Terrorist Attacks on USA
 Architecture, Engineering, GIS and Technical Information

click to get larger picture (2 MB JPEG) photo credit: spaceimaging.com

Technical information related to the terrorist attack on the United States on Sep 11, 2001 and the recovery.

• Architecture
• Engineering and Construction
• CAD and Graphics
• GIS
• Internet/Web Technology
• Satellite/Airphoto Imagery
• Miscellaneous
• General News Sites
• Cancelled CAD Events

If you know of information that would that would be of special interest to the engineering and design, please let us know by sending an email to [email protected].

Architecture

• What is an Event and What is its Duration? - assessing the cultural and architectural aftermath of September 11th, Peter Wheelwright, in the Cause of Architecture, April 1, 2002
• Plans for 7 WTC Moving Forward - John E. Czarnecki, archrecord.com, March 11, 2002
• Exhibitions About WTC in New York City - a number of exhibitions are being held in the city inspired by the World Trade Center tragedy from the New York Times,  Architectural Record, Feb 4, 2002
• A New World Trade Center: Design Proposals - exhibit features design proposals from more than 50 architects, Architectural Record, Jan 22, 2002
• Symposium Speakers Insist on Freedom Without Fortresses - buildings in the United States, especially public buildings, cannot be built as insular fortresses that are unwelcoming to the public, John E. Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA, Architectural Record, Jan 2002
• New York New Visions - coalition of 20 architecture, planning, and design organizations makes recommendations on the issues surrounding the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, Jan 2002
• Rebuilding Ground Zero - interview with prominent architects involved with the rebuilding of lower Manhattan, Online NewsHour, Nov 12, 2001
• Rapid Evacuation Concepts Aired - Prince Charles speaks for the continuation of tall buildings at skyscraper conference in London, Nadine M. Post and Peter Reina, enr.com, Dec 13, 2001
• New York Considers - a status report on the site of the World Trade Center, Tess Taylor, Architecture Week, Nov 14, 2001
• Architects Seek Security Guidance - 90% of architects on webcast say security needs should be assessed early, Tom Sawyer, enr.com, Nov 7, 2001
• AIA Members Alerted to Unusual Requests for Building Information -advisory issued after Pakistani students ask for plans for public buildings, Kevin Lerner, Architectural Record, Oct 30, 2000
• Competing Plans Hope to Shape a Trade Center Memorial - New York Times, Oct 25, 2001 (may require registration)
• Proposed 500-Meter-Tall Tower In Shanghai Readying To Restart - undaunted, construction resumes on skyscraper that will be 50 meters higher than the current tallest buildings, the Petronas towers in Malaysia, Nadine M. Post, construction.com, Oct 29, 2001
• Rebuild the WTC Towers? Death of the Skyscrapers? Designers Weigh In - often emotional comments on rebuilding the towers, architecturalrecord.com, Sep, 2001
• The World Trade Center: 1973-2001 - beautiful pictorial on the towers through the years (10 slides), including a picture of a tightrope walk from one tower to the other, newyorkmetro.com, Sep 2001
• Site plan of the WTC - greatbuildings.com
• The Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers - Frequently Asked Questions - including "Can engineers design buildings that are terrorist resistant?," assembled by the American Association of Civil Engineers
• Designers Look Beyond Debris - a near-capacity crowd of 700 designers and architects fill the Great Hall at Cooper Union with hopes and dreams, Julie V. Iovine, New York Times, Sep 27, 2001
• Architects, Planners and Residents Wonder How to Fill the Hole in the City  - Kirk Johnson, Charles V. Bagli, New York Times, Sep 26, 2001
• Experts Debate Future of the Skyscraper in Wake of Disaster - Nadine M. Post, et al., enr.com, Sep 24, 2001
• ASCE Establishes Teams to Study NY and DC Disasters - Sep 13, 2001
• Architects Don't Foresee Skyscraper's Demise - architects remain attached to the very idea of tall buildings, Thurston Hatcher, CNN, Sep 26, 2001
• Building Plans - an homage to the World Trade Center and what it meant to architecture and New York during its existence, Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker, Sep 24, 2001
• Terrorist Ringleader Was an Architect and Urban Planner - Architectural Record, Sep 20, 2001
• Terror in the Sky - an eye-witness account by Robert Ivy, FAIA, Editor in Chief of Architecture Record, Sep 12, 2001
• High-rise Anxiety - the Trade Center attack is unlikely to stop the design and building of more skyscrapers -- although maybe with bunkers, Dan Levy, SF Gate, Sep 14, 2001

• Trade Center Architect Discusses Buildings - Aaron Swirsky, part of the architectural team led by World Trade Center chief architect Minoru Yamasaki, talks about the way the buildings were designed, CNN, Sep 12, 2001

• Buildings That Stood Tall as Symbols of Strength - origins of WTC and the Pentagon, Benjamin Forgey, Washington Post, September 13, 2001

• AISC Task Force to Investigate World Trade Center Collapse - press release from AISC, Sep 12, 2001

• The World Trade Center - fact sheet from skyscraper.com

• Minoru Yamasaki, world-class architect - the life of the chief architect of the World Trade Center, Vivian M. Baulch, The Detroit News

• The World Trade Center - fact sheet from greatbuildings.com

• The Pentagon - fact sheet from greatbuildings.com

• AIA Media Sources - press contacts offered by American Institute of Architects

Engineering and Construction

• NIST Could Take Over Disaster Investigations new - Nadine M. Post, Sherie Winston, May 6, 2002
• Word Trade Center Building Performance Study - data collections, preliminary observations and recommendations, House Committee on Science, April 30, 2002
• The Collapse: An Engineer's Perspective - interview with Dr. Thomas Eagar, a professor of materials engineering and engineering systems at MIT, explains how and why the Twin Towers survived the initial impact - and how and why they likely failed in the end, pbs.org, April, 2002
• Deconstructing the Towers' Collapse - uses computer animations to illustrate how the Twin Towers might have fallen, Brad Kloza, pbs.org, April 2002
• Testimony of Dr. W. Gene Corley - Sr. VP, CTL Engineering, Chicago, IL on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers, before the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards & Subcommittee on Research Committee on Science U.S. House of Representatives, ASCE, May 1, 2002
• Steel Cage Against Doomsday Attack - Australia's new nuclear research reactor is being designed to absorb the impact of suicide aircraft crashes on the building, Jayandra Menon, TheStraitsTimes, April 25, 2002 (related stories)
• Collapse of the towers - testimony of Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of California, Berkeley before the Committee on Science of the U.S. House of Representatives, April, 2002
• No Reasonable Precautions Could Have Prevented Collapses - from an unpublished report by ASE and FEMA, Nadine Post, enr.com, April 8, 2002
• The Lessons of The Towering Inferno - a New York firefighter makes a case against lightweight skyscraper design, Lieutenant Gregory Gargiso, in the Cause of Architecture, April 1, 2002
• Construction Above Gground at WTC May be Years Away - Architectural Record, March 27, 2002
• $40 Million Needed to Study Performance of WTC Buildings - Nadine M. Post with Sherie Winston, enr.com, March 18, 2002
• ASHRAE Issues Guidance on Keeping Buildings Safe - Feb 27, 2002
• First Tower to Fall Was Hit at Higher Speed, Study Finds - Eric Lipton, James Glanz, New York Times, Feb 23, 2002 (may require free registration)
• Ground Zero Engineers Speak About Experience - key figures involved in the cleanup at Ground Zero spoke in a panel discussion "From Ground Zero," at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., John E. Czarnecki, architecturalrecord.com, Feb 7, 2002
• Feds Ready Probe of Towers' Collapse - Graham Rayman, Jan 18, 2002
• Forensic Expert Studying WTC Steel - forensics engineering expert studying WTC steel to determine precisely how towers failed, Deborah Snoonian, P.E., architecturalrecord.com, Jan 10, 2002
• Pentagon Gets Back to Business - Victoria L. Tanner, January, construction.com, January 8, 2001
• Industry Summit: Design and Construction - after the disaster, summit invokes the three R's of threat design� resist, respond, recover, enr.com, Nadine M. Post, Dec 27, 2001
• WTC Cleanup Management Shifts as Debris Disappears - as visible signs of the World Trade Center devastation fast disappear, cleanup officials confirm plans for project management changes that will better conform to the site's changing profile, Debra Rubin, enr.com, Dec 24, 2001
• City To 'Give Back' Buildings Compromised By WTC Calamity - Nadine M. Post, enr.com, Dec 12, 2001
• Early Days of the Disaster - a structural engineers personal account from the disaster site, Patrick J. McNierney, Architecture Week, Nov 7, 2001
• The Healing Hand - engineers are making unique contributions behind the headlines of the World Trade Center disaster, Mechanical Engineering, Nov 2001
• Unprecedented Terror Attack Ushers In A Year Of Uncertainty - construction's 10-year expansion comes to an end as terror deepens a downturn that was already well under way, Tim Grogan and Tom Ichniowski with Stephen H. Daniels, enr.com, Nov 19, 2001
• The Tower Builder - Leslie Robertson, one of the chief structural engineers behind the world trade center, cries when he thinks how he might have made the World Trade Center just a little bit stronger. Moving and informative. John Seabrook, New Yorker, Nov 12, 2001
• Bechtel May Snag PM Role at WTC Site - Judy Schreiner, construction.com, Nov 14, 2001
• A Strong Door for Tough Times - off-the-shelf materials and a beefed-up latch can help secure flight decks, Joseph Ogando, Design News, Nov 5, 2001
• Protective 'Bubble' Plan to Shield Terror Targets - Honeywell developing technology to prevent aircraft from flying directly into buildings, the Engineer, Nov 1, 2001
• Raytheon Awarded $9.5 Million to Create a Modeling and Simulation Capability To Support National Airspace System Analyses - press release, Nov 1, 2001
• Industry Experts Tackle Task of Protecting Infrastructure - Judy Schriener construction.com, Nov 1, 2001
• Proposed 500-Meter-Tall Tower In Shanghai Readying To Restart  - undaunted, construction resumes on skyscraper that will be 50 meters higher than the current tallest buildings, the Petronas towers in Malaysia, Nadine M. Post, construction.com, Oct 29, 2001
• WTC 'Bathtub' Stabilization Begins - but it will take 9 months to deliver a clean dry grade, Nadine M. Post, construction.com, Oct 29, 2001
• Berkeley Professor Seeks the Safer Skyscraper - concrete steel sheer wall could have helped the WTC towers stay up, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 22, 2001
• Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers - the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center towers caused considerable structural damage that played a much greater role in their collapse than the resulting fire, argues G. Charles Clifton, HERA, TenLinks, Oct 11, 2001
• Engineering Forensics of Collapse - research groups sift through the rubble to find clues to help explain the collapse and the NSF kicks in $300,000 in grants to help the forensic investigation, Michael J. Crosbie, Architecture Week, Oct 17, 2001
• Pentagon Shifts Into High Gear - W. Lee Evey, the "go-to" guy in the Pentagon's massive long term renovation, experienced a massive change of plans after learned of the terrorist attack from a waitress in Tennessee, Victoria L Tanner, Design Build, Oct 1, 2001
• Nation Struggles With Issue Of Protecting Infrastructure - America has so many highways, pipelines, reservoirs -- can they be protected against terrorist attacks?, Tom Armistead, et al, enr.com, Sep 15, 2001
• Structural Shift In Pentagon Could Accelerate Demolition - Sherie Winston, enr.com, Oct 8, 2001
• Crews Shore Damaged Subway - but it may take years to restore some of the subways near the WTC, Aileen Cho and Nadine Post, enr.com, Oct 8, 2001
• Half of WTC Bathtub Basement Damaged By Twin Towers' Fall - Nadine M. Post, enr.com, Oct 8, 2001
• Computerized Facilities Management in Disaster Recovery - how CAFM tools helped a return to business after September 11, Jerry Laiserin, FAIA, AEC Vision, Oct 3, 2001 (pdf)
• Engineering Against Disaster - a tower can theoretically be made that can survive an airplane crash, but would it be practical, abcnews.com, Sep 28, 2001
• Tower's Collapse Threatens to Flood Foundation - animation shows risk from a potentially unstable retaining wall at the base of the towers referred to by engineers as the "bathtub," USA Today, Sep 2001
• Hardening Buildings Against Attack - animation presents what is being considered, including cement barriers, thicker walls and better fire-fighting systems, USA Today, Sep 2001
• Fighting Fires in the Sky - high rises use the dry stand pipe system for getting water to where their hoses cannot reach, USA Today, Sep 2001
• Debris Mountain Starts To Shrink - human remains and potential evidence among rubble slows clean up but progress is evident, Nadine M. Post, Debra K. Rubin, enr.com, Sep 28, 2001
• Preliminary Report Says Maintaining Integrity of World Trade Center's Slurry Wall Foundation is Paramount - Nadine M. Post, enr.com, Sep 25, 2001
• Second Survey Planned for Buildings Near Trade Center - Nadine Post, enr.com, Sep 22, 2001
• World Trade Center - New York - Some Engineering Aspects - compendium of information gleaned from the web plus insights from the University of Sydney's Department of Civil Engineering
• Damage Report from the City of New York - 3D map of affected area of Manhattan, showing destroyed and damaged buildings, CNN.com, Sep 24, 2001
• Collapsing Towers Caused Seismic Shock - impact of towers causes a magnitude 2.4 earthquake in Manhattan, David Whitehouse, BBC, Sep 20, 2001
• Engineers Shocked by Towers' Collapse - engineers who built the towers planned for impact but not the fire, Chicago Tribune, Sep 11, 2001
• World Trade Center Coverage - links to articles from Architectural Record, ENR, other McGraw Hill publications
• Pentagon's Resiliency Amazes Engineers - the load on damaged structure got distributed to adjacent sections, Nadine Post, ENR, Sep 20, 2001

• Defending Skyscrapers Against Terror - what would it take? How about a high capacity anti-fire system that dispenses water and foam, such as those used in aircraft hangars? Dennis Overbye, New York Times Science, Sep 20, 2001 (new users may have to register)

• Engineers Tackle Havoc Beneath Trade Center - below the towers is a 70 foot deep basement where the subway tunnels have collapsed, water has poured in from fire hoses and the Hudson River is so very close, Kenneth Chang, New York Times Science, Sep 20, 2001 (new users may have to register)

• Engineers Plan Assessment And New Support For WTC Foundation Perimeter Walls - Nadine M. Post, ENR, Sep 17, 2001

• Teams Of Structural Engineers Work Around The Clock To Inspect Surrounding Buildings - Nadine M. Post, ENR, Sep 17, 2001

• Surviving Trade Center Area Buildings Deemed Stable - Nadine M. Post, ENR, Sep 14, 2001

• Pentagon Renovation's Safety Enhancements Helped Save Lives, Officials Say - Sherie Winston, ENR, Sep 14, 2001

• Anatomy of a Collapse - animated slide show offers explanation of the mechanics of the failure, US News and World Report, Sep 2001

• Todd Rittenhouse: Why the World Trade Center Collapsed - expert in blast engineering offers analysis, CNN, Sep 13, 2001

• Why the Towers Collapsed - engineers who watch the disaster offer insight. Also, this is not the first time a plane has crashed into a NY skyscraper (see 1945 Plane Crash Rocked NYC). Bill Wyman, Salon.com, Sep 11, 2001

• How the World Trade Center Collapsed - the anatomy of the tower and the science of the collapse, BBC News, Sep 13, 2001

• Massive Assault Doomed Towers - the World Trade Center didn't have a chance - only nuclear power plants are built to withstand such extreme acts, Nadine M. Post with Sherie Winston, Sep 12, 2001
• Final Collapse - the Twin Towers survived hurricane gusts and a bomb explosion but two direct hits with airplanes proved to be their downfall, Amanda Onion, abcnews.com, Sep 12, 2001
• ASCE Establishes Forensic Teams to Investigate NY and DC Disasters - press release from American Society of Civil Engineers
• Industry Rallies To Cleanup WTC Aftermath - special report by David S. Chartock, New York Construction News, Sep 12, 20001
• Protecting a symbol of Strength, Retrofitting the Pentagon for Blast Resistance - prophetic article by Michael N. Biscotte, PE and Keith A. Amoney, STRUCTURE, July/AUgust 2001 (pdf file)
• Renovating the Pentagon - at 6.6 million square feet, the Pentagon is the world's largest low-rise office complex. Michelle Poggi, MSM Online, Sep 2001

CAD and Graphics

• Computer Graphics: Helping to Cope with Terrorism - Ben Delaney, Computer Graphics Applications, March/April, 2002
• Simulating Airplane Attacks - CAD tool developed to simulate airplane crashes into buildings, Nadine M. Post, enr.com, Dec 12, 2001

GIS

• Afghanistan Maps and Data Products - list of data sites for Afghanistan and the Middle East compiled by Glenn Letham, Sep 28, 2001
• GIS Companies Offer Assistance - what major GIS companies are doing to help in the rebuilding effort, Adena Schutzberg, Sep 2001
• GIS/Geography Community Loses Four in Attacks - UNH Emeritus Geography Professor, National Geographic Staff members, GIS business partner on hijacked aircraft, Adena Schutzberg with contributions from Matt Artz (ESRI - Redlands) and Paul Hartwell (ESRI-DC)
• Could E911 Have Helped in Disaster? - enhanced 911 would pinpoint a victims who are calling for help, such as those trapped in the rubble of NYC's Twin Towers, Ben Charny, CNET News.com, Sep 12, 2001

Internet/Web/Technology

• Security Beyond Your Borders - companies are making IT systems safe from terrorists, but what they don't know about partners' vulnerabilities may hurt them, Alorie Gilbert, InformationWeek, Nov. 5, 2001
• Tech Sector, Already Weak, Disrupted by Attacks - Reuters, Sep 20, 2001
• High-tech Industry Mourns Crash Victims - David Lammers And Jerry Ascierto, EE Times, Sep 17, 2000
• Daniel Lewin, Co-Founder of Akamai Technology Corporation, Dies in Attack - Seth Schiesel, NYT, Sep 12, 2001
• Web Becomes Global Support Forum - AP, Sep 12, 2001
• ISPs Turn Possible Terrorist Communications Over To Feds - Newsbytes, Sep 13, 2001
• Tech Companies in the WTC Towers - internet.com, Sep 13, 2001
• ISPs Aid FBI in Terrorist Search - Robert Lemos, CNET News, Sep 13, 2001

Satellite/Airphoto Imagery

• From 5,000 Feet Up, Mapping Terrain for Ground Zero Workers - images from infrared pulses, Kenneth Chang, New York Times, Sep 23, 2001
• Pentagon - airphoto overlaid upon USGS topo map by 3D Nature

Miscellaneous

• The Mathematics of Vengeance - editor calculates how long it took bodies to hit the ground from the upper floors of the world trade center (Shouldn't someone take away this man's calculator?), Machine Design, Nov 22, 2001
• Water Infrastructure Under Review at Water Security Summit 2001 - focuses on threats to the nation's water systems, event will take place December 3-4 in Hartford, Connecticut, organized by Haestad Methods
• 1945 Plane Crash Rocked NYC - a US bomber flying low through fog crashed into the Empire State Building, but the building held, abcnews, Sep 11, 2001

General News Sites

• www.cnn.com
• news.yahoo.com
• abcnews.com
• time.com - exclusive: inside the plot and photo coverage
• New York Times
• Washington Post

Cancelled CAD Events

• Bentley, Moldflow Cancel User Conferences - Sep 13, 2001
• GIS Event Cancellations

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