So how do you build a skyscraper to withstand a collision with a jet airliner nearly full of fuel? The Empire State Building withstood the impact of a bomber, but that was a smaller plane flying at a slower speed and low on fuel (they were in heavy fog trying to find the airport).
I take it my earlier suggestion of building the new skyscraper out of solid adamantium is out, then? 
(I mean, all we’d need to do was invent adamantium first.)
That’s hilarious! “Uhhh, boss? The suicide bombings didn’t go exactly as planned…”
I have seen this sentiment come up a couple of times. My understanding is that:
- water is more or less useless on burning jet fuel
and
- Any fire burning at a normal temprature can be contained by the skyscraper’s firewalls/sprinkler systems.
Am I right about that? Surely we have had normal fires in skyscrapers before, and they didn’t burn the whole building down.
It’s possible that the fires massed among several floors immediately. Water pipes were probably crushed and broken and would not be able to supply the sprinkler systems. So…perhaps not.
Great Buildings Online has already updated their WTC page and their Pentagon page.
Toaster wrote:
This would stop most ordinary folks from getting out of a burning skyscraper alive, but would it have stoped Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno?
Toaster wrote:
This would stop most ordinary folks from getting out of a burning skyscraper alive, but would it have stopped Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno?
Well my first reaction was to have them rebuilt a little taller. NYC should have the worlds tallest building after all. Now a special feature of the new improved WTC would be that the lights of the offices that face the ocean would make a fist with an extended middle finger at night. (sort of a new beacon to the world) Of course I think the original builders lost their shirts. And of course I would forbid Mrs.Z to work there.
Now I like tracer’s idea.
First off, Tracer, you rock.
To address waterj2’s comment about the buildings being ugly … well, a lot of New Yorkers felt that way too. They weren’t the most beloved buildings in New York based upon how they looked, that’s for sure. However, in the past few years, public feeling about them has been changing – I don’t know if it’s that more people started to appreciate that style of architecture (minimal, but graceful), or if one just becomes fond of something one sees every day regardless of how ugly it is.
I have no doubt that at least some of the space, or some of the future building, will be a memorial to the victims of this horrible act.
As to other possible functions of the space, there are several possibilities. I think we should rebuild, with the intention of having space for business and commerce. However, I don’t think the new structure should look exactly like the old ones. Time has passed and our priorities and needs have changed. Let’s build something that speaks to the 21st century.
In Greenwich Village, there is a 19th century row townhouse that was destroyed by the Weathermen’s bomb in 1970. There was quite a bit of debate about what should be done – restore it to exactly how it looked before, to make it blend in with the other townhouses in the row? Build somehing completely modern? What ended up happening was that the house was rebuilt in a modern design that preserved the shape of a townhouse, with the front set at an angle to the rest of the street, to symbolize the impact of the exploding bomb. It’s a very successful mingling of old and new.
There’s a picture of it here:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/village/greenwich.html
It’s a big page, so it takes time to load, and you need to scroll down almost to the bottom to see the picture of the house at 18 West 11th Street. It’s not the greatest picture for showing how the modern house is part of a larger complex of historic townhouses, but you get the general idea.
Anyway, I would like to see something like this for the WTC site – something new, looking to the future, but a design that also incorporates a tribute to the Twin Towers, so that we remember the past.
(but only if we can’t go with the first choice, a giant robot)
http://www.photoasa.com/disk2/3679/91918_rebuilding_the_wtc1.jpg
But seriously, yes they should be rebuilt. The city just looks wrong without them.
Lease owner Larry Silverstein committed to rebuilding. However, he said he would not build exact replicas, “acknowledging tenants may be reluctant to relocate in such prominent buildings, according to the paper.”