatory in forty-seven seconds. Crisp floor-to-ceiling digital displays on the cab walls reveal Manhattan’s geological and structural history, whisking visitors through time-lapse views of the past five hundred years. Lenape wigwams give way to the gabled houses built by Dutch settlers; St. Paul’s Chapel is quickly surrounded by Wall Street buildings, followed by a resplendent proliferation of bridges and skyscrapers. It’s the only time that September 11 is referenced: the façade of the South Tower of the original World Trade Center appears momentarily and then disappears. Some will recall sadly that this sight was the last seen by many. The last fifteen seconds are a tour de force: the steel structure of One World Trade Center appears to grow around the cab, taking its final form just before the doors open.
On the 102nd floor, the See Forever Theater captures the city’s rhythms and moods in a cinematic collage of bird’s-eye imagery, time-lapse shots, and abstract patterns. The collage builds in tempo and then dissolves, and the screen rises to reveal the real star of the show: a spectacular northward view of Manhattan.
Panoramas of all five boroughs, New Jersey, the East River, the Hudson River, and New York Harbor unfold from One World’s double-height space on the 100th floor. Designed to emphasize the views, the observatory lets the city itself take center stage. Vistas north, south, east, and west reveal the region’s architectural fabric—from skyscrapers to apartment houses, the Brooklyn and George Washington bridges, the national treasures of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Looking north, the city’s structural patchwork ripples up, down, and up again, as skyscrapers in downtown and midtown indicate where the Manhattan schist that made the city’s tall towers possible is most readily available. It’s a breathtaking visual primer of American structural technology of the past three centuries.
Bright-eyed, friendly guides roam the floors, ready to answer questions. More hospitality is available on the 101st floor, where three restaurants offer casual and fine dining options. At the One Mix bar and grill, there’s a dish for each borough: Pastrami Reuben bites (Manhattan), Astoria shish kebab (Queens), potato knish (Brooklyn), empanadas (the Bronx), and meatball sliders (Staten Island). Labels from bottles of One White and One Red, the observatory’s own line of wine, will no doubt make their way into family scrapbooks. A free side of killer views comes with every plate.
One World was developed and is operated by Legends, a sports and entertainment company that is owned by the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and an investment fund headed by David Checketts, Legends’ former chairman and chief executive.
Meeting the public’s expectations is always a challenge, especially in Manhattan, where people expect “much, much more.” The firm has invested a good deal of effort into quantifying what makes an experience unforgettable. For example, sports events allow people to escape the ordinary, letting them vicariously participate in thrilling highs and lows. At many Legends sports arenas, notably Yankee Stadium, those moments of human drama are combined with historical monuments and plaques that conjure both the past and the present. Similarly, One World blends history with an intense experience of the present moment, augmented by enhanced digital effects.
Before ascending, visitors hear the story of One World Trade Center’s design and construction, told by those who built it.
An animated timeline of lower Manhattan’s history unfolds inside the elevators. The show was designed and produced by the Hettema Group and Blur Studio, both based in California.
Without a doubt, love blooms in high places. At observatories around the globe, one sees lovers clinging to each other, inspired by tenderness (or perhaps acrophobia). At One World, the spot for both is the Sky Portal, a circular disk, fourteen feet (4.3 m) in diameter, set into the floor on the 100 level. Thanks to real-time high-definition cameras focused on the street below, guests can virtually hover a quarter mile (0.4 km) above the sidewalks.
City Pulse, two large circular displays of dynamic media, provides information on area landmarks and neighborhoods. One World Observatory is staffed by knowledgeable “ambassadors,” who know the best places to hear jazz or what’s playing on Broadway.
Those effects were developed by Legends and the award-winning Hettema Group, a California design studio that won the 2013 competition to design One World. Phil Hettema, owner of the Hettema Group, cut his teeth at Disneyland and Universal Studios and went on to develop projects around the globe, including the Statue of Liberty Centennial, the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and the “Beyond All Boundaries” experience at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Their designs are highly interactive, since visitors who participate are far more likely to enjoy and remember what they’ve experienced. That interactive spirit guided the design of One World, which, beyond its dazzling bells and whistles, explores the essence of human nature through storytelling.
At most observatories, once you’ve seen the view, it’s all downhill from there. That feeling has been dubbed “Grand Canyon Syndrome,” because after looking over the rim of the canyon for five minutes, people ask, “Now what?” In response, One World’s designers saved a final surprise: special effects inside the descending Sky Pods create the illusion that the elevator cab, having broken through the tower’s walls, is orbiting around the building. With this last bit of magic, the elevator re-enters the building and guests, now with new stories to tell, go on their way. 