Architectural History of the World Trade Center - Essay Example

Information: A Brief Architectural History of the World Trade Center World Trade Centre is a site with diverse buildings in New York City, the United States of America. The original World Trade Centre consisted of seven buildings spread over fifteen million square feet. One World Trade Centre and Two World Trade Centre, collectively known as the Twin Towers were the characteristic landmark of World Trade Centre and the tallest buildings for a short while in the world till they were targeted as terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The original World Trade Centre was designed by Minoru Yamasaki and Emery Roth & Sons (Langmead, Donald, and Garnaut). The design of the pre-September 11, 2001 towers was far from the usual. The weight of the building was carried by the external walls and not the inner column. The support columns were not floor-to-ceiling. The straight up columns of the external walls were tightly spaced, which resulted in spacious offices and could endure high velocity winds. Yamasaki’s design also featured the Sky Lobby system.

The building was divided into three zones, each with a lobby. The first, forty-first and seventy second floors had a lobby each. To ride up a zone, people had to cross a lobby after getting off from an elevator and get into another one across it (Britton; “About the WTC”). "There is an attractive element in the colossal. What visitor is insensitive before the Pyramids? And what is the source of this admiration if not the immensity of the effort and the grandeur of the result? The Tower will be the tallest structure ever built by man.

Will it not be grand in its own right?" (Gustave Eiffel (Tyson)). The builders and investors of World Trade Centre envisioned leaving people awe-inspired by its towering magnificence, just like the builders of the Eiffel Tower had. World Trade Centre was a symbol of a capitalist society that America was. The Twin Towers were predicted to be 100 feet higher than the Empire State Building (Tyson). World Trade Center consisted of seven towers which were leased to tenants, used as commercial offices and had shops used as trading centers and mercantile ("Five World Trade Center”).

Six World Trade Center housed United States Customs. The Top of the World Observatory is located in Two World Trade Center and is open to public after going through a security check. It has two decks which are both indoor and outdoor. A spectacular view of Manhattan could be enjoyed from the 110th floor. Tower 3 World Trade Centre is called Marriott World Trade Center and houses hotels. On the morning of September 11, 2001 World Trade Center met its fate. Two passenger planes hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists were rammed into the twin towers and two into the Pentagon resulting in nearly 3000 deaths on a single day.

But many controversies have arisen since then doubting the stated and wondering if the government had anything to do with the attacks as questions remain unanswered. The towers were designed to bear much more stress than the amount which resulted from the collision, yet the towers collapsed (Fetzer). The towers did not follow the fireproofing rules followed by the other buildings, which resulted in more deaths than could have if the rules had been applied (Craven). After 9/11, rebuilding of Ground Zero was under consideration.

An international competition was organized to come up with a design for the new WTC. The winner of that competition was Daniel Libeskind, but the design according to which it is being constructed currently is not the one Libeskind came up with (Cotter; “About the Memorial”). A new World Trade Center, namely, One World Trade Center, is under construction and is expected to be completed by the year 2020. It will include five new skyscrapers which would be named One, Two, Three, Four and Five World Trade Center, The National September 11 Memorial, a performing arts center and world Trade Center Transportation Hub with the aim of a metropolitan hub for New York.

One WTC, once finished, is going to be the next building in the Western Hemisphere which will be the tallest of all (Brennan; “World Trade Center Media”). In order to honor those who died in the September 11 attacks, The National September 11 Memorial & Museum was constructed near Shanksville at the World Trade Centre site (Ground Zero) as America's chief establishment regarding inference of series of events that took place on 9/11. The memorial was created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker; it comprises twin pools with the enormous artificial waterfalls.

The names of those who died in the attacks of 2001 and 1993 are etched on bronze plates around the pools as a tribute to the largest death toll from a foreign attack in America. The museum bears witness of the attacks and honors the thousand of victims, those who died trying to save the victims and the survivors of the attack. The museum features a permanent set of relics, photos, videos and stories of people who witnessed the incident. An art gallery is also founded, and it exhibits responses to the incident in the form of art.

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Inhabitat New York City." Inhabitat. New York City. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. . Craven, Jackie. "Why the World Trade Center Twin Towers Fell." Architecture and House Styles and Building Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. Fetzer, James H. The 9/11 Conspiracy: The Scamming of America. Chicago: Catfeet Press, 2007. Print. "Five World Trade Center.” EMPORIS - Building data and construction projects worldwide. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. . Langmead, Donald, and Christine Garnaut. Encyclopedia of Architectural and Engineering Feats.

Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Print. Tyson, Peter. "New York Architecture Images- World Trade Center." Nyc-architecture. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. . "World Trade Center, Observatory." New York City Tourist. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. "World Trade Center Media." The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. .