Terrorist attacks collapsed the World Trade Center in a roiling inferno of ash and metal — and much conventional wisdom crumpled with it.

        High density in buildings and cities was good and sprawl was bad. But since 9-11, firms have been moving out of lower Manhattan, and the perceived threat could accelerate flight to corporate campuses and gated communities. Sprawl no longer looks so negative.

        It is also ordinarily thought prudent to prepare for emergencies, but engineers were puzzled why the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed seven hours after the Twin Towers. Then it was discovered that to handle power failures, Building 7 had been stocked with back-up generators and tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. Fuel-loaded airliners or buildings make ready-made bombs.

        In emergencies, it is also usually thought safest to do as you are told: The first emergency broadcast to workers in the Twin Towers was to stay at their desks until they were told to evacuate. People didn't do what they were supposed to do that day, and investigators think many who ignored orders were the ones who survived.

        Terrorist attacks will lead to smarter designs. Just how drastically buildings and cities change will depend on costs and future attacks. But the 9-11 aftermath showed there is no firewall between national security, economic security, job security and personal security. Security will command more attention from architects, engineers and city planners.

        Top architects, not surprisingly, do not agree on the future of super-tall buildings or what should be done with New York's WTC site. “The only way to demonstrate our strength would be to build two towers of similar size,” said Cesar Pelli, who designed the world's tallest building, Malaysia's 452-meter-tall Petronas Towers, and Cincinnati's Aronoff Performing Arts Center. “I don't see why we should capitulate to a group of criminals.”

        Peter Eisenman, who designed University of Cincinnati's Aronoff Center for Design and Art, disagreed: “Rebuilding the WTC as it was would be showing nostalgia for a world that doesn't exist.”

        Newer super-tall buildings, especially in Asia, already use different security strategies such as open-air, fortified “refuge” floors and reinforced service cores for elevators and air-handling. Inexpensive sensors can be attached to a building's structural members to measure stress forces and warn of an impending failure. One of the saddest WTC tragedies was those brave firefighters who had no way of knowing they were climbing stairs to their certain doom.

        We're a free-market country. The future of tall buildings will be decided by the public — do they want to work and live in them? — and by developers and insurance companies. The 1993 attack on the WTC showed it took too long to evacuate. Improvements no doubt saved some lives on 9-11. Clients want more redundancy, but add too many elevators, and tall buildings become uneconomical. If insurance companies refuse to insure them, they won't be built. Commercial insurers have already raised rates, and Congress is debating whether to insure the insurance industry against terror attacks.

        The United States has “hardened” embassies and some government buildings. Designers of airports, large arenas, bridges, water works, refineries and laboratories need to factor in security as never before. Whether homebuilders and product designers will worry much about security depends on future attacks.

        Some apartments in Israel, where car bombings are routine, are designed with one blast-proof, airtight bedroom. Kajima Corporation's headquarters in Tokyo is clad with huge steel shutters to shut out terror attacks, says University of Cincinnati architecture professor Wolfgang Preiser. An international consultant on evaluating building performance, he expects a surge in efforts to protect air intakes from biochemical attack.

        Another sad 9-11 discovery was that people in wheelchairs didn't have a chance. “In an aging marketplace,” Mr. Preiser said, “people with disabilities are a huge segment of the population. Almost no houses are accessible to them.” Universal Design Handbook, which he co-edited, lays out principles and solutions such as how to make security available to all users.

        Liberty-loving Americans will resist fortress-like designs. E-commerce allows us to work anywhere, but we still cluster in cities to connect with creative people.

        “Chicago was rebuilt after the fire,” said architect Robert Hsiung of Boston-based Jung/Brannen Associates, “San Francisco after the earthquake. Shanghai and Hong Kong continue to rise skyward in spite of the experiences of World War, unimpeded by any sense of vulnerability. Compared to these and numerous other examples, the option of dispersal to suburbs seems to be total surrender to terrorism.”

        He hopes that out of post-9-11 soul-searching, future high-rises will not be seen as “symbols of grandiose materialism” but will speak eloquently of values such as community, conservation, safety and the unconquerable human spirit.

        We need to design for the unexpected. Clever criminals don't attack in conventional ways. It will be up to the civilized world, as always, to outsmart, out-fight and out-design them.

       Tony Lang is an Enquirer editorial writer. Phone (513) 768-8528; email tlang@enquirer.com.
       

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