Starting tonight, 1 World Trade Center will add its shimmer to the New York City skyline.
The 288 50-watt modules in the tower’s spire will be set aglow at 5:30 p.m., when they are lit as part of a test run, officials told DNAinfo.
The tower will eventually be lit every night, and should be visible up to 50 miles away when the weather is clear, a spokesman from the Durst Organization, which developed the tower in conjunction with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told DNAinfo.
The lighting comes as the skyscraper courts controversy over its height, which Durst and the Port Authority says soars to 1,776 feet. They will find out for certain whether the tower is in fact the country’s tallest later this month when the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a nonprofit that is the industry’s go-to source for rulings on skyscraper height, renders its verdict.
Should 1 World Trade Center emerge victorious, it will unseat Chicago’s 1,451-foot Willis Tower as the nation’s tallest building. [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland