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Issue 9.12 | Dec 2001

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Tower of Power

The Aftermath for Anti-Globalists 
All Circuits Are Busy 
No Apologies 
Blueprint for a Better City 
Tower of Power 
Identity Politics 
Jargon Watch 
Who's Using Your Machine? 
Steal This Ebook 
This Bot Does Windows 

It's true: The Twin Towers could have been built to withstand the impact of a 767. "But they would be made of 4-foot-thick concrete and have no windows," says Ron Klemencic, a structural engineer and president of the firm that worked on the World Trade Center. It's been done before. Eight blocks from the World Trade Center stands the AT&T "long lines" building, a looming monolith of granite-clad concrete that was built, like many of Ma Bell's infrastructural nodes, to withstand nuclear fallout. But that building is filled with switching equipment - and only a few humans. So how do you build a livable skyscraper that lets everyone escape a disaster? It's a question already being answered by superstructures rising around the globe, from Renzo Piano's proposed $500 million, 1,000-foot London Bridge Tower (which would be Europe's tallest building) to Hong Kong's new International Finance Centre. Perhaps the best example of a safer skyscraper is in China, where the oft-delayed, 1,509-foot Shanghai World Financial Center is once again under way. When completed, it will eclipse Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building. Here are a few reasons why architect A. Eugene Kohn thinks the WFC would fare well against a plane - or an earthquake or a typhoon, for that matter.

- Tom Vanderbilt

1) The 164-foot hole piercing the crown of the SWFC building will relieve the structure from massive air pressure that can build up in this typhoon-heavy region. The attraction just under an observation deck will be a Ferris wheel, in contrast to the Muslim prayer rooms housed at the top of the Petronas Towers.

2) Whereas most New York City skyscrapers have Sheetrock-lined steel structural cores, the SWFC will feature a high-strength concrete core. Kohn says this special concrete, poured 2 to 4 feet thick, can resist the impact of a plane and keep fire from damaging the building's structure.

3) If fire breaks out in the SWFC, a fireproof wall will drop, dividing the affected floor(s) into several 20,000-square-foot areas.

4) In addition, every 13th story of the SWFC will be a "floor of refuge": a ventilated, concrete-lined vacant area that serves as a barrier against the vertical spread of fire and as a way station in the event of a disaster. Structural braces, or "outriggers," in those floors will provide further stiffness.

5) In the World Trade Center, firefighters ran up the same two stairwells evacuees were running down. The SWFC will have "firemen's lifts," or pressurized fireproof elevators, plus three stairwells.

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