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Even in an Age of Terror, Towers Use Glass FacadesFor three years, ground zero has been the province of ruin and rough edges. Now it is assuming a diaphanous new face. Floor by floor, the new 7 World Trade Center is being sheathed in 538,420 square feet of glass, more than 12 acres of transparency.
That is just the beginning. Glass-clad structures are to rise all around the site where the twin towers stood. Beyond this crystalline precinct, dozens of other buildings with sleek glass skins are under development or newly completed, reflecting the current architectural penchant for clarity, luminosity, permeability and weightlessness.
Defying concerns after the attack on New York three years ago that post-9/11 construction would be dominated by brute concrete bunkers, the designers of significant new public and private buildings in the city are turning again and again to glass facades.
At first, it seems counterintuitive to embrace such an apparently fragile building material when structures are supposed to be hardened against terrorist bombings. The paradox is that much greater at ground zero, where thousands of windows were destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, even in buildings that were otherwise largely undamaged.
"It is evident that glass in tall buildings or any buildings would cause serious injuries in the event of a bomb blast," said Monica Gabrielle, co-chairwoman of
more: www.nytimes.com/2004/09/06/nyregi... (115)
September 8, 2004 | Viewed 24,423 time(s)
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