WTC hub architect aims to inspire a generation.

Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, hopes his design of the Port Authority's new World Trade Center Transportation Hub will inspire many generations to come.

Giving an impassioned presentation at the New York Building Congress breakfast last week on his vision of the new hub that he was commissioned to design last year, Calatrava explained that, in addition to designing a transit station that would fit into and connect the landscapes of the region, he based his design on the image of a child, hands outstretched, setting free a bird.

"The young people, it is given to them," he said to the nearly 300 attendees. "It's a civic center. It is given to everybody."

The glass roof above the hub's freestanding grand pavilion, featuring ribbed arches that evoke a cathedral, will open daily during summer months for ventilation. The glass-and-steel wings will rise up to 150 feet.

Calatrava's symbolic design, to be finalized by spring of next year, memorializes the event and commemorates the moments before the world changed, with even the natural light that will reach rail platforms 60 feet below street level having significant meaning.

"September 11 was a very bright day," he said. "Maybe it (the design of the hub) was a better way than having a memorial."

Although the avant-garde design is quite different than any other terminal hub now in New York, it will function much like Grand Central Terminal in Midtown, he said.

Joseph Seymour, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said, "Santiago understands that great cities demand great spaces ... a place that is not only a transportation hub but a great piece of architecture.

Seymour estimated the project would stay within the $2 billion budget. The temporary PATH station, just opened in November of last year, cost $540 million to build with a design-build delivery system.

The permanent World Trade Center Transportation Hub is scheduled for completion in 2006 and will include underground pedestrian connections to New York City subway stations on the 1/9, N/R and E lines, as well as connections to the 2, 3, 4, 5, J, M, Z, A and C lines at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed Fulton Street Transit Center.

Seymour said the hub will be built in two or three construction stages with all construction being completed by 2007/2008.

Calatrava has designed several transportation projects throughout Europe, including Sondica Airport in Bilbao, Spain; Railway Station in Liege, Belgium; Airport Station in Lyon, France; Alameda Metro Stationin Valencia, Spain; and Stadelhofen Station in Zurich, Germany.

The WTC project is being designed by the Downtown Design Partnership, which includes Calatrava, and is led by the joint venture of DMJM + Harris and STV Group, Inc.--two architectural-engineering firms.