The Rising and Falling of the Twin Towers

            The Twin Towers are more known for 9-11, than any other reason. It is known for the disaster that occurred, not the architectural marvel it was of its time. The Twin Towers were the tallest building at the time they were built, there was 65 feet deep of dirt dug up under each tower to make the foundation. That 1 million cubic feet of dirt, later became Battery Park City. These monuments might be known more for the tragedy that took place 11 years ago, but they still are some of the most innovative monuments in history.

            The design of the Twin Towers was done by Minuru Yamasaki, with help from a company called Emory and Associates. Yamasaki used a relatively new idea when designing the towers, using what’s called a tube in tube foundation. Tube in tube is the concept of using reinforced perimeter walls around a steel column. The outer walls are supposed to protect the interior from the elements, including the high winds and high elevation. The concept did not prevent swaying though, as the top of the towers could sway up to 3 feet in any direction. The steel columns were sprayed with fire retardant material to prevent fire from spreading, and the columns were meant to hold the entire weight of the towers. These ideas were surely innovative, and allowed for the construction of huge towers, but the safety lacked in some matters, and that brought up the question, was the complete collapse of the Twin Towers preventable?     

            Many New York Fire Chiefs believe so, and I would have to agree with them. I think that if you listen and think about what  say you will agree too. I have to begin by saying that it is not all the designers fault that the design was poor for safety. The Port Authority demanded that there be 10,000,000 square ft. of office space, which called for the 110 floors in each tower. To achieve this, Yamasaki knew that he couldn’t use standard building procedures or follow the current building code, that specified almost everything, including the make and model that most of the equipment had to be. The Port Authority did not have to follow building codes, so they followed what was just of draft in 1966 when construction started, of what was called performance codes. The codes didn’t specify what make or model anything had to be, just that it could pass certain requirements. For the tower to reach the 110 stories it needed to, it would have to be lightweight, which left almost no room to put concrete on the steel columns as a way to keep fire from spreading quickly. If you look at close up pictures of the rubble from the twin towers, you can see a lot of steel, but nearly no concrete. This is why the fire spread so quickly through the towers. The fire retardant spray was scaled off the steel, left the fire spread through the air vents and the foundation of the towers.

                The design behind the twin towers looked good on paper, and truly made America a powerhouse for many years in the economical world. The tower stood as the tallest building in the world, but when you’re at the top, everybody tries to shrink you back to size. So, what do you think would have happened had the Twin Towers never completely collapsed?  What would’ve happened, if we put safety, quality, before quantity?