Height of new World Trade Center debated in US

Rising from the ashes of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the new World Trade Center tower has punched above the New York skyline to reach its powerfully symbolic height of 1,776 feet (540 meters) and become the tallest building in the United States. Or has it?
A committee of architects recognized as the arbiters on world building heights yesterday met to decide whether a design change affecting the skyscraper's 400-foot (1,338-feet) needle disqualifies it from being counted. Disqualification would deny the tower the title as America's tallest.
But there's more than bragging rights at stake; 1 World Trade Center stands as a monument to those killed in the terrorist attacks, and the ruling could dim the echo of America's founding year of 1776 in the structure's height. Without the needle, the building measures 1,368 feet (4,488 feet).

What's more, the decision is being made by an organisation based in Chicago, whose cultural and architectural history is embodied by the Willis - formerly Sears - Tower that would be knocked into second place by a vote in favour of the New York structure.
"Most of the time these decisions are not so controversial," said Daniel Safarik, an architect and spokesman for the nonprofit Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
The 30 members of its Height Committee are meeting to render a judgement behind closed doors in Chicago, where the world's first skyscraper appeared in 1884.

The committee, comprising industry professionals from all over the world, will announce its decision next week.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, headquartered in Chicago, designed both buildings. Its Willis Tower opened as Sears Tower in 1973 and remained the tallest building in the world until 1996 when the council ruled that the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, had knocked it from the top spot.
The question over 1 World Trade Center, which remains under construction and is expected to open next year, arose because of a change to the design of its tower-topping needle.
Under the council's current criteria, spires that are an integral part of a building's aesthetic design count; broadcast antennas that can be added and removed do not.

The designers of 1 World Trade Center had intended to enclose the mast's communications gear in decorative cladding made of fiberglass and steel. But the developer removed that exterior shell from the design, saying it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair.
Without it, the question is whether the mast is now primarily just a broadcast antenna.