Take the elevator?!
If the World Trade Center attack had occurred at a busier time, it would have taken occupants four hours to get down the stairs--hours they didn't have. The solution: emergency elevators. Surprising?...
View ArticleInner Sanctum
Running up the center of the building is a fortresslike tower whose walls, made of two-to-three-foot-thick reinforced concrete and steel, will provide structural support for the building and fire...
View ArticleDanger Underground
Primers on high-security building design warn against basement garages. It's a lesson learned from bitter experience: the 1993 truck bomb that exploded below the World Trade Center, killing six. But...
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Invention Awards: An Escape Harness for Skyscrapers
It's a birdJohn B. CarnettKevin Stone's Rescue Reel allows for a smooth descent from tall office buildingsTrapped on a high floor? Reach for today's featured Invention Award winner.As the 9/11 inferno...
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How the Greenest Skyscraper Complex Ever Is Rising Out of the Rubble of the...
On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center transformed from a pair of gleaming towers into a carcinogenic pile of smoldering rubble that's still killing people. Currently rising out of that rubble,...
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New Theory on World Trade Center Collapse Blames Explosive Chemical Reaction
The WTC on 9/11/2001Michael Foran via WikimediaCould chemical reactions within the burning buildings have caused the eventual collapse of the Twin Towers?More than ten years after the fact, a...
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Vintage PopSci: Reporter Climbs World Trade Center Construction Site in 1971
From supply platform at 109th floor, Gannon peers down at lower Manhattan skyline: 1971Two years before the official opening of the Twin Towers in 1973, PopSci reporter Robert Gannon visited the...
View ArticleSafe Havens
When evacuation is inappropriate, such as during a chemical or biological attack, occupants can congregate in protected spaces known as refuge areas. In Israel, refuge areas are mandated by law in all...
View ArticleSafety Glass
High manufacturing temperatures make blast-resistant glass strong but too heavy for an entire building. Laminated glass consists of glass layers sandwiched around plastic; upon breaking, glass...
View ArticleThe Way Down
Few people on the floors above where the planes hit the twin towers survived, in part because the stairs, sheathed only in drywall, were severely damaged. In the Freedom Tower, stairs will be housed in...
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