After almost 15 years of construction, the World Trade Center site is slowly taking its definitive shape. Situated in the heart of New York City's historic financial district in Lower Manhattan, the six-tower complex managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is one of the most anticipated in the United States. Lined up along the landscaped 9/11 Memorial and its urban forest designed by Peter Walker and Partners, the new glassy office complex is coming to life.

3 World Trade Center in the Manhattan skyline, image by Nicolas Arnaud-Goddet

Next to the partially opened Santiago Calatrava-designed Transportation Hub that serves 11 subway lines connected with all parts of the city is 3 World Trade Center. Conceived by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and developed by Silverstein Properties, the future 80-storey office tower is racing towards its final height of 329 metres and is now visible from several vantage points. The picture above taken from Brooklyn Bridge Park in early April shows the tower's concrete core almost level with the roofline of the 298-metre 4 World Trade Center.

Looking up at 3 World Trade Center, image by Nicolas Arnaud-Goddet

Looking closer, the steel frame that forms the floor plates for the building's 232,000 rentable square metres of office space has also made progress since our last update. Near ground level, the first floors of the soon-to-be LEED Gold Certified edifice are now being coated with reflective blue glass cladding similar to that used across the rest of the complex. When complete in 2018, the 19-metre lobby space will connect directly to more than 46,000 square metres of destination and amenity retail and the nearby Transportation Hub.

3 World Trade Center, image via Rogers Stirk Harbour