The Oculus
The Oculus is an innovative shopping mall and transportation hub located in Lower Manhattan. It is one of New York City’s visually striking and super expensive building. In fact it is the most expensive train station in the world. The Oculus was designed by a Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. It took 14 long years to build this unique building. He designed it to resemble of a hand releasing a dove. This incredible building was built after 9/11 as a way to bring people back together after the devastating attacks that occurred that day. The Oculus represents NYC’s strength and resilience.
The Oculus has 350-foot wings that you cannot miss when you are in the World Trade Center area. I appreciate the interesting shape of this building and find it to be poetic. The Oculus is creative because Calatrava carefully designed this building to be in alignment with the sun’s solar angles on each September 11, from 8:46 am, when the first plane struck, until 10:28 am, when the second tower collapsed. It symbolizes “the light that continues to shine through.”
I decided to talk about the Oculus because it is an architectural gem that was designed with humans at the center. The Oculus is a gift “given to the community.” This building brings people together, heal, and remember their loved ones. It puts back a smile and “light” back into themselves. Calatrava designed the layout with ease of direction in mind. This provides users with straightforward navigation, explore comfortably, and overall a smooth user experience.
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