[Leica] Re: Twin Towers collapse

[bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)]

Fascinating, Larry, and entirely believable.  Offerings such as this, 
rather than debates about development formulae or ideal 50 mm lens 
formulation are what make the LUG such a special and fascinating place.
B. D.


...... Original Message .......
On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:02:19 -0400 Lawrence Zeitlin 
<lrzeitlin@optonline.net> wrote:
>I hate to continue this topic, but I probably have more familiarity  
>with the internal NY Port Authority politics than most LUG members,  
>and I participated, although in a miniscule way, in some of the  
>decisions that probably led to the collapse of the towers.
>
>In the late 50s the Port of New York Authority (PONYA), the agency  
>controlling all the marine terminals, bridges and airports in New  
>York City and the adjacent portions of New Jersey, determined that  
>one out of every four jobs in the NYC area was, in some way,  
>connected with the import, export and distribution of products  
>through one of PONYA's facilities. In those pre-Internet days,  
>communication between companies was largely by phone or snail mail.  
>Wouldn't it be nice if everyone involved had offices in the same  
>large building complex? And so the idea of the World Trade Center was  
>born. But by the time the plans had been firmed up, the computer and  
>Internet revolution was in full swing and the idea of a centralized  
>import-export-distribution center was obsolete. However, New York's  
>politicians and labor unions saw many jobs and votes in the  
>construction and pushed the project forward, despite opposition from  
>the surrounding community. Further, Austin Tobin, then Director of  
>the Port Authority (and a very short man) wanted to leave the tallest  
>building(s) in the world as a memorial of his regime. He sweetened  
>the construction pie by offering to move most of PONYA's operations  
>to the new building, although it's offices in existing buildings were  
>perfectly satisfactory. In short, the World Trade Center was not  
>necessary but went ahead anyway.
>
>The following is a letter of mine that was published in the Op Ed  
>section of the New York Times shortly after the collapse. A copy  
>containing greater documentation and some of my personal records went  
>to the FBI.
>
>"The article in the Science Times of December 4, 2001 offered several  
>explanaions for why the World Trade Center collapsed so unexpectedly  
>after the terrorist attack on September 11. I have another  
>explanation. It is not a scientific analysis but is based on my  
>memory of events that happened nearly 40 years ago.
>
> From 1964 through 1968 I was a consultant to the Organization and  
>Procedures department of the Port of New York Authority. O&P had the  
>task of maximizing the utilization of the 13 floors of the WTC that  
>the Port Authority was taking for its own offices.
>
>After experimenting with a number of floor layouts mocked up in a  
>large existing office building, O&P decided upon an "Open Landscape"  
>office configuration with desks arranged according to work flow,  
>separated by only low partitions to break up visual sight lines. The  
>"Open Landscape" concept originated in Germany after WW2 when it was  
>necessary to get the economy started as soon as possible. The term  
>"Landscape" comes form the fact that many large potted plants were  
>dispersed through the office to enhance the otherwise austere  
>esthetics. The absence of walls and corridors in this configuration  
>permitted 25% more people to work effectively in a given space. It  
>also facilitated lighting and air conditioning and was cheaper to  
>maintain. The O&P studies showed that both productivity and morale  
>was higher. Acoustic privacy was assured by allowing normal offices  
>noises to build to a speech masking level. The concept required about  
>10,000 square feet of open space per floor. The "Open Landscape" idea  
>was adopted for PONYA offices in the WTC. Further, it was highly  
>recommended to tenants as a cost saving measure and most of them  
>followed the recommendation.
>
>The WTC towers were suited to the "Open Landscape" configuration. The  
>floors of the WTC with their periphery of closely spaced but  
>relatively thin structural girders and a central service core  
>provided large open spaces with few interior walls or partitions.  
>Concrete covered corrugated steel floors tied each tower's structure  
>together.
>
>In 1967 while the buildings were going up, Wesley Hurley, then Chief  
>Engineer of the Port Authority and a personal friend confided to me  
>that tests run by his department showed that much of the concrete  
>being used to construct the twin towers had failed strength tests and  
>clearly was of substandard quality. He felt that the buildings would  
>not be able to meet their structural objective of withstanding a 200  
>year storm. My wife was a witness to the entire conversation. I have  
>no direct evidence to support Hurley's contention but a search of the  
>archival records, if they still exist, might support his claim. I  
>suspect, however that most of the records were lost in the collapse  
>of the towers. In the years that I had known him, both before and  
>after my association with PONYA, I found him to be a man of great  
>professional honor and integrity.
>
>Hurley had a both a personal and a moral dilemma. He was near  
>retirement and any complaint would cause a firestorm of criticism  
>because Austin Tobin was anxious to get the buildings erected before  
>his own retirement. Hurley kept quiet and left the Port Authority as  
>soon as he was eligible. I had lunch with him a few times in the Port  
>Authority executive dining room in the WTC before he retired and he  
>said that he always felt uneasy going to his office when violent  
>storms were expected to strike the city. A suicidal aircraft impact  
>was never considered. In hindsight, it probably should have been. The  
>9/11 attack has an uncanny resemblance to the opening chapters of Tom  
>Clancy's novel, "Executive Decision" when a revenge seeking terrorist  
>crashed a fully fueled 747 into a joint session of Congress
>
>Judging from the images shown on television, both planes penetrated  
>the building without being significantly impeded by the building  
>walls or by any internal structure. Because of our "Open Landscape"  
>design recommendations, large office spaces had few floor to ceiling  
>partitions to slow the spreading of fire. If the concrete in the  
>floors was of substandard quality as Hurley feared, floors and  
>columns would have given way quickly as the steel weakened from the  
>heat. The sudden buckling of both towers shows Hurley may have been  
>right.
>
>Anyway, the point is moot now. The buildings are gone and most of the  
>people who were involved in their design and construction are dead.  
>It's too bad that they weren't more strongly built - it would have  
>saved the lives of nearly 3000 office workers and several hundred  
>brave firemen who entered the buildings fully expecting them to  
>stand. A lesson to be learned is that public authorities should  
>exercise more stringent oversight on building design and  
>construction, especially when architects push the limits of the  
>envelope."
>
>
>Lawrence Zeitlin
>Professor Emeritus - Graduate Center
>City University of New York
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
___
Sent from handheld device. Please forgive any typos or spelling errors.