Will building boffins knock the Freedom Tower down to size?

One World Trade Center towers above the Lower Manhattan skyline (AP)

At a symbolic 1,776 feet high (1776 being the year the Declaration of Independence was issued) above the New York skyline, 1 World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, was to be the ultimate symbol of America's fightback from the 9/11 attacks – stood in the place of the Twin Towers, the tallest building in America, nay, the western hemisphere would emerge. Except that, oh...

The New York Times reported yesterday that if the people who decide how tall a building is – the fun-sounding Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat – decide that 1WTC's redesigned spire (it's had its originally planned cladding removed) is actually a functioning antenna, then New York's tallest won't be America's tallest when it's completed in 2014. In fact, at a dinky 1,368-feet, it won't even be America's second tallest building. First and second will be Chicago's Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower. Bummer.

Of course, the very fact that New York has managed to rebuild downtown at all is a near miracle so perhaps its citizens can take heart from that. Or ignore the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The nerds.