<font color="plum">Just a minor quibble, <font color="orange">Sigmar</font>, but the original towers were built well beyond the required "building measures".

They both withstood a direct hit from two of the largest commercial jets in the world flying into them at full throttle. MOST buildings would have either been destroyed or knocked over on impact.

And - when the towers did collapse - they fell STRAIGHT DOWN rather than toppling over and crashing into other buildings.

All of this was the result of a far-sighted design by the architect.
While NOBODY could anticipate that either tower WOULD actually be hit by a plane...he had designed it to theoretically withstand such a crash (although he never envisioned the crash would be intentional, he was thinking about a plane losing control). He also deliberately designed the towers to collapse in on themselves if they did ever fall, so that they wouldn't take out several other buildings during their collapse.

As tragic as the events were..the buildings functioned exactly as they were designed. They stood for close to 2 hours after the initial impact....allowing many people to escape. And a professional demoliton team couldn't have collapsed the towers more perfectly within the space allowed.

Now, to answer <font color="yellow">Yorick's</font> original question, I would like to see the towers rebuilt...but I would also like to see a memorial included to the lives lost included in that rebuilding effort.</font></font>[/QUOTE]I'm just saying what I heard. I saw a documentry on the discovery channel about the towers and the person who designed then said "yes more could have been done to prevent larger airline crashes but we never foresaw a deliberate crash towards the towers as possible at the time, we learn from hindsight, this won't hapen again" he said.
I agree they wereimpressive structures,I'm just saying what I heard.

A park, that's actually a really nice idea! [img]smile.gif[/img]
Personally I really wouldn't know... I think I'd hold a vote for all New Yorkers and take their wishes into account. A memorial/monument of some sort would be imperative, I think, but apart from that...

[ 08-01-2002, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

I saw a suggested design not long ago, linked to from IW that I REALLY liked.

It was four(Or five, not sure.) towers instead of two, linked together at the top. With park both at the bottom and on the top. It really looked cool. And safe as well.

I think a monument would be in place, rebuild the towers, but do it somewhere else.

There was an article this Sunday in The Dallas Morning News about five different versions that they are considering. Personally, I'd include an Aegis missle installation.

<font color="plum">No worries, <font color="orange">Sigmar</font>. I didn't mean to come off as if I were attacking you. I saw the same interview on Discovery. I must have missed the part where the architect said more could have been done.

What I remember was that they had designed the Towers to theoretically withstand a plane crash...but like you pointed out...they never ever thought it would actually happen.

Nobody could have foreseen the events of last September. You can't predict madness.</font>

Now I like this idea [img]smile.gif[/img] . It puts a park and a building together. They should also put a memorial in, whhatever they decide to do. If its a park, I think it should be on marble steps in the park [img]smile.gif[/img] . That'd look cool.

Replace the two tower with three towers...The taller one in the middle. Face the whole structure ESE.

Ultimately I think it should be up to New Yorkers, and families of the people who lost their lives.

However, if I were to have a say in it, I think a memorial park would be the best way to go.

A note on skyscrapers - we don't have many in London (I can think of maybe 10 off the top of my head). OK, so it stood for a couple of hours and some people got out. Not bad, but here it is a fire regulation that any public building or workplace building with more than 50 people should be able to be completely evacuated within 4 minutes. Skyscrapers are a lot less safe than low rise and for purposes of evacuation I really think it's time to stop building things that take ages to clear.

<font color="lightblue">I agree. The quest for the tallest tower should have stopped with the Crysler Building. </font>