Thursday, March 13, 2008
Deutsche Bank and 15-Day Fire Inspection Cycle (Wiltermuth) Pitch
The towers came down on September 11, 2001, and promises were made. The nearby Deutsche Bank building stands as a marker from that day. Six and a half years later, in the midst of a massive construction boom, has high-rise safety been improved? What has stayed the same? A fire at the building in August killed two firefighters, exposing unsafe work conditions and a failed 15-day fire inspection cycle. The District Attorney launched an ongoing criminal investigation against the city, as well as against the subcontractor in charge of deconstruction. This story will focus on the 15-day fire inspection cycle. When was it first implemented? Did they know at the time that it was unfeasible?
GOING GREEN (Carlson): Pitch
Are green buildings practical in an age of terrorism? Can sustainable principles be effectively coupled with existing fire and building codes? Do green buildings actually provide a higher level of safety than non-green buildings?
The rise in importance of environmental issues has brought into question how to accommodate current fire and building code regulations within the broader context of sustainability. Building permitting agencies struggle to reconcile environmentally responsible practices with the patchwork of existing prescriptive regulations -- likely including those established through Local Law 86 and other post-9/11 requirements.
The most well-known organization to have developed standards to address sustainable development is the United States Green Building Council. The council launched the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system in 1998. However, while developers and builders seek to go green, it has become clear to some that sustainability standards do not mesh well with established regulations in certain instances. For example, there are often maximum densities, allowable heights of structures, and parking/road requirements that cause difficulties in ensuring that LEED design principles are being met. Also, some green designers have contemplated installing under-floor ventilation or using straw bale construction as a way to gain LEED points; however, these practices have yet to be approved for safety.
Specifically, I would like to investigate the construction of the Freedom Tower which is set to meet Gold level LEED standards. In fact, the tower project has achieved this certification by creating the World Trade Center Sustainable Design Guidelines. Furthermore, I would like to ascertain or at least bring up the question as to whether green buildings can actually provide a greater level of protection from air or fire emergencies.
The rise in importance of environmental issues has brought into question how to accommodate current fire and building code regulations within the broader context of sustainability. Building permitting agencies struggle to reconcile environmentally responsible practices with the patchwork of existing prescriptive regulations -- likely including those established through Local Law 86 and other post-9/11 requirements.
The most well-known organization to have developed standards to address sustainable development is the United States Green Building Council. The council launched the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system in 1998. However, while developers and builders seek to go green, it has become clear to some that sustainability standards do not mesh well with established regulations in certain instances. For example, there are often maximum densities, allowable heights of structures, and parking/road requirements that cause difficulties in ensuring that LEED design principles are being met. Also, some green designers have contemplated installing under-floor ventilation or using straw bale construction as a way to gain LEED points; however, these practices have yet to be approved for safety.
Specifically, I would like to investigate the construction of the Freedom Tower which is set to meet Gold level LEED standards. In fact, the tower project has achieved this certification by creating the World Trade Center Sustainable Design Guidelines. Furthermore, I would like to ascertain or at least bring up the question as to whether green buildings can actually provide a greater level of protection from air or fire emergencies.
Galyean - pitch
Galyean PITCH
FIRE SAFETY: WORDS VS. ACTIONS:
Nothing spurs a call to action like a catastrophe. Tragedy on a grand scale is almost immediately followed by promises to learn from the losses and to prevent "something like this from ever happening again."
But does anything really change?
The 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center demonstrated several fatal flaws in fire safety and evacuation procedures in the buildings. Many of these flaws had already been identified in a 1995 report on the 1993 WTC bombing. However, of the nineteen recommendations made in the 1995 report, only a handful were implemented by 2001.
This is consistent with the history of the Port Authority, which owns and manages the WTC but is exempt from city and state building requirements. The agency began circumventing building safety standards even before the towers were built. Despite the agency's professed desire to meet or exceed applicable NYC building safety standards, the Port Authority has only sporadically attempted to do so. A 1970 Fire Commission demand for sprinklers in the WTC stairwells was ignored until a fire spread through several floors of the North Tower in 1975.
The Port Authority's resistance, though, is reflected by that of the local real estate lobby, which has opposed most of the fire safety revisions due to both immediate costs and the potential of lost rental revenue (if floor space was dedicated to escape routes, additional stairwells, etc.).
I'd like to write a 1,500 word investigative article that assesses the cooperation of the Port Authority and other NYC building developers in implementing fire safety recommendations resulting from the 1993 WTC bombing and the 2001 attacks. For technical information, I will rely primarily on the 1995 report by the U.S. Fire Administration, the 2005 report by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the 2001 and 2008 New York City Building Codes.
I will interview staff from the New York City Department of Buildings and the Port Authority regarding the integration of previous fire safety recommendations into the WTC prior to 2001 and the integration of the 2005 recommendations into the new NYC Building Code and the construction of the new buildings at the WTC site. Additional interviews with fire safety specialists, FDNY staff, and real estate leaders will help to fill out the story.
FIRE SAFETY: WORDS VS. ACTIONS:
Nothing spurs a call to action like a catastrophe. Tragedy on a grand scale is almost immediately followed by promises to learn from the losses and to prevent "something like this from ever happening again."
But does anything really change?
The 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center demonstrated several fatal flaws in fire safety and evacuation procedures in the buildings. Many of these flaws had already been identified in a 1995 report on the 1993 WTC bombing. However, of the nineteen recommendations made in the 1995 report, only a handful were implemented by 2001.
This is consistent with the history of the Port Authority, which owns and manages the WTC but is exempt from city and state building requirements. The agency began circumventing building safety standards even before the towers were built. Despite the agency's professed desire to meet or exceed applicable NYC building safety standards, the Port Authority has only sporadically attempted to do so. A 1970 Fire Commission demand for sprinklers in the WTC stairwells was ignored until a fire spread through several floors of the North Tower in 1975.
The Port Authority's resistance, though, is reflected by that of the local real estate lobby, which has opposed most of the fire safety revisions due to both immediate costs and the potential of lost rental revenue (if floor space was dedicated to escape routes, additional stairwells, etc.).
I'd like to write a 1,500 word investigative article that assesses the cooperation of the Port Authority and other NYC building developers in implementing fire safety recommendations resulting from the 1993 WTC bombing and the 2001 attacks. For technical information, I will rely primarily on the 1995 report by the U.S. Fire Administration, the 2005 report by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the 2001 and 2008 New York City Building Codes.
I will interview staff from the New York City Department of Buildings and the Port Authority regarding the integration of previous fire safety recommendations into the WTC prior to 2001 and the integration of the 2005 recommendations into the new NYC Building Code and the construction of the new buildings at the WTC site. Additional interviews with fire safety specialists, FDNY staff, and real estate leaders will help to fill out the story.
Giambusso Gowanus Questions
(To be asked of Professors Richard Plunz, Architecture and Patricia Culligan, Civil Engineering, of Columbia and authors of Eco Gowanus: Urban Remediation by Design).
1. How have designs for Public Place compared with your own ideas and findings for the needs of the area?
2. Who or what stands essentially in the way of implementing your recommendations? Political will? Money?
3. Discuss briefly your research methods? Did you examine tax records, old titles, designs?
4. What are some of the immediate risks of living above and amidst this particular site?
5. Where else in the U.S. have your ideas of green industrial infrastructure been implemented?
1. How have designs for Public Place compared with your own ideas and findings for the needs of the area?
2. Who or what stands essentially in the way of implementing your recommendations? Political will? Money?
3. Discuss briefly your research methods? Did you examine tax records, old titles, designs?
4. What are some of the immediate risks of living above and amidst this particular site?
5. Where else in the U.S. have your ideas of green industrial infrastructure been implemented?
Design for Safety (Parkins)
In the decades leading up to September 11, 2001, architects and structural engineers had been influential innovators in skyscraper design and construction, experimenting with ways to make them not only visually appealing but safe. Fire, earthquakes and hurricanes are a couple of the areas where design has been able to alleviate risk.
I would like to find out:
I would like to find out:
- In the years following September 11, 2001, the ways in which the design community has been considering terrorist attacks and safety from it in their work, if at all.
- How architectural innovation could be used to help keep people, buildings and communities safer in the event of another attack.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Updated Interview Questions
- Since 9-11, what (architectural/engineering) changes have been made in skyscraper design and construction?
- Where does the United States stand in the innovation of terrorism safety features in skyscraper design?
- As updated construction methods are used for newer buildings, what are some methods being used or considered to make existing skyscrapers safer?
- In what ways have (architects/structural engineers) worked together to improve safety in skyscraper design?
- The further we move from 9-11 has pressure to innovate increased or decreased? What areas of skyscraper design and safety remain important issues to explore?
I am not sure what order I will ask the questions yet, but I am certain I will start with the first question.
First interviews:
- AIA
- Structural Engineering Association of New York
- National Council of Structural Engineers Associations
Giambusso Gowanus Pitch.
City officials and developers have been encouraging new housing development along a stretch of Gowanus basin, one of the most polluted ecosystems in the country, if not the planet.
"Public Place" is the Orwellian title given to the central project, and is currently being vetted for construction over a former gas manufacturing plant. A high-rise apartment building with affordable housing, commercial/office space, and outdoor landscapes is being proposed over a festering toxic mass, in the belief that two centuries of sewage and all manner of toxic dumping can be covered up with a slab of concrete and a fresh coat of paint.
The central question of my investigation will be, what guarantee can the developers and policy makers give that this site is safe to live on? Professors of architecture and engineering at Columbia recently published a survey of the site that suggests the financial and political investment necesarry to seriously remediate the Gowanus basin isn't feasible.
One of the major safety issues after 9/11 has been airborne toxins from building demolition and construction. To what extent have we heeded these lessons and to what extent has the rabid development market run afoul?
Photo survey of proposed site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giambusso/sets/72157604111664762/
"Public Place" is the Orwellian title given to the central project, and is currently being vetted for construction over a former gas manufacturing plant. A high-rise apartment building with affordable housing, commercial/office space, and outdoor landscapes is being proposed over a festering toxic mass, in the belief that two centuries of sewage and all manner of toxic dumping can be covered up with a slab of concrete and a fresh coat of paint.
The central question of my investigation will be, what guarantee can the developers and policy makers give that this site is safe to live on? Professors of architecture and engineering at Columbia recently published a survey of the site that suggests the financial and political investment necesarry to seriously remediate the Gowanus basin isn't feasible.
One of the major safety issues after 9/11 has been airborne toxins from building demolition and construction. To what extent have we heeded these lessons and to what extent has the rabid development market run afoul?
Photo survey of proposed site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giambusso/sets/72157604111664762/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)