With entrances on all 4 sides of the building, One WTC has been designed to smoothly integrate traffic of visitors & office tenants.  The cubic base has a footprint identical to the original Twin Towers.  The surface of the base is clad in more than 2,000 pieces of shimmering prismatic glass.  The tower ascends 69 stories — its edges chamfered back to form 8 isosceles triangles, a perfect octagon at center.   It culminates in a square, glass parapet at the crown, its crystalline form creating a vibrant effect, as light refracts like a kaleidoscope, changing throughout the day.  The “One World Observatory” — opening 2015 — is an enclosed observation deck rising 1,250 ft. above street level.  The crown of One WTC is a 408-foot spire — consisting of a mast and a communication platform ring.  At night, a beacon at the top sends out a horizontal light beam, which can be seen from miles away.

7 WTC represents the cutting edge of contemporary architecture and design. The tower has earned many awards, including the Municipal Art Society of New York's 2006 award for Best New Building, and the 2006 Merit Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter.

The tower skin is made of floor-to-ceiling clear glass. The taut glass wall is pulled apart at the floor levels, creating a tension in the building surface. The stainless-steel spandrels are modeled to catch reflected sunlight that is colored to match the tone of the sky.

The surface of the building is a study in reflected color and light and calibrated to create the illusion of depth. By day, 7 WTC is animated with light, evolving as weather conditions change. By night, it is artificially illuminated with programmed LED projection sequences.

"The design of 4 World Trade center has two fundamental elements - a 'minimalist' tower that achieves an appropriate presence, quiet but with dignity, and a 'podium' that becomes a catalyst for activating the surrounding urban streetscape as part of the revitalization of lower Manhattan." ~Architect Fumihiko Maki

The building's façade is clad in floor–to–ceiling windows utilizing composite glass with multiple layers of coatings intended to achieve a matte metallic finish with a luminous sheen, endowing the tower with an abstract quality — minimal, light, cool in color, and ephemeral, changing with the light of day. Two glass obtuse edges of the tower on the SW & NE corners have been articulated with indentations — making them appear slender and sharp. Column-free corners and 80-foot perimeter column spans enhance interior design options, increase the amount of natural light, and offer uninterrupted views from every window.

The tower consists of a reinforced concrete core with steel structure outside the core, and clad in an external structural steel frame. Its safety systems will exceed New York City building code and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey requirements, and it achieves the LEED Gold standard for energy efficiency. The three-story high lobby provides visitors a "big picture window" of the Memorial park outside. Upper level floors straddle those beneath in a podium building formation, lending the tower a distinct interlocking nature and facilitating the high occupancy of the office floors. Finally, the redeveloped Cortlandt & Dey Streets that interface with 3 WTC improve the accessibility both of the retail spaces in the building, and the WTC Transportation Hub.

The design of 2 WTC is derived from its urban context at the meeting point between two very different neighborhoods: the Financial District with its modernist skyscrapers and TriBeCa with its lofts and roof gardens. The design combines the unique qualities of each, melding high-rise with low-rise and modern with historical. From the 9/11 Memorial, the building appears as a tall and slender tower just as its three neighboring towers, while the view from TriBeCa is of a series of stepped green terraces. The building is aligned along the axis of World Trade Center Master Planner Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Wedge of Light’ plaza to preserve the views to St. Paul’s Chapel from the Memorial park.

The needs and requirements of its tenants are concentrated into seven separate building volumes, each tailored to their unique activities. The stacking creates 38,000 sf (3,530 sm) of outdoor terraces full of lush greenery and unprecedented views of the surrounding cityscape, extending life and social interaction outdoors. A public plaza at the foot of the building and access to 350,000 sf (32,516 sm) of shopping and restaurants in the adjacent transportation hub and concourses will ensure life and activity in and around the new World Trade Center. The modernist skyscraper and the contemporary interpretation of the pre-modern setback merge in a new hybrid and an exciting addition to the NYC skyline.