World Trade Center

Background

We generally haven't had reconstructions of real-world buildings on Nosiphus servers. There have been two consistent exceptions to this rule, only one of which we've built: the World Trade Center.

Shortly after the twelfth anniversary of 9/11, on September 14, 2013, Sean had the idea to start building the twin towers on the Nosiphus server, and Wyatt would join in a couple hours later. While the first version was rudimentary, later ones would be revised and edited to look more accurate.

In addition to the twin towers, Wyatt would also build the modern One World Trade Center alongside them a few days later. It wasn't quite as tall because the tops were getting close to the world height limit, even though in reality, the current building is significantly taller than the original ones were.

Both Sean and Wyatt have a great deal of respect for the World Trade Center, and for what happened on that horrific Tuesday morning all those years ago. They both felt that reconstructing them was a good way to honor them.

Construction

The original version was solid iron, and the towers weren't even heighted: Sean had read that one tower was six feet taller than the other, but got it backwards: it was the North Tower that was taller in real life, but on the server, the South Tower was six blocks taller. This made one tower look significantly bigger, as six meters is nearly 20 feet. This was corrected in every subsequent revision. Slightly later on, the original version gained gray layers at the top, and even later the midsections, symbolizing how the WTC towers had bands of slightly darker material around parts of the building. This incarnation was copied to other servers a few times, before receiving a remodel later on.

World Trade Center (2013 Design)

Remodel

When the building received its first remodel, the focus was on accuracy and improving its look. The flat faces of the first incarnation was covered by layers of lines that extended past the windows, producing a more accurate look for the building. Additionally, using sloped corners from Carpenter's Blocks allowed for the building to gain even more accuracy.

World Trade Center (2014 Design)

Enlargening

As the version wars began to heat up in 2015, the server map began to change rather often. As a result, the World Trade Center wasn't always added to the maps. When it was rebuilt in early 2016, it was expanded to become much wider, although its height didn't change much. It resulted in a stumpier looking version, which in retrospect didn't match the real buildings very well.

World Trade Center (2016 Design)

Revision

When the transition to Telkit II occurred in June 2018, the WTC wasn't ported over immediately. The decision was also made that that the towers should be made to look a bit closer to their real counterparts. When they returned in 2018, we ensured that they regained the darker colored areas around each 1/3 mark on the way up. This design remained all the way to 2022.

World Trade Center (2018 Design)

Proper Scaling

The World Trade Center was removed from the Telkit IV server on April 29, 2022, and remained absent for nearly three years. We reclaimed the area where they were and repurposed it, and there was no obvious location to place them. In the time that elapsed, the server went through a few changes, most importantly including the return of the road network. Once that had been established, a spot was finally chosen on January 29, 2025. Taking advantage of modern Minecraft's increased height limit, we finally managed to increase the height of the towers to full 1:2 scale. At long last, they looked like they were supposed to.

World Trade Center (2025 Design)