WTC will be record height

The new structure replacing the destroyed World Trade Center will become the tallest in the world, it has been announced.

Two possible designs are on a final shortlist featuring structures rising higher than the tallest in the world, Malaysia's 1,483ft Petronas Twin Towers.

One blueprint evokes the latticework of the original towers, while the other preserves the foundations of the twin skyscrapers. The proposals are by architectural team THINK and Berlin-based Daniel Libeskind.

Lord Foster's proposal to erect two interlinking towers on the site of the destroyed World Trade Center failed to make it on to the final shortlist.

The selection of the final two designs was announced by officials from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. An earlier group of proposed designs, released in July, was criticised as boring.

Neither of the finalists' plans conceives of office space extending all the way to the top.