Building World Trade

From the bestselling author of Skyscrapers, the behind-the-scenes story of the most extraordinary building in the world: One World Trade Center. The new World Trade Center represents one of the most complex collaborations in human history. Nearly every state in the nation, a dozen countries around the world, and more than 25,000 workers helped raise the tower, which consumed ninety million pounds of steel, one million square feet of glass, and enough concrete to pave a sidewalk from New York to Chicago. With more than seventy interviews with the people most intimately involved, and unprecedented access to the building site, suppliers, and archives, Duprè unfurls the definitive story of fourteen years of conflict and controversy-and its triumphant resolution. This fascinating, oversize book delivers new insight into the 1,776-foot-tall engineering marvel, from design and excavation through the final placement of its spire. It offers: Access to the minds of world-class architects, engineers, ironworkers, and other tradespeople Panoramas of New York from One World Observatory-1,268 feet above the earth Dramatic cutaways that show the building's advanced structural technologies A time-lapse montage showing the evolution of the sixteen-acre site Chronologies tracking design, construction, and financial milestones, with rare historic photographs It also features extensive tour of the entire Trade Center, including in-depth chapters on Two, Three, Four, and Seven World Trade Center; the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; Liberty Park; St. Nicholas National Shrine; and the soaring Transportation Hub. One World Trade Center is the only book authorized by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and the one book necessary to understand the new World Trade Center in its totality. This is a must-have celebration of American resilience and ingenuity for all who are invested in the rebuilding of Ground Zero.

An account of the life and work of the architect Minoru Yamasaki that leads the author to consider how (and for whom) architectural history is written. Sandfuture is a book about the life of the architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986), who remains on the margins of history despite the enormous influence of his work on American architecture and society. That Yamasaki’s most famous projects—the Pruitt-Igoe apartments in St. Louis and the original World Trade Center in New York—were both destroyed on national television, thirty years apart, makes his relative obscurity all the more remarkable. Sandfuture is also a book about an artist interrogating art and architecture’s role in culture as New York changes drastically after a decade bracketed by terrorism and natural disaster. From the central thread of Yamasaki’s life, Sandfuture spirals outward to include reflections on a wide range of subjects, from the figure of the architect in literature and film and transformations in the contemporary art market to the perils of sick buildings and the broader social and political implications of how, and for whom, cities are built. The result is at once sophisticated in its understanding of material culture and novelistic in its telling of a good story.

At 5:20 in the afternoon on 9/11, Building 7 of the World Trade Center collapsed, even though it had not been struck by a plane and had fires on only a few floors. The reason for its collapse was considered a mystery. In August 2008, NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) issued its report on WTC 7, declaring that "the reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery" and that “science is really behind what we have said.” Showing that neither of these claims is true, David Ray Griffin demonstrates that NIST is guilty of the most serious types of scientific fraud: fabricating, falsifying, and ignoring evidence. He also shows that NIST’s report left intact the central mystery: How could a building damaged by fire—not explosives—have come down in free fall?

Report of a team of civil, structural, and fire protection engineers, deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI/ASCE), in association with New York City and several other Federal agencies and professional organizations, to study the performance of buildings at the WTC site following the attack of September 11, 2001.

This is a unique history that covers the complete life of the Twin Towers: the sky-high hopes during their planning and construction, the years during which they stood at the pinnacle of the Manhattan skyline, their symbolic meaning to the city, the nation, and the world-and, in a new chapter written for this edition, their heartbreaking demise on September 11, 2001. The New York Times bestseller-now with photographs and a new updated chapter.

In late 2014, One World Trade Center-- or the Freedom Tower-- opened for business. It had taken nearly ten years, cost roughly four billion dollars, and had suffered setbacks that would have most likely scuttled any other project. Today it serves as a reminder of what America is capable of when we put aside our differences and pull together for a common cause. Raab's articles appeared in the pages of Esquire between 2005 and 2015, and here are accompanied by many never-before-seen photos. -- adapted from back cover.

An “engrossing” history of the restaurant atop the World Trade Center “that ruled the New York City skyline from April 1976 until September 11, 2001” (Booklist, starred review). In the 1970s, New York City was plagued by crime, filth, and an ineffective government. The city was falling apart, and even the newly constructed World Trade Center threatened to be a fiasco. But in April 1976, a quarter-mile up on the 107th floor of the North Tower, a new restaurant called Windows on the World opened its doors—a glittering sign that New York wasn’t done just yet. In The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World, journalist Tom Roston tells the complete history of this incredible restaurant, from its stunning $14-million opening to 9/11 and its tragic end. There are stories of the people behind it, such as Joe Baum, the celebrated restaurateur, who was said to be the only man who could outspend an unlimited budget; the well-tipped waiters; and the cavalcade of famous guests as well as everyday people celebrating the key moments in their lives. Roston also charts the changes in American food, from baroque and theatrical to locally sourced and organic. Built on nearly 150 original interviews, The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World is the story of New York City’s restaurant culture and the quintessential American drive to succeed. “Roston also digs deeply into the history of New York restaurants, and how Windows on the World was shaped by the politics and social conditions of its era.” —The New York Times “The city’s premier celebration venue, deeply woven into its social, culinary and business fabrics, deserved a proper history. Roston delivers it with power, detail, humor and heartbreak to spare.” ?New York Post “A rich, complex account.” ?Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the construction and history of the Twin Towers and Freedom Tower *Chronicles the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the plans to rebuild it *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. " - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg The name "World Trade Center," when spoken by an American, tends to conjure up the best and worst about the nation. The idea for such a financial center was conceived of in the heady days of post-World War II prosperity, when the nation's financial prospects had never looked better and Americans were trading all over the world with both former allies and enemies. At the same time, many in New York City, one of the jewels of the East Coast, had fallen on hard times, and it was hoped that the World Trade Center would revitalize Lower Manhattan and bring the Big Apple a bigger share of the prosperity the world was enjoying. Likewise, the center was designed by men steeped in the modern era, when architects could build skyscrapers as opposed to simple office complexes. For 30 years, the Twin Towers were the most dramatic features of the New York skyline, and for a short while one of the towers could boast of being the tallest building in the world. People came from around the world to visit them for both business and pleasure, and while most days were busy but uneventful, there were exceptions. A stunt seemingly featuring a man dancing in the sky humanized and popularized the buildings, and they began to prosper, just as the nation itself would rise again out of the mire of the 1970s. Almost as quickly, a fire threatened the North Tower in 1975. In 1977, a man decided to scale the side of the South Tower, and in 1983, a fireman completed a stunt designed to warn people about the impossibility of evacuating everyone in case of emergency. Fatefully, the fireman's efforts fell on largely deaf ears, as no one could conceive of the need for such efforts. As everyone now knows, the World Trade Center could have stood for a century or more but didn't last half that long, because what they symbolically represented made them a physical target. The Twin Towers survived the first violent attack in 1993, but less than a decade later they were gone, the initial victims of a war still raging. The World Trade Center would be rebuilt, but New York City would never look the same again. It should come as no surprise that in the dark days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, New York City began searching for some way to demonstrate its recovery and resolve. The obvious way to do just that was to rebuild what had been destroyed. Since there was no way to bring back the lives of those lost, the most straightforward path was to rebuild the Twin Towers that had fallen, but there was more to be done than to just rebuild the lost Twin Towers; the new building was to be bigger, taller, and better than before, as everyone hoped the country would somehow be. In the decade that followed, the first of a new millennium, the Freedom Tower experienced many of the same ups and downs that the nation did. Plans to rebuild it were met with the same level of controversy as those to fight the war on terror. Likewise, its popularity ebbed and flowed with the fickle hearts of a people grown weary with fighting an enemy overseas and a poor economy at home. Political parties rose into and fell out of power, changing again and again the environment in which the builders were trying to work. At some points, it seemed that the project would never end. The World Trade Center: The History of the Construction, Destruction, and Rebirth of a New York City Landmark looks at the history of one of a Big Apple icon. Along with pictures and more, you will learn about the World Trade Center like never before.