Progress Memo: Galyean

PRIMARY SOURCES - highlights:
Being ignored by Dept. of Buildings, but have pulled all applicable documents from their website. Have compiled several remarks from previous interviews with Patricia Lancaster as well as press releases, her testimony to City Council - see below for samples.

Drafted questions for Glenn Corbett, John Jay College (scheduled to address class on 4/4) - I was already planning on him as a source for my story.

Reviewed Dept. of Buildings WTC Building Code Task Force meeting agendas to find changes considered but not included in final code. - MORE TO DO

Quotes from Patricia Lancaster (previously published):
From NYT: regarding why the 1995 fire evacuation recommendations weren't implemented in the WTC before 9/2001: "It just didn't happen."
From NYT: "No building is safe from everything. It's up to the owners to assess how much risk their building, their piece of land, their edifice, is at. There's no one answer to what you should do. That's why not everything is mandated in the building code. If you mandate too much, then we'll be building concrete bunkers."
From NYT: "If you increase a stairwell by one inch at the top of a 90-story building, you are giving up dozens and dozens of square feet of rentable space."
From NYT: re: why not requiring more stairwells: "We were not successful in gaining consensus on that issue."
From NYT: re: requiring sprinklers: "I think it's a miracle we got this passed at all, frankly." AND "The real estate industry was pretty darn good about stepping up to the plate and going along with this stuff. They were sobered, as were the rest of us, after 9/11. When they became convinced that this would really help people in an extreme event, they adopted it. It's really pretty striking. Those guys have big bucks."
From Gotham Gazette: "When the mayor asked me to write a new building code, I wasn’t sure it was possible. It hadn't been possible in 40 years."

SECONDARY SOURCES - highlights:

I've been comparing NIST and McKinsey (FDNY) reports related to fire codes (WTC compliance and recommendations) with relevant 2008 NYC Building Codes to see which recommendations were incorporated.
- Identified the 13 NIST recommendations that have been included in 2008 building code
- drafting questions about those related to fire & evacuation that were not included in NYC bill 126-A.

Culled information from previous reports (NY Times, Gotham Gazette, Village Voice, Daily News, NIST website)
Per NYT article: “Dr. Sunder said that fully equipped firefighters - carrying nearly 100 pounds of gear up stairs - begin to reach their physiological limits about the 15th or 20th floor, and that it takes about two minutes to climb per floor. For people on the 60th floor of a building that has lost power, Dr. Sunder said, "help is actually a few hours away. We did not look at other buildings, but we are very confident in our recommendations."

NIST report: on 9/11, even though building was not at capacity, people took about twice as long to go down each flight of stairs as engineering standards estimate - this calculation does NOT appear to have been effected design (width) of staircases in new building standard.
North tower impact area: three staircases about 70 feet apart - all destroyed immediately.
South tower impact area: three staircases about 200 feet apart - one partially intact.

NYC building codes called for 4 staircases in each tower, but there were only 3 in each – total 6. 5 were destroyed by planes – one in south tower was used by at least 18 survivors.
No one above the 91st floor on North Tower could get out.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey used 1968 NYC building code that did not require as many staircases as 1938 version.
But 4th staircase was required because Windows on the World (north tower) and observatory (south tower) had occupancy ratings over 1,000
The Port Authority is not bound by NYC codes, but claims to "meet or exceed"standards.
NYT article: "On the issue of the fourth staircase, we will respectfully disagree with the N.I.S.T. findings and maintain that we met the city building codes in this area," said Steve Coleman, an agency spokesman.
But former WTC director told 9/11 Commission in 2004 that stairwells needed to be wider for faster evacuation.
From NYT:
Port Authority correspondence includes note from Malcolm P. Levy, the Port Authority's chief planning engineer (now deceased): ''The tower core should be redesigned to eliminate the fire towers and to take advantage of the more lenient provisions regarding exit stairs.''

NOTE: 2008 Building Codes do not require additional or wider staircases compared to 1968 Codes.