One World Trade Center - Opening and Photo Contest

John Hill

5. November 2014

Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of SOM

On Monday, the 104-story tower designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) opened in Lower Manhattan, and on the same day SOM launched a photo contest to celebrate the building's completion.

The opening was really a soft one, to borrow some restaurant parlance, since it consisted of 175 of Condé Nast's 3,400 employees moving into portions of the media company's 25 floors at the base of the building. Condé Nast is the largest tenant in what is officially the tallest building in the western hemisphere; only about half of the space has been leased so far. The news of the move-in comes one week after it was announced that 3 WTC is moving forward, and two weeks after the first tenant moved into 4 WTC.

Photo: James Ewing/OTTO, courtesy of SOM

On Monday, SOM announced its One World Trade Center Photo Contest, asking "amateur and professional photographers to submit their original photographs of the tower through Instagram or email." Those with public Instagram accounts need only tag their photos #WelcomeOneWTC. The winner will received a scale model of the tower crafted by SOM in its Manhattan office, as well as a limited-edition print of One World Trade Center taken by photographer James Ewing. The deadline to enter is 3 December 2014 at 11:59 PM EST; visit SOM's website for the full contest rules.