Reports proliferate on World Trade Center

Now that the world is recovering from the shock of September 11, conferences, reports and television programs that examine the engineering and construction implications for tall building design are proliferating.
Tonight (April 30) a NOVA documentary entitled “Why the Towers Fell” will air on public television in many areas. It includes a segment by Dr. Thomas Eagar, a professor of materials, engineering and engineering systems at MIT.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has published its initial Task Force report on the collapse on its website, www.ctbuh.org. The organization is also hosting a one-day symposium in New York City on May 31, entitled “Assessing Tall Building Safety,” and has a new publication entitled “The Building Safety Enhancements Guidebook” which is written for building owners and managers to show them the options they might choose to enhance a building’s safety provisions. The Council is advocating a performance-based design approach for mitigating extreme hazards rather than advocating building code changes.
Looking to the future, the Construction Institute (www.constructioninst.org) has issued a report on rebuilding the World Trade Center, written by its Committee on Social and Environmental Concerns. With the aim of influencing planners, developers, and others who might be contemplating rebuilding the financial conglomeration, they examine a range of issues from an environmental and health point of view, including building heights and concentration, air quality, security and bioterrorism preparedness. Chair of the committee was Robert F. Borg, P.E., of Kreisler Borg Florman General Construction Company of Scarsdale, New York.