The brief for 3 World Trade Center outlined the building’s function as the site’s commercial core. The tower had to address the issue of balancing retail and office space, while also complementing and acknowledging the WTC memorial. The building has an orthogonal relationship to the main space between the proposed memorial water pools. To complement this relationship, the central zone of the building has been reduced in mass as it rises towards the sky. The effect is a stepped profile which accentuates the building’s verticality, relative to the memorial site and is sympathetic to the height and positions of the neighboring buildings.

The design includes five trading floors, 54 office floors (totaling 2.1 million sq ft (195,096m²) and five retail levels, as well as eight mechanical floors which serve the trading and office floors, 37 passenger lifts and two principal stairwells. The lower part of the building – the ‘podium building’ – contains the tower’s retail element and the trading floors. The upper levels of the tower hold the office space. ‘Live’, active façades, at street level, will enable the free-flowing movement of shoppers.

There will be two below-grade retail levels and three retail levels above the ground floor, served by two lifts and four stairwells. To maximize sustainability in terms of the building’s day-to-day functioning, similar ‘green design’ features as those included in the design of 7 World Trade Center have been incorporated. The design team has ensured that energy use and costs are significantly reduced compared to typical Manhattan office buildings. The building is ‘Gold’ Certificated for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design from the U.S.

Green Buildings Council.