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Building the World Trade Center

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Jeannette Latoria
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« on: December 25, 2009, 12:52:01 am »

Construction of the World Trade Center

On this day, when everyone is going to spend their time remembering how the World Trade Centers fell, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on how they were built:

The construction of the World Trade Center was conceived as an urban renewal project, spearheaded by David Rockefeller, to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. The project was developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which hired architect Minoru Yamasaki who came up with the specific idea for twin towers. After extensive negotiations, the New Jersey and New York State governments, which oversee the Port Authority, agreed to support the World Trade Center project at the Radio Row site on the lower-west side of Manhattan. To make the agreement acceptable to New Jersey, the Port Authority agreed to take over the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (renamed as PATH), which brought commuters from New Jersey to the Lower Manhattan site.
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2009, 12:53:13 am »

The towers were designed as framed tube structures, which provided tenants with open floor plans, uninterrupted by columns or walls. This was accomplished using numerous closely-spaced perimeter columns to provide much of the strength to the structure, along with gravity load shared with the core columns. The elevator system, which made use of sky lobbies and a system of express and local elevators, allowed substantial floor space to be freed up for use as office space by making the structural core smaller. The design and construction of the World Trade Center twin towers involved many other innovative techniques, such as the slurry wall for digging the foundation, and wind tunnel experiments. Construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower began in August 1968, and the South Tower in 1969. Extensive use of prefabricated components helped to speed up the construction process. The first tenants moved into the North Tower in December 1970 and into the South Tower in January 1972. Four other low-level buildings were constructed as part of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, and a seventh building was constructed in the mid-1980s.
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2009, 12:53:42 am »

Planning

In 1942, Austin J. Tobin became the Executive Director of the Port Authority, beginning a 30-year career during which he oversaw the planning and development of the World Trade Center. The concept of establishing a "world trade center" was conceived during the post-World War II period, when the United States thrived economically and international trade was increasing. In 1946, the New York State Legislature passed a bill that called for a "world trade center" to be established. The World Trade Corporation was founded, and a board was appointed by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to develop plans for the project. Architect John Eberson and his son Drew devised a plan that included 21 buildings over a ten-block area, at an estimated cost of $150 million. In 1949, the World Trade Corporation was dissolved by the New York State Legislature, and plans for a "world trade center" were put on hold
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2009, 12:56:31 am »

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« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2009, 12:57:44 am »

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« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2009, 12:58:58 am »

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« Reply #6 on: December 25, 2009, 12:59:27 am »

Original plans
During the post-war period, economic growth was concentrated in Midtown Manhattan, in part stimulated by the Rockefeller Center, which was developed in the 1930s. Meanwhile, Lower Manhattan was left out of the economic boom. One exception was the construction of One Chase Manhattan Plaza in the Financial District, by David Rockefeller, who led urban renewal efforts in Lower Manhattan. In 1958, Rockefeller established the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA), which commissioned Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to draw up plans for revitalizing Lower Manhattan. The plans, made public in 1960, called for a World Trade Center to be built on a 13-acre (5.25 ha) site along the East River, from Old Slip to Fulton Street and between Water Street and South Street. The complex would include a 900-foot (275 m) long exhibition hall, and a 50–70 story building, with some of its upper floors used as a hotel. Other amenities would include a theater, shops, and restaurants. The plan also called for a new securities exchange building, which the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association hoped would house the New York Stock Exchange.

David Rockefeller suggested that the Port Authority would be a logical choice for taking on the project. Rockefeller argued that the Trade Center would provide great benefits in facilitating and increasing volume of international commerce coming through the Port of New York. Given the importance of New York City in global commerce, Port Authority director Austin J. Tobin remarked that the proposed project should be the World Trade Center, and not just a "world trade center". After a year-long review of the proposal, the Port Authority formally backed the project on March 11, 1961
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2009, 01:00:29 am »




Architect's model for the proposed World Trade Center on the East River
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2009, 01:01:16 am »

Agreement


The States of New York and New Jersey also needed to approve the project, given their control and oversight role of the Port Authority. Objections to the plan came from New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner, who resented that New York would be getting this $335 million project. Meanwhile, ridership on New Jersey's Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (H&M) had declined substantially from a high of 113 million riders in 1927 to 26 million in 1958, after new automobile tunnels and bridges opened across the Hudson River. Toward the end of 1961, negotiations with outgoing New Jersey Governor Meyner regarding the World Trade Center project reached a stalemate. In December 1961, Tobin met with newly elected New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes, and made a proposal to shift the World Trade Center project to a west side site where the Hudson Terminal was located. In acquiring the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, the Port Authority would also acquire the Hudson Terminal and other buildings which were deemed obsolete. On January 22, 1962, the two states reached an agreement to allow the Port Authority to take over the railroad and to build the World Trade Center on Manhattan's lower west side. The shift in location for the World Trade Center to a site more convenient to New Jersey, together with Port Authority acquisition of the H&M Railroad, brought New Jersey to agreement in support of the World Trade Center project.

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« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2009, 01:01:49 am »




Location of World Trade Center and originally proposed site
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« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2009, 01:02:14 am »

Controversy

Even once the agreement between the states of New Jersey, New York, and the Port Authority was finalized, the World Trade Center plan faced continued controversy. The site for the World Trade Center was the location of Radio Row, which was home to hundreds of commercial and industrial tenants, property owners, small businesses, and approximately 100 residents. The World Trade Center plans involved evicting these business owners, some of whom fiercely protested the forced relocation. In June 1962, a group representing approximately 325 shops and 1,000 other affected small businesses filed an injunction, challenging the Port Authority's power of eminent domain. The dispute with local business owners worked its way through the court system, up to the New York State Court of Appeals, which in April 1963 upheld the Port Authority's right of eminent domain, saying that the project had a "public purpose." On November 12, 1963, the United States Supreme Court refused to accept the case. Under the state law, the Port Authority was required to assist business owners in relocating, though many business owners regarded what the Port Authority offered as inadequate. Questions continued while the World Trade Center was constructed, as to whether the Port Authority really ought to take on the project, described by some as a "mistaken social priority."
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« Reply #11 on: December 25, 2009, 01:02:37 am »

Private real estate developers and members of the Real Estate Board of New York also expressed concerns about this much "subsidized" office space going on the open market, competing with the private sector when there was already a glut of vacancies. An especially vocal critic was Lawrence A. Wien, owner of the Empire State Building, which would lose its title of tallest building in the world. Wien organized a group of builders into a group called the "Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center" to demand that the project be scaled down.

In January 1964, the Port Authority inked a deal with the State of New York to locate government offices at the World Trade Center. The Port Authority began signing commercial tenants in the spring and summer of 1964, including several banks. In 1965, the Port Authority signed the United States Customs Service as a tenant.

A final obstacle for the Port Authority was getting approval from New York City Mayor John Lindsay and the New York City Council, who raised concerns about the limited extent that the Port Authority involved the city in the negotiations and deliberations. Negotiations between The City of New York and the Port Authority were centered on tax issues. A final agreement was made on August 3, 1966, that the Port Authority would make annual payments to the City, in lieu of taxes, for the portion of the World Trade Center leased to private tenants. In subsequent years, the payments would rise as the real estate tax rate increased.
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #12 on: December 25, 2009, 01:02:57 am »

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« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2009, 01:03:46 am »

Design
On September 20, 1962, the Port Authority announced the selection of Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect, and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. Originally, Yamasaki submitted to the Port Authority a concept incorporating twin towers, but with each building only 80 stories tall. Yamasaki remarked that the "obvious alternative, a group of several large buildings, would have looked like a housing project."

To meet the Port Authority's requirement to build 10 million square feet (930,000 m²) of office space, the buildings would each need to be 110 stories tall. A major limiting factor in building heights is elevators; the taller the building, the more elevators are needed to service the building, requiring more space-consuming elevator banks. Yamasaki and the engineers decided to use a new system with sky lobbies, which are floors where people can switch from a large-capacity express elevator, which goes only to the sky lobbies, to a local elevator that goes to each floor in a section (the local elevators can be stacked within the same elevator shaft). Located on the 44th and 78th floors of each tower, the sky lobbies enabled the elevators to be used efficiently, while also increasing the amount of usable space on each floor from 62 to 75 percent by reducing the number of required elevator shafts. The World Trade Center towers were the second supertall buildings to use sky lobbies, after the John Hancock Center in Chicago. This system was inspired by the New York City Subway system, whose lines include local stations where local trains stop and express stations where all trains stop.

Yamasaki's design for the World Trade Center was unveiled to the public on January 18, 1964, with an eight-foot model. The towers had a square plan, approximately 207 feet (63 m) in dimension on each side. The buildings were designed with narrow office windows, only 18 inches (45 cm) wide, which reflected on Yamasaki's fear of heights and desire to make building occupants feel secure. Yamasaki's design called for the building facades to be sheathed in aluminum-alloy. In all, the World Trade Center complex contained six buildings within the 16 acre (6.5 ha) superblock.
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Jeannette Latoria
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« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2009, 01:03:59 am »

The World Trade Center design brought criticism of its aesthetics from the American Institute of Architects and other groups. Lewis Mumford, author of The City in History and other works on urban planning, criticized the project and described it and other new skyscrapers as "just glass-and-metal filing cabinets." Television broadcasters raised concerns that the World Trade Center twin towers would cause interference in television reception for viewers in the New York City area. In response to these concerns, the Port Authority offered to provide new television transmission facilities at the World Trade Center. The Linnaean Society of the American Museum of Natural History also opposed the Trade Center project, citing hazards the buildings would impose on migrating birds.

The structural engineering firm Skilling, Helle, Christiansen, Robertson worked to implement Yamasaki's design, developing the tube-frame structural system used in the buildings. The Port Authority's Engineering Department served as foundation engineers, Joseph R. Loring & Associates as electrical engineers, and Jaros, Baum & Bolles as mechanical engineers. Tishman Realty & Construction Company was the general contractor on the World Trade Center project. Guy F. Tozzoli, director of the World Trade Department at the Port Authority, and the Port Authority's Chief Engineer, Rino M. Monti, oversaw the project.
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