Merry Christmas everyone! I’ve decided to take some time and show off a little labor of love that I’ve been working on in a small Minecraft server a couple of us here at Pixeltail play on.
Anyone who’s known me knows that for reasons really unknown to myself, I have a fascination with the old World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. The fascination doesn’t so much stem from the disaster in which they were destroyed, but simply in the complex itself. Maybe it’s the twin buildings, or how elegant it looks from a distance, I dunno.
Whatever the case, solely in Creative Mode, I set out to create as best as I could a 1:3 Scale Model of the entire complex. This isn’t complete, as I do want to do the Underground Mall and Path Station at some point, but all the above ground areas are completed.
Only 1 and 2 World Trade Center (The Towers) have interiors, simply because I could not actually find any reference photos of the other buildings since for the most part they were off limits from the public and actual offices. I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I did making it.
This first photo has a little bit of story to go with it. Originally I wanted to build a 1:3 scale model of the Statue of Liberty, but for the life of me I couldn’t get any of the shapes right and it just didn’t end up looking so well. In an attempt to not make the base and little island in vein, I decided to erect a fictional “What could have happened” statue instead, as apparently in whatever Minecraft world we are in, the tragic event that destroyed these buildings didn’t occur. The Statue is based on this memorial statue in New Jersey, across the Hudson River.
A closer up view from the ocean of the complex. Since I couldn’t really find suitable flat space, I found a island that was roughly large enough to hold the entire complex, terraformed it out so it would all fit, and built the complex as if it were an island. In this photo you can clearly see 1 and 2 World Trade Center, along with the Marriott Hotel 3 World Trade Center, 6 World Trade Center, and the Redish Orange 7 World Trade Center.
A view from the other side of the entire complex. Here all 7 buildings are visible. The Sphere monument in real life wasn’t centered in the plaza, being off to the side, but in 1:3 scale it didn’t work out very well so putting it in the center was really all I could do. In real life, 7 World Trade Center, built roughly 10 years after the original complex was across the street, so because it’s on an island this time, I figured why not give it its own little island with the sky bridge.
Fun Fact: The Sphere monument, despite being so close to the Towers, actually survived the attacks, and was errected in Battery Park. I believe it is now being either moved or is already showcased in the 9/11 Memorial. Photo of the Sphere in Battery Park
A higher altitude view of the entire complex looking down. Here you can see the Observation Area on 2 World Trade Center, as well as the Television Mast on 1 World Trade Center.
Fun Fact: Both towers were originally designed to have a mast if they needed it, but only 1 World Trade Center ever obtained one. However, there was a 2 year period after construction where 1 World Trade Center didn’t have a mast. World Trade Center Complex still in construction.
View of the Towers from the Plaza looking at the Sphere. In the right, you can see I took the flags from Galacticraft and made my own American Flag with it.
View of 1 World Trade Center from the Observation Deck of 2 World Trade Center.
View of the side of 1 World Trade Center and 7 World Trade Center from 2 World Trade Center.
View of the tops of the Two Towers. There is only so much detail you can do in a 1:3rd scale.
This is completely not how Windows on the World looked by any stretch of the immagination, but because of the 1:3rd scale, I was hard pressed to replicate it as well as I wanted to. For reference, this is what the original Windows on the World looked like.
View of the “What could have Been” Statue from the little park area I created infront of 2 World Trade Center. I found a block / item that looked a bit like a viewfinder so I used that to try to get the point across heh.
View of the Two Towers from the same position as the last image.
That concludes my post about this project. It was really fun to build and the rich history about the complex is what made it such a fun thing to build. It’s history is often clouded in the events of it’s destruction, and that’s a shame because the stories about its construction, how it was maintained and operated, are really really neat to history buffs out there.
I hope you enjoyed viewing these photos as much as I did from making the complex. Hope you learned a couple of facts you didn’t know before as well. I may update or make another post if I ever build the underground Mall / Path Station.
Merry Christmas!
