The WTC Oculus, centerpiece of the WTC transit hub – will have more than 100 stores inside the 365,000-square-foot mall space, a mix of retail, including Sephora, Cole Haan and the Apple store, and food anchors like Eataly and Epicerie Boulud. The expansive retail area takes up space inside the WTC's Oculus, as well as inside 3 WTC, 4 WTC and underground corridors linking the PATH train and subways to the streets above. Eventually, when 2 WTC opens in the next several years, an additional 90,000 square feet of retail will open inside that building. I took a walk through that space recently and was really confused as to how it “ties together” the train lines. It’s a lovely, open sunlit subterranean plaza but it has so many corridors and confusing angles and no maps to show you where you are. Yes there are signs that say “to PATH trains” Or “N train” but it’s not a logically laid out space like the original one was. Oh and lots of shops for shopping, that is if you have the cash to afford the prices.

 

Liberty Park is modeled after Manhattan’s High line and was built atop the very ugly Vehicle Security Center which screens vehicles before they enter the subterranean roads and loading docs that cross the entire trade center. The Park was designed by landscape architect Joseph Brown. Its most unusual feature is the Living Wall, a 25 by 336 foot green wall facing Liberty St. It is covered by more than 22,000 plants in 826 soil filled panels. Last month a sapling grown form the horse chestnut outside of Anne Frank’s home in Amsterdam was planted in the park. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. I found the space boring. There are wooden box like benches and plantings but visually it misses the mark. And you can’t view Ground Zero because of its elevated height all you see are the tops of trees!