[iwar] Skyscrapers may go out of fashion after attacks

From: Mohammad Ozair Rasheed (ozair_rasheed@geocities.com)
Date: 2001-09-15 22:48:19

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From: "Mohammad Ozair Rasheed" <ozair_rasheed@geocities.com>
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Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 10:48:19 +0500
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http://www.dawn.com/2001/09/16/int14.htm

Skyscrapers may go out of fashion after attacks 

By Henry Petroski 

WASHINGTON: Two attack sites in two cities - one with its buildings
arranged vertically, in celebration of America's towering supremacy, the
other horizontally, crouched symbolically in defence - have posed two
very different challenges for the rescue teams. And after the rubble is
cleared, they will provoke two very different responses from architects
and engineers. 

The twin World Trade Centre towers provided a large amount of office
space on a small plot of land. The risks inherent in such a design
became dramatically clear on Tuesday, not so much during but after the
aeroplane attacks, when the towers succumbed to the heat and collapsed
upon themselves. 

The Pentagon, by contrast, is an example of how millions of square feet
of office space can be constructed close to the ground. The building
continued to burn two days later, but the weight of the rest of the
structure did not bear down on the affected area. 

Firefighters were able to tackle the blaze right away rather than
remaining helplessly on the street, 80-odd stories below the point of
impact and the resulting conflagration. 

The Pentagon will very likely be restored to its full geometry long
before any decision is made about what to do with the land on which the
World Trade Centre once stood. Indeed, the terrorist attack on the
towers may well mark the end of skyscraper construction for the
foreseeable future. 

It is not that structural engineers cannot build tall buildings to
withstand the impact of an aeroplane. That they could was proved as long
ago as 1945, when the Empire State Building survived being struck by a
bomber flying off-course in fog. 

Tuesday's events demonstrated that even newer, taller buildings can take
the impact of large aircraft. What the twin towers could not survive was
the ensuing inferno fed by enormous amounts of jet fuel. 

Tall buildings present enormous problems in vertical transportation when
fire breaks out, for example, and elevators stop working. In the wake of
the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, people had to find their way down
dark and smoke-filled stairwells, which called attention to the
importance of evacuation plans. 

Last week's tragedy is likely to affect future building plans in even
more fundamental ways. What business will rent space in a new skyscraper
if the very word evokes images of airplanes flying into the upper
stories and deaths numbering in the thousands? Will employees be on the
lookout for a surprise attack? Will clients want to visit an office in
which they fear they might be trapped? 

The era of the signature building might very well have ended on Sept 11,
2001. US skylines and many around the world may remain for the next
several decades as they are today. -Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The
Washington Post. 

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