Original Blueprints of the World Trade Center on Sale in New York City for $250,000
The rare blueprints were found in a trash can by chance.
Nearly 20 years after the Twin Towers crumbled during the September 11 attacks, the original blueprints have been recovered by pure chance.
They went on sale over the weekend at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, and are expected to sell between $250,000 and $1,000,000.
Found in a rubbish bin
Of all places you’d expect to lay your hands on the original blueprints of the World Trade Center, also known as the Twin Towers, it would not be a rubbish bin. Yet, that’s precisely where these rare blueprints were discovered in 2018.
“The set is the largest one of World Trade Center blueprints ever offered for sale, the Cummins team said, with more than 500 plans covering the Twin Towers and other site components. The set dates from the late ’60s through the early ’70s.”
— Incunabula (@incunabula) March 5, 2020
The bin and the blueprints were in Denver, Colorado, where one of the Twin Towers’ architects, Joseph Solomon, moved to from New York in the 1970s.
The Towers were thought up in the 1960s and were completed by 1973, when they were the world’s tallest buildings.
This set of plans is the largest floor plan of the World Trade Center complex, including over 500 plans, to be found to date and to go on sale, according to James Cummins Bookseller from New York. Cummins believes the set will sell for at least six figures.
ORIGINAL TWIN TOWERS BLUEPRINTS: Blueprints for the original World Trade Center are on sale until Sunday at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. The going price will be six figures. https://t.co/i1GgfLOkLD
— 23 WIFR (@23WIFR) March 6, 2020
How did the plans end up in a rubbish bin?
After Solomon died in November 2017, his daughter Amy Lee Solomon threw out the plans while she was cleaning out his belongings in May 2018, unknowingly throwing out iconic plans.
SEE ALSO: ENGINEERING NYC’S ICONIC STRUCTURE: ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Local resident Jake Haas was passing by the bin when he noticed the plans that looked like antique maps. Intrigued, Haas pulled them out and quickly noticed that the words Tower A and Tower B were printed on the plans. Putting two and two together, Haas realized what the documents were and sold them to a pawnshop owner, Angelo Arguello.
Arguello reached out to Cummins, which is handling the sale of the blueprints on a consignment basis, so as to ensure the blueprints receive the merit they deserve.
The Twin Towers were an iconic part of New York City’s skyline, and when they came crashing down on September 11, 2001, because of an Al Qaeda terrorist attack, the world was deeply shaken.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum said that it does not have a set of original blueprints, and the Port Authority of New York said it was unsure whether or not it did.
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