MIT Civil Engineering – 1.011 Project Evaluation Spring Term 2003Marc Washington, Jeneane Thomas, Jazlyn Carvajal Page 1WTCJazlyn L. CarvajalJeneane ThomasMarc WashingtonThe Dream• Post World War II sentiments– Increased trade– Bigger is better – Driven by leaps and bounds in Banking insurance and economies as a whole• A center for world trade– Originally supposed to bring together companies associated with trade.• Steamship companies• Freight forwarders• Customs brokersScrapped in favor of modernizing portsA Dream Revisited• David Rockefeller – 1958 billion dollar plan• Spend $1 billion to create futuropolis in east manhatten• Nelson Rockefeller is governor of NY• Turned to port authority to fund and build• Austin Tobin was central point of control of revitalizing manhatten• Port authority took over NJ railroad on west side of manhatten.• WTC was moved to radio row on the west side• Businesses fought but were bought out Minoro Yamasaki • In 1962 Yamasaki was chosen as chief architect. • After a hundred plus designs he came up with twin towers– Scared of heights which lead him to design narrow window slits so that one would feel safer when looking out– Initially supposed to be 80-90 stories tall – Public relations groups thought it would be better for image to make it the tallest building in the world– Yamasaki wanted to cut no corners and was fearful that the budget would not allow him to keep extravagant features and also make the buildings taller• Budget was increased to accomadate taller building and very little was scaled backBuilding the World Trade Center1960 – 1974Difficulties Starting• Port Authority is bistate organization• When proposal presented to NY and NJ officials, NJ decided that the WTC promised little advantage to its citizens• Project revived after Port Authority developed the PATH for NJMIT Civil Engineering – 1.011 Project Evaluation Spring Term 2003Marc Washington, Jeneane Thomas, Jazlyn Carvajal Page 2Public Opinion• WTC announced in 1964• Critics raved at first• Opinions soured by 1966 due to underlying political controversy and changing design ideas• Negative opinions continued well into the 1980sConstruction Problems• Special cranes had to be imported to erect the huge towers• Excavating the foundations became a problem: ran into Hudson River about 70 ft. down• Slurry-trench system used to create “Bathtub”Engineering Advancements• Two advancements in technology made the World trade center possible• Steel Skeleton Frame-Yamaski’sadvanced elevator design allowed for the WTC to reach the heights that it did- Skeptics thought it would not work, but it was faster than a regular elevator would have been• The elevator- New innovative steel skeleton- Most of the weight was supported along the elevator shafts.- Outside frame provided rigidity- Very redundant strucure- Allowed for immense open office spaceThe Site• The site saw two major problems during its lifetime.– First the existing subway system which went through the middle of the site needed to be kept in service• Solution:– The subway was left in an elevated tunnel that the entire foundation was built around– Second after the first bombing in 1993 there was fear that the missing floors in the foundation took away enough rigidity that the foundation would cave in on itself• Solution:– The debris was excavated at breakneck speed with an army of construction workers and the entire project was finished within 20 days of the bombingSeptember 11, 2001 –The AftermathCleaning Up the Mess• 2823 people killed; 42% identified• 16 acres & 13 million s.f. of Office Space destroyed• $650 million to clean-up; initial estimate was $2 billion• 1.8 tons of debris• 4 construction firmsMIT Civil Engineering – 1.011 Project Evaluation Spring Term 2003Marc Washington, Jeneane Thomas, Jazlyn Carvajal Page 3New Beginnings• Estimated cost to rebuild: $26-29 Billion• $2 million Towers of Light commemorate WTC for 6months.• International Design Competition; LMDC in charge.• Studio Daniel
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