tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/9-11-15th-anniversary-30654/articles9/11 15th Anniversary – The Conversation2016-09-09T21:18:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/651422016-09-09T21:18:14Z2016-09-09T21:18:14ZDisaster communications: Lessons from 9/11<p>“The hotel is being evacuated. Please return to your rooms and prepare to exit.” That was the first communication one of us, Dr. Terndrup, recalls receiving at a medical research meeting in the Brooklyn Marriott hotel that September morning. </p>
<p>Out on the street was pandemonium, Terndrup remembers. Just two miles from what would come to be called “Ground Zero,” people were running away from Manhattan. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0300-9572(02)00442-2">Members of our team</a> – all medical professionals – split up to find ways to help. With a medic I had never met before, and whose name I didn’t ever learn, I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, toward the World Trade Center site. Most people were heading the other way, of course.</p>
<p>The medic and I didn’t know quite what to do, though, because we didn’t know what was going on. We could see the smoke and ash covering much of the city skyline, as we headed in to help. Even the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsIWPPw-JzU">nonstop TV coverage</a> didn’t give us many details we could use. Once we got to Manhattan, we got some useful information from police and other medics. But despite being in the heart of a major city with television cameras everywhere and thousands of emergency workers responding, it was challenging to get accurate, timely information. </p>
<p>What we and the other <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/cc1053">responders learned that day</a>, under the pressure of a disaster of incredible scale, scope and urgency – not to mention the international media spotlight – went on to spark major changes in U.S. emergency response communication.</p>
<h2>Setting up to respond</h2>
<p>Once over the bridge and into lower Manhattan, the medic and I found our way to an office building off Vesey and Church streets, where we joined several dozen doctors, nurses, paramedics, police, firefighters and others hoping to help. We set up a makeshift clinic, including securing four elevators to stay on the ground floor to serve as “treatment rooms.” Then we waited.</p>
<p>When someone said there was a group of exhausted firefighters in a nearby bank, a few people went over to help rinse out their smoke- and dust-filled eyes (the most common problem) and help them use nebulizers (acquired from a nearby pharmacy) to combat the effects of smoke inhalation.</p>
<p>Communications were primitive at best. Cellular service was completely gone. In the first few minutes after the planes hit the towers, New York City’s 9-1-1 call centers received 3,000 calls – throughout that day, <a href="http://psc.apcointl.org/2011/09/06/911-10-years-later/">more than 55,000 came in</a>.</p>
<p>Thousands of law enforcement officers and firefighters were <a href="http://psc.apcointl.org/2011/08/10/10-years-later-n-y-responders-communicate-better/">trying to connect by phone, radio</a> and <a href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/11/leaked_911_text.html">two-way pager</a>. Devices and networks, not to mention personnel, were overloaded. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/communication-breakdown-on-9-11/">Police radios were generally working</a>, but the best information was often by word of mouth. </p>
<p>At our office-building clinic, the volunteers resorted to face-to-face communication, sending people to meet up with a group of responders gathering on the nearby Pace University campus and bring back what information they could. The main message rapidly went from bad to worse. It could be summed up as, “There’s nobody coming out of that alive.”</p>
<h2>Planning to communicate</h2>
<p>While obviously both of us hope nothing like that ever happens again, as emergency responders it’s our job to plan for the unthinkably disastrous. No matter what, responders need to be able to deliver messages to the public, talk to hospitals, and connect with each other.</p>
<p>Since 1999, New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, charged with coordinating all aspects of the response, had occupied <a href="http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/giuliani-911-and-the-emergency-command-center-continued/">permanent headquarters in Seven World Trade Center</a>, on Greenwich Street, just north of the landmark twin towers. A vital communications link was the <a href="http://www.emsworld.com/article/10324490/new-york-citys-public-safety-communications-three-years-after">radio repeater system</a> based on the ground floor of One World Trade Center, the north tower. The loss of those facilities – and key personnel working there – significantly hampered the response.</p>
<p>Today, it’s considered a bad idea to put an emergency operations center near places likely to be direct targets or at risk for collateral damage. When building a new emergency-response headquarters, New York City put it across the East River in <a href="http://www.interiorsandsources.com/article-details/articleid/5333/title/new-york-city-office-of-emergency-management-new-york-ny-.aspx">downtown Brooklyn</a>, far from all potential targets and landmarks in lower Manhattan.</p>
<h2>Making the connections</h2>
<p>But that distance can be a weakness if communications are reduced, as we were, to sending messengers on foot to have face-to-face conversations to relay information.</p>
<p>Even if radios and phones are working, they’re much less useful if responders can’t talk to each other. In 2001, the Fire Department of New York, the New York Police Department and the Port Authority Police <a href="http://psc.apcointl.org/2010/09/09/911-five-years-later-the-way-we-were/">all used different radio systems</a> with different capabilities on different frequencies. Unable to connect with each other, neither the agencies nor the rescuers themselves could efficiently coordinate to help victims. This disconnection may also have prevented <a href="http://psc.apcointl.org/2011/08/10/10-years-later-n-y-responders-communicate-better/">the evacuation of responders</a> before the buildings fell.</p>
<p>If leaders are to be farther away and yet still act rapidly in an unfolding situation, they need more than one way to communicate with each other and with people directly on the scene. When one system gets cut off or stops working properly, there must be other options.</p>
<h2>Constructing resilience</h2>
<p>In our work with Ohio’s FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team, <a href="http://www.publicsafety.ohio.gov/ohtf1/">Task Force 1</a>, we have multiple communication methods. Mainly we use a <a href="https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/60001707365.pdf">national wireless network</a> – which itself is designed to be <a href="https://www.verizon.com/about/emergency-information/prepared-weather-storm">resilient in emergencies</a>, with redundant network connections and switching equipment and round-the-clock system monitoring. The company can also bring in portable cellular towers when regular cell towers are disabled, or to improve coverage in an area where existing service is overloaded.</p>
<p>We have wireless service for the bus that serves as our mobile operations center, and for cell phones and tablets issued to our task force leaders. The bus also has a Wi-Fi system that can connect additional devices.</p>
<p>If the cellular network is severely compromised by the disaster, we can use satellites. <a href="http://www.cobham.com/communications-and-connectivity/satcom/land-mobile-satcom-systems/land-based-satcom-applications/explorer-msat-g3/explorer-msat-g3-data-sheet/">MSAT devices</a> carry our voice traffic, and our data travels via portable <a href="http://www.bgansatellite.com/">BGAN terminals</a>, which connect to laptop computers. </p>
<p>Our base of operations (BoO) at a disaster is equipped with a <a href="http://www.gatr.com/products/1-8-antenna-system">1.8-meter VSAT satellite dish</a> that can provide data and internet access for all the responders in the area. As further backup, we have portable radios and a repeater system.</p>
<h2>What we communicate about</h2>
<p>Another communications lesson from 9/11 comes from something that, tragically, didn’t happen. That day, <a href="https://www.newsday.com/911-anniversary/9-11-01-treating-the-victims-1.790094">New York hospitals called in all available staff</a>, to be ready to receive large numbers of patients. They worried, as did we, in our makeshift clinic just north of the twin towers, that thousands of people would need lifesaving care all at the same time.</p>
<p>Yet there was <a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR317.pdf">no way to know which hospitals were full</a>, which ones had operating rooms available or anything else about where to send patients, had they arrived in large numbers. Some hospitals likely would have been beyond overwhelmed, while others nearby might have had plenty of space and available doctors and nurses standing ready.</p>
<p>The lesson has spread across the country. Columbus, Ohio, where we work now, uses a system called “<a href="http://www.centralohiotraumasystem.org/rtas">Real Time Activity Status</a>,” which connects all the hospitals in our own Franklin County and three neighboring counties. It notifies ambulance dispatchers when their emergency rooms are too busy and need to divert patients to other hospitals. A similar system saved many lives <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-bostons-hospitals-were-ready">after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing</a>.</p>
<p>By ensuring that – no matter what happens – we can communicate with each other, the emergency response community <a href="http://www.jems.com/articles/supplements/special-topics/courage-under-fire/ems-untold.html">keeps the memory of 9/11 alive</a> in our own way every single day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Terndrup receives funding from the National Institute of Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Kman is affiliated with Ohio Task Force 1, FEMA Urban Search and Rescue. </span></em></p>What we and other responders learned that day would go on to spark major changes in U.S. emergency response efforts.Thomas Terndrup, Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State UniversityNicholas Kman, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/640672016-09-09T13:55:13Z2016-09-09T13:55:13ZThe catastrophic legacy of 9/11 will define the US for years to come<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137227/original/image-20160909-13356-1ekdip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The dust has yet to settle. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-152779p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Anthony Correia</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Anthony Correia/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/9-11-then-now-15-090031476.html">15th anniversary</a> of the September 11 attacks comes around, the world seems no safer than it was when US President George W. Bush launched his <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/12/newsid_2515000/2515239.stm">war on terror</a>. In fact, the legacy of violence and conflict has had repercussions more serious than even the pessimists could have imagined.</p>
<p>The September 11 2001 attacks were the work of al-Qaeda and its then-leader, Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda terrorists who trained as pilots in the US hijacked four commercial planes; they crashed two of them into the World Trade Centre towers in New York City and another into a section of the Pentagon in Washington DC. A fourth plane, the fabled <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/07/22/911.flight.93/">United 93</a>, crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers tried to overwhelm the hijackers. All in all, the attacks killed about 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000.</p>
<p>Bush’s tenure was ultimately defined by its response to 9/11 – a litany of disastrous mistakes and missed opportunities. At the end of 2001, the world was ready to come together to denounce acts of extremist terrorism. It wouldn’t have been difficult to create a strong, persuasive counter-narrative to al-Qaeda’s by working jointly with American and international Muslims to forge a common strategy against radical Islamist terrorism. </p>
<p>Instead, the response from the Bush administration was immediate and belligerent: the US would invade Afghanistan and go after al-Qaeda, where the terrorist group had established a safe haven. The US would also attack al-Qaeda’s host, the extremist Taliban regime. </p>
<p>With the help of the UK, some of the NATO countries, Australia and some other allies, the US invaded on October 7 2001 under the banner of <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/28/world/operation-enduring-freedom-fast-facts/">Operation Enduring Freedom</a>. The invasion toppled the Taliban and seriously disrupted al-Qaeda’s networks; by 2003, al-Qaeda had been drastically weakened.</p>
<p>But the US didn’t stop there. On March 20 2003, driven by several neo-conservative thinkers including <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/18/10_years_on_paul_wolfowitz_admits_us_bungled_in_iraq_117492.html">Paul Wolfowitz</a> and <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/iraq-war-wmds-donald-rumsfeld-new-report-213530">Donald Rumsfeld</a>, the US invaded Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was supporting terrorist groups. With the exception of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-blair-really-went-to-war-58243">British government</a>, few of the US’s allies supported this decision. In spite of this, the US’s invasion of Iraq was to be the jewel in the Bush presidency’s crown. </p>
<p>Instead, it proved to be an outright catastrophe.</p>
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<p>Estimates of the body count in Iraq vary considerably. Conservative estimates claim that 251,000 have died in the Iraq conflict, including as many as <a href="https://www.iraqbodycount.org/">180,000 civilians</a>. Other studies argue that the death count from 2003-2011 is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24547256">closer to 500,000</a>.</p>
<p>Bush tried to portray the project in Iraq as a humanitarian venture to liberate Iraq from oppression, in an endeavour that would quickly pay for itself. Neo-conservatives predicted the war could be won <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2899823.stm">cheaply and quickly</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, the US spent over US$800 billion and stayed in Iraq for almost a decade. Offered with a new calling to fight a holy war in Iraq, al-Qaeda came back with a vengeance and spawned the even more brutal al-Qaeda in Iraq, which in turn gave birth to the Islamic State. A civil war that broke out made stable government all but impossible, and Iraq turned back into a near-dictatorship under the leadership of Nouri al-Maliki.</p>
<p>Though the invasion of Afghanistan had much more international support than the invasion of Iraq, it nonetheless incurred huge costs. It’s been <a href="http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/how-many-afghan-civilians-have-died-in-13-years-of-war--lkcwu0y6Le">estimated</a> that around 21,000 civilians have died since the invasion. Failing to learn the lessons of countless other invaders before it, the US-led invasion in Afghanistan did not yield a functioning state. Afghanistan can only function with foreign aid. It is still <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36424018">unstable, unsafe, corrupt and incredibly poor</a>. The Taliban is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-stopping-islamic-states-afghan-operation-means-tackling-the-taliban-63088">still wreaking havoc in Afghanistan</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-two-talibans-and-how-they-operate-53457">Taliban faction in Pakistan</a> is stronger than ever.</p>
<p>Al-Qaeda was still relatively weak, and could have been entirely eliminated by stemming its recruitment, cutting off funding and taking a harsher stance on countries that offered it financial support, such as Saudi Arabia. Instead, the US’s response was to invade several countries, leaving a trail of death, destruction and anger. Under Bush, the US operated as a global superpower – but it drastically overextended and isolated itself. </p>
<h2>Few options, little progress</h2>
<p>When the Obama administration began in January 2009, it had very few options. Having not been in favour of the war while he served as a state senator, Barrack Obama inherited a mess. Withdrawing immediately was not a realistic option and thus the choice for how long to remain was difficult. US troops did eventually leave in December of 2011, but the Iraq they departed was far from stable and democratic. The Iraqi military was incredibly weak (<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-iraqi-army-a-lost-cause-49185">as it is today</a>); the government was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/post-war-iraq-corruption-oil-prices-revenues">corrupt</a> and <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2014/06/12/Maliki-s-sectarian-policy-backfires-in-dramatic-style.html">sectarian</a>. </p>
<p>The vacuum created by the Iraq war also allowed the war in Syria to heat up after the peaceful 2011 uprising against Assad turned into a violent crackdown. Since then, more than 470,000 people have been killed in Syria, and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-staggering-new-death-toll-for-syrias-war-470000/">millions have been displaced</a>. </p>
<p>Regrets about the invasion of Iraq left the West highly wary of military ventures overseas, and left it unwilling to do much – if anything – about the brewing conflict in Syria. The world watched on as a humanitarian disaster unfolded. No world leader has had a coherent plan of action to resolve the conflict.</p>
<p>All the while, the landscape of radical terrorism has changed too. There have been successful mass-casualty terror attacks on US soil since 9/11 (the 2013 <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/boston-marathon-terror-attack-fast-facts/">Boston marathon bombing</a>, for instance), but they have been “lone wolf” attacks rather than tightly co-ordinated offensives by militant groups. That is something to be thankful for – but around the world, the picture is far from encouraging. </p>
<p>Deaths attributed to terrorism <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/global-terrorism-deaths-increase-by-80-in-2014-10339310">increased by 80% in 2014</a>, though it decreased slightly in 2015. More and more countries are afflicted by terrorist acts: in 2013, only five countries counted over 500 lives claimed by terrorism, but in 2014, that number <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2015-global-terrorism-index-deaths-from-terrorism-increased-80-last-year-to-the-highest-level-ever-global-economic-cost-of-terrorism-reached-all-time-high-at-us529-billion-550766811.html">rose to 11</a>. While countries such Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan still bear the brunt of most terrorist attacks, Europe also remains on high alert and France in particular has been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36842311">in an official state of emergency</a> since the Islamic State-sanctioned Paris attacks of November 2015. The world also seems incredibly divided, with Islamophobic attacks at an <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/9/us-muslims-experience-surge-in-islamophobic-attacks.html">all-time high</a>.</p>
<h2>The road ahead</h2>
<p>Clearly, the world is in need of great leaders who can both take risks and work hard to bridge cultural and political gaps – all without polarising people even further. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/2016-us-presidential-election-23653">This year’s US presidential election</a>, however, offers one less than inspiring candidate and another who’s nothing less than a disaster-in-waiting.</p>
<p>Judging by her track record as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton <a href="https://theconversation.com/obama-has-put-national-security-ahead-of-promoting-democracy-abroad-62711">does not seem to have a transformative vision</a> of what US foreign policy is for. Whatever pre-existing plans Obama and his team have put in place regarding Islamist terrorism, Syria and Iraq will not be scrapped and rewritten wholesale. Clinton <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkS9y5t0tR0">voted to invade Iraq</a> when serving as a senator from New York, and while she has repeatedly expressed regret for that vote, she has never fully shaken off her association with the disaster that ensued.</p>
<p>It’s much harder to predict what a Donald Trump presidency would entail. After all, he admitted that he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/04/donald-trump-difference-between-hamas-hezbollah-quds-kurds">didn’t know the difference between Shiites and Sunnis</a>, and said he would learn the distinction between Hamas and Hezbollah “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/04/donald-trump-difference-between-hamas-hezbollah-quds-kurds">when it’s appropriate</a>”. And however empty and confused his current platform may be, it’s clear that stability and peace are not his priorities.</p>
<p>But whoever takes the reins, 9/11 and its fallout will continue to shape their presidency and America’s global role more than 15 years on. Neither the US nor the world will ever be quite the way they were before the morning of September 11 2001.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Lindstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scarred by disastrous wars and thousands of deaths caused by terrorism, the world is still reeling from the events of September 2001.Natasha Lindstaedt, Senior Lecturer, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644552016-09-09T09:02:16Z2016-09-09T09:02:16ZWhy the 9/11 novel has been such a contested and troubled genre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137092/original/image-20160908-25249-1vvoewq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Songquan Deng/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thousands of people have visited the memorial site, conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and for many the sense of loss is still visceral. After 15 years, the terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York continues to capture the imagination. </p>
<p>Over these 15 years, a diverse range of artistic and cultural responses have attempted to understand and give meaning to the events now known as 9/11. One medium that has had substantial critical attention has been the novel. And we can learn much from this attention. The ways in which these novels were anticipated, criticised and frequently linked to debates about the wider role of fiction in society evoke compelling questions about how we now see the attacks.</p>
<p>In some ways, the high profile critical debates that surrounded these novels and placed so much importance on them, actually reinforced George W Bush’s assertion that “on September 11 night fell on a new world”. And in doing so, some argue that they undercut the complex prehistories and aftermaths of 9/11, giving it inflated importance in the world narrative.</p>
<h2>Writing terror</h2>
<p>Even before there were such novels, the apparent need for literary interpretations of the attacks reflected just how incomprehensible they felt for many. And perhaps because 9/11 was such a visual spectacle, newspapers and magazines sought literary authors – experts at exploring the human condition through the written word – to interpret or narrate the trauma.</p>
<p>Early essays by Ian McEwan, Don DeLillo, Martin Amis and John Updike spoke to other popular non-fiction responses, like the New York Times’ sombre <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/portraits/index.html">Portraits of Grief</a> profiles that appeared throughout the autumn of 2001. These literary authors also reflected on the difficulty of writing fiction about “unimaginable” events. This, of course, stoked anticipation for the inevitable 9/11 fiction to come: how would authors attempt to represent the “incomprehensible”?</p>
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<span class="caption">Twin tower to twin couple.</span>
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<p>When novels from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/26/fiction.dondelillo">DeLillo</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/03/fiction.features4">Claire Messud</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/mar/05/fiction.features1">Jay McInerney</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview17">Ken Kalfus</a> arrived, critics were quick to note striking similarities. These novels, all of which appeared between 2006 and 2007, focused on the ways privileged white New Yorkers dealt with trauma. And all of them did so through marriage or relationship narratives.</p>
<p>Discussing these novels in an article titled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/19/fiction.martinamis">The End of Innocence</a>, Pankaj Mishra asked with incredulity: “Are we meant to think of marital discord as a metaphor for post-9/11 America?” For Mishra, it was particularly galling that DeLillo – who has been so insightful about terrorism – was “retreating like McInerney and Kalfus into the domestic”.</p>
<p>Scholarly articles by <a href="http://alh.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/1/128.extract">Richard Gray</a> and <a href="http://alh.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/1/152.extract">Michael Rothberg</a> followed, similarly criticising those same novels for their “failure” to engage with otherness and the geopolitics of 9/11. Gray was trenchant: “The crisis is in every sense of the word, domesticated.” </p>
<p>Mishra, Gray and Rothberg all felt that fiction should be doing things that the mainstream media and US government responses were not – offering nuanced articulations of the geopolitics of the war on terror and the rise of fear and xenophobia in the US and the West.</p>
<p>But this position was challenged by scholars such as <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/450767/pdf">John Duvall and Robert P Marzec</a>, who pointed to canonical novels like Virginia Woolf’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/01/100-best-novels-mrs-dalloway-virginia-woolf-robert-mccrum">Mrs Dalloway</a> (1925) and Ernest Hemingway’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/22/100-best-novels-sun-also-rises-ernest-hemingway-robert-mccrum">The Sun Also Rises</a> (1926), which registered the traumas of World War I precisely in this way – through domestic settings. Perhaps the strongest response came from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/how-do-we-write-about-this-the-domestic-and-the-global-in-the-post-911-novel/2EB782D9783D7CD2379026635F5401EA">Catherine Morley</a>, who criticised the Mishra, Rothberg and Gray perspective that “fiction is no more than a political tool”.</p>
<p>Clearly, the debate about the 9/11 novel evoked larger ideas about what fiction is for and how it should deal with crisis or catastrophe in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>A defining moment?</h2>
<p>However polarised the debate became, both sides ascribed great importance to the 9/11 novel – and in doing so they also reinforced the idea of 9/11 as a defining moment. In 2008, this was pointed out <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/11/20/two-paths-for-the-novel/">by Zadie Smith</a>. Discussing a new novel by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/14/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview7">Joseph O’Neill</a>, Smith sardonically criticised the disproportionate interest in the 9/11 novel:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s the post–September 11 novel we hoped for. (Were there calls, in 1915, for the Lusitania novel? In 1985, was the Bhopal novel keenly anticipated?) It’s as if, by an act of collective prayer, we have willed it into existence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reference here to the Lusitania sinking and the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/12/bhopal-the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-30-years-later/100864/">Bhopal chemical disaster</a> in India, which took the lives of many more people than 9/11 did, is pointed. Smith is clearly voicing a suspicion that the intense attention attached to the 9/11 novel is linked to an American exceptionalism that shrouds other moments, events and perspectives in contemporary history.</p>
<p>Recent books like Mohsin Hamid’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/23/reluctant-fundamentalist-mohsin-hamid-review">The Reluctant Fundamentalist</a>, O’Neill’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/14/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview7">Netherland</a> and Amy Waldman’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/24/the-submission-amy-waldman-review">The Submission</a> have answered the calls of Mishra, Gray and Rothberg in their more politically engaged or international narratives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137190/original/image-20160909-13379-ms4e34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>In many ways, they have also retained aspects of the earlier texts and we can certainly now see the 9/11 novel as a genre. Marriages and relationships are at the centre of all of these novels and they also continue to explore the way privileged Americans absorb and respond to trauma.</p>
<p>Perhaps the book that most clearly aligns with Zadie Smith’s position, though, is Thomas Pynchon’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/28/bleeding-edge-thomas-pynchon-review">Bleeding Edge</a>. Bleeding Edge goes the furthest in challenging the singular importance attached to 9/11 in its intertwined historical narrative, weaving in the significance of the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and a history of the internet’s transition from an anarchic to a completely corporate space.</p>
<p>It is certainly the case that the reception and debates around the 9/11 novel have been as informative as the novels themselves. The genre continues to provide food for thought on how we remember the attacks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arin Keeble does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The debates surrounding the 9/11 novel have been as informative as the novels themselves.Arin Keeble, Lecturer in English Literature, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647252016-09-09T04:35:39Z2016-09-09T04:35:39ZHow the pain of 9/11 still stays with a generation<p>The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were the worst acts of terrorism on American soil to date. Designed to instill panic and fear, the attacks were unprecedented in terms of their scope, magnitude and impact on the American psyche.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.3.709">vast majority (over 60 percent) of Americans watched</a> these attacks occur live on television or saw them replayed over and over again in the days, weeks and years following the attacks.</p>
<p>As we reflect on the anniversary of this tragic event, a question to consider is: How has this event impacted those individuals who are too young to remember a world before 9/11? </p>
<p>As an applied social psychologist, <a href="http://www.danarosegarfin.com/about.html">I study</a> responses to natural and human-caused adversities that impact large segments of the population – also called <a href="http://www.danarosegarfin.com/uploads/3/0/8/5/30858187/vol4_ch29_silver_garfin.pdf">“collective trauma.”</a> My research group at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) has found that such exposures have compounding effects over the course of one’s lifespan. This is particularly relevant for children who have grown up in a post-9/11 society. </p>
<h2>PTSD and Ground Zero</h2>
<p>Many of the outcomes on which my team and I focus involve mental health, such as post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). </p>
<p><a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp">Post-traumatic stress symptoms</a> include feeling the event is happening again (e.g., flashbacks, nightmares), avoiding situations that remind individuals of the event (e.g., public places, movies about an event), negative feelings and beliefs (e.g., the world is dangerous) or feeling “keyed up” (e.g., difficulty sleeping or concentrating). </p>
<p>In order to meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD, an individual must have been directly exposed to a <a href="http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx">“traumatic event”</a> (e.g., assault, violence, accidental injury). Direct exposure means that an individual (or their loved one) was at or very near the site of the event. It might be somewhat obvious that people directly exposed to a collective trauma like 9/11 might suffer from associated physical and mental health problems. What is less obvious is how people geographically distant from the epicenter or “Ground Zero” might have been impacted.</p>
<p>This is particularly relevant when considering the impact of 9/11 on children and youth across America: Many reside far from the location of the actual attacks and were too young to have experienced or seen the attacks as they occurred. The point is people can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.76.4.657">experience collective trauma</a> solely through the media and report symptoms that <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20289">resemble those typically associated</a> with direct trauma exposure.</p>
<h2>Impact on physical and mental health</h2>
<p>The events of 9/11 ushered in a new era of media coverage of collective trauma, where terrorism and other forms of large-scale violence are transmitted into the daily lives of children and Americans families. </p>
<p>I have been exploring these issues with my collaborators <a href="http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/rsilver/">Roxane Cohen Silver</a> and <a href="http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5441">E. Alison Holman</a>. My colleagues surveyed a nationally representative sample of over 3,400 Americans shortly after 9/11 and then followed them for three years after the attacks. </p>
<p>In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, media-based exposure was associated with <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=195281">psychological distress</a>. This included <a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treatment/early/acute-stress-disorder.asp">acute stress</a> (which is similar to PTS but must be experienced in the first month of exposure), post-traumatic stress and ongoing fears and worries about future acts of terrorism (in the months following the attacks). </p>
<p>These harmful effects persisted in the years following 9/11. For example, the team found <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2007.6">measurable impact</a> on the mental and physical health (such as increased risk of heart diseases) of the sample three years after the attacks. Importantly, those who responded with distress in the immediate aftermath were more likely to report subsequent problems as well. </p>
<p>These findings bear close resemblance to research led by psychologist <a href="http://psychiatry.duke.edu/faculty/details/0098909">William Schlenger</a>, whose team found that Americans who reported watching more hours of 9/11 television in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were more likely to report symptoms resembling PTSD. For example, those who reported watching four to seven hours were almost four times as likely to report such symptoms <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=195165">compared to those who watched less</a>. </p>
<p>These findings were echoed in work conducted by <a href="https://www.bu.edu/card/profile/michael-w-otto-ph-d/">Michael W. Otto</a>, who also found that more hours of 9/11-related television watching was <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.10.008">associated with higher post-traumatic stress symptoms</a> in children under 10 in the first year following the attacks. </p>
<h2>9/11’s impact on children</h2>
<p>However, it is also the case that studies have found the number of children who reported longer-term distress symptoms to be relatively low. Among other factors, children whose parents had low coping abilities or themselves had learning disabilities tended to report higher distress. </p>
<p>For example, my collaborator <a href="http://psych.uncc.edu/people/gil-rivas-virginia">Virginia Gil-Rivas</a>, who <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.20277">studied American adolescents</a> exposed to 9/11 only through the media, found that symptoms of post-traumatic distress decreased in most adolescents at the one-year mark. An important finding of her study was how parental coping abilities and parental availability to discuss the attacks made a difference. </p>
<p>Furthermore, children who had prior mental health problems or learning disabilities <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.20277">tended to be at higher risk for distress symptoms</a>. That could be because children prone to anxiety in general experienced increased <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374410802148145">feelings of vulnerability</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024619">number of studies</a> that have followed children over the course of several years, no studies have comprehensively examined the long-term impact of 9/11 on children’s development and adjustment. That is because it is difficult to compare American children who lived through 9/11 with those who did not, since almost every American child was exposed to images of 9/11 at some point in time. </p>
<p>This limits the ability of researchers to examine how children’s lives might have changed over time.</p>
<p>However, some researchers believe that even media-based exposure to collective trauma could likely have a longer-term impact on the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024619">attitudes and beliefs</a> of those who grew up in a post-9/11 world. It is possible, for example, that exposure to 9/11 and other acts of terrorism <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2005.00144.x">has led to fears of perceived threats</a>, political intolerance, prejudice and xenophobia in some American children.</p>
<h2>How 9/11 trauma impacts people today</h2>
<p>Years later, a bigger question is: How does the collective trauma of 9/11 affect people today?</p>
<p>Over the past several years, my team and I have sought to address many of the issues that remained unanswered in the scientific literature after 9/11. We sought to replicate and extend the findings initially produced after 9/11 through an examination of responses to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the worst act of terrorism in America since 9/11. </p>
<p>To this end, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/1/93">we surveyed 4,675 Americans</a>. Our sample was demographically representative, meaning that our sample proportionally matched the U.S. Census data on key indicators such as ethnicity, income, gender and marital status. </p>
<p>This allowed us to make stronger inferences about how “Americans” responded. Within the first two to four weeks of the Boston Marathon bombings, we surveyed our sample about their direct and media-based exposure to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and their subsequent psychological responses. </p>
<p>Our study found that as media exposure (a sum of daily hours of Boston Marathon bombing-related television, radio, print, online news and social media coverage) increased, so did <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/1/93">respondents’ acute stress symptoms</a>. This was even after statistically accounting for other variables typically associated with distress responses (such as mental health). </p>
<p>People who reported more than three hours of media exposure had higher probability of reporting high acute stress symptoms than were people who were directly exposed to the bombing. </p>
<p>Then, last year, we <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614561043">sought to explore</a> whether the accumulation of exposure to events like 9/11 and other collective trauma might influence responses to subsequent events like the Boston Marathon bombing.</p>
<p>Once again, we used data from demographically representative samples of people who lived in the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. We assessed people who lived in the New York and Boston areas to facilitate a stronger comparison of direct and media-based exposure to 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing: people who lived in New York or Boston were more likely to meet criteria for “trauma exposure.” </p>
<p>This study had two primary, congruent findings. First, people who experienced greater numbers of direct exposure to prior collective trauma (e.g., 9/11, the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/12/us/sandy-hook-timeline/">Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting</a>, <a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/superstorm-sandy-anniversary-20141029">Superstorm Sandy</a>) reported higher acute stress symptoms after the Boston Marathon bombings. </p>
<p>Second, greater amounts of media-based live exposure (i.e., people watched or listened to the event as it occurred on live television, radio, or online streaming) to prior collective trauma were also associated with higher acute stress symptoms after the Boston Marathon bombing.</p>
<p>So greater direct and media-based exposure to prior collective trauma was linked with greater acute stress responses (e.g., anxiety, nightmares, trouble concentrating) after a subsequent event. </p>
<h2>Stay informed, but limit exposure</h2>
<p>Overall, our research indicates that the impact on children growing up post-9/11 likely extends well beyond the physical and mental health effects of exposure – be it direct or media-based. Each tragic incident that individuals witness, even if only through the media, likely has a cumulative effect.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137093/original/image-20160908-25249-lzoe0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People are resilient, but they need to be aware of the potential for distress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dvids/4990687967/in/photolist-8B1zEg-o9P5QB-2VZDA9-2VVeti-4pB8f-kAHLQX-akD8ep-ame3o6-am4QmR-fnyKvK-hzH1Uo-7p9WEb-am4yyK-oJTDo1-pGWYHT-2VZDxw-hyiVZA-dfu157-am4E6T-am4RxM-hwUCie-am4vHr-am4LZp-5kRRU5-am7p9Q-2VVevH-5kEtCa-am7s3m-am7k4A-am4kh4-am4Ls6-2VZDjs-u2ZEmQ-5JjbsH-7ZMhfx-7841HP-eMkA8Q-6XCcg9-787URG-oQjvQ2-6C1gop-hAMzpN-2VVeDt-am4Txp-am7ax3-bTVtwr-am7Cab-Curwec-am79UG-kGfxc3">DVIDSHUB</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, the positive finding is that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.20">most people are resilient</a> in the face of tragedy. In the early years following 9/11, several studies examined <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01664.x">how 9/11 impacted children nationally</a>. Like adults, children exposed both directly and through the media tended to be resilient in the early years following the attacks and symptoms generally decreased over time. </p>
<p>Even so, being aware of the potential for distress through media exposure is important. Even small percentages can have large implications for our nation’s physical and mental health. For example, in the case of 9/11, 10 percent of a nationally-representative sample reporting <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=195281">post-traumatic stress</a> represents <a href="http://www.census.gov/popclock/">32,443,375 Americans</a> with similar symptoms. </p>
<p>So, people should stay informed, but limit repeated exposure to disturbing images, <a href="http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/psyc.65.4.289.20240">which can elicit</a> post-traumatic stress and lead to negative psychological and physical health outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Rose Garfin receives funding from the National Science Foundation to conduct this research. </span></em></p>Even indirect exposure to the terrorist attacks of September 11 has left profound and deep impact on those too young to remember a world before that.Dana Rose Garfin, Research Scientist, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645802016-09-09T04:35:25Z2016-09-09T04:35:25ZHow building design changed after 9/11<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136970/original/image-20160907-25253-j3104h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new One World Trade Center building, made with high-performance concrete.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFreedom_Tower%2C_June_8%2C_2014%2C_West_Side_Street_View_(2).jpg">John D. Morris</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When buildings collapse killing hundreds – or thousands – of people, it’s a tragedy. It’s also an important engineering problem. The 1995 collapse of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center towers in 2001 spawned many vows to never let anything like those events happen again. For structural engineers like me, that meant figuring out what happened, and doing extensive research on how to improve buildings’ ability to withstand a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/oklahoma-city-bombing">attack on the Murrah building</a> taught us that a building could experience what is called “progressive collapse,” even if only a few columns are damaged. The building was nine stories tall, made of reinforced concrete. The explosion in a cargo truck in front of the building on April 19, 1995, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2015.02.003">weakened key parts of the building</a> but did not level the whole structure.</p>
<p>Only a few columns failed because of the explosion, but as they collapsed, the undamaged columns were left trying to hold up the building on their own. Not all of them were able to handle the additional load; <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(1998)12:3(113)">about half of the building collapsed</a>. Though a large portion of the building remained standing, 268 people died in the areas directly affected by the bomb, and in <a href="https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/el/disasterstudies/blast/OklahomaCityLew2002.pdf">those nearby areas</a> that could no longer support themselves. (A month after the attack, the rest of the building was intentionally demolished; the site is now a <a href="https://oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/">memorial to the victims</a>.)</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136971/original/image-20160907-25279-1rig3kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The progressive collapse of the North Tower.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/r-e-c-e-i-v-e-d/6136737568">Jason Valdina/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A similar phenomenon was behind the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks">collapse of the World Trade Center towers</a> on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. When <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11837-007-0136-y">exposed to the high temperatures</a> created by burning airplane fuel, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11837-001-0003-1">steel columns in both towers lost strength</a>, putting too much load on other structural supports.</p>
<p>Until those attacks, most buildings had been built with defenses against total collapse, but progressive collapse was poorly understood, and rarely seen. Since 2001, we now understand progressive collapse is a key threat. And we’ve identified two major ways to reduce its likelihood of happening and its severity if it does: <a href="https://www.wbdg.org/resources/resistexplosivethreat.php">improving structural design to better resist explosions</a> and strengthening construction materials themselves.</p>
<h2>Borrowing from earthquake protection</h2>
<p>Research has found ways to keep columns and beams strong even when they are stressed and bent. This property is called ductility, and higher ductility could reduce the chance of progressive collapse. It’s a common concern when building in <a href="https://blume.stanford.edu/content/strength-and-ductility-considerations-seismic-design">earthquake-prone areas</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, for years building codes from the <a href="http://www.asce.org/structural-engineering/asce-7-and-sei-standards/">American Society of Civil Engineers</a>, the <a href="https://www.aisc.org/content.aspx?id=2884">American Institute of Steel Construction</a> and the <a href="https://www.concrete.org">American Concrete Institute</a> have required structural supports to be designed with high enough ductility to withstand a major earthquake so rare its probability of happening is once every 2,000 years. These requirements should prevent collapse when a massive earthquake happens. But it’s not enough to just adopt those codes and expect they will also reduce or prevent damage from terrorist attacks: Underground earthquakes affect buildings very differently from how nearby explosions do.</p>
<p>Another key element structural engineers must consider is redundancy: how to design and build multiple reinforcements for key beams and columns so the loss of, say, an exterior column due to an explosion won’t lead to total collapse of the entire structure. Few standards exist for redundancy to improve blast resistance, but the National Institute for Building Sciences does have <a href="https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.nibs.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/DesigingforResilientAmerica.pdf">some design guidelines</a>.</p>
<h2>Making concrete stronger</h2>
<p>The materials that buildings are made of also matter. The steel columns in the World Trade Center towers lost strength rapidly when the fire reached 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Concrete heated to that temperature, though, doesn’t undergo significant physical or chemical changes; it maintains most of its mechanical properties. In other words, concrete is <a href="http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/materials/concrete-fire-resistant.htm">virtually fireproof</a>.</p>
<p>The new One World Trade Center building takes advantage of this. At its core are massive three-foot-thick <a href="http://rew-online.com/2011/06/01/1-wtc-rising-on-super-concrete/">reinforced concrete walls</a> that run the full height of the building. In addition to containing large amounts of specially designed reinforcing bars, these walls are made of <a href="http://register.extension.iastate.edu/uhpc2016">high-strength concrete</a>.</p>
<p>An explosion generates very high pressure – how much depends on how big the blast itself is, and how close it is to the structure. That leads to intense stress in the concrete, which can be crushed if it is not strong enough.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136969/original/image-20160907-16611-1qv13ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At left, standard reinforced concrete; at right, ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete, under similar severe earthquake loadings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shih-Ho Chao</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regular concrete can <a href="https://www.concrete.org/publications/internationalconcreteabstractsportal.aspx?m=details&ID=10454">withstand 3,000 to 6,000 pounds</a> of compression pressure per square inch (psi); the concrete used for One World Trade Center has a <a href="http://www.concreteconstruction.net/projects/commercial-industrial/one-world-trade-center-rises-with-high-strength-concrete_o">compressive strength of 12,000 psi</a>. Using materials science to more densely pack particles, concrete’s strength has been increased <a href="http://precast.org/2010/05/the-concrete-of-your-dreams/">up to 30,000 psi</a>.</p>
<h2>Improving reinforcement</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136968/original/image-20160907-25244-hpoyjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High-strength steel fibers like this are mixed into concrete to make it even stronger and tougher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shih-Ho Chao</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>While traditional reinforced concrete involves embedding a framework of steel bars inside a concrete structural element, recent years have brought further advancement. To enhance concrete’s toughness and blast resistance, high-strength needle-like steel microfibers are mixed into the concrete. Millions of these bond with the concrete and prevent the spreading of any cracks that occur because of an explosion or other extreme force. </p>
<p>This mix of steel and concrete is superstrong and very ductile. Research has shown that this material, called <a href="http://www.extension.iastate.edu/registration/events/UHPCPapers/UHPC_ID44.pdf">ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete</a>, is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.09.014">extremely resistant to blast damage</a>. As a result, we can expect future designers and builders to use this material to further <a href="http://www.extension.iastate.edu/registration/events/UHPCPapers/UHPC_ID43.pdf">harden their buildings</a> against attack. It’s just one way we are contributing to the efforts to prevent these sorts of tragedies from happening in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shih-Ho Chao receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Tragedies involving building collapses prompt structural engineers to figure out what happened, and how to prevent it from recurring.Shih-Ho Chao, Associate Professor of Structural Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644742016-09-09T04:35:23Z2016-09-09T04:35:23ZDefeating terrorism through design: Think souks, not office buildings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136954/original/image-20160907-25266-ltqg2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Embodiment of defiance... or foolhardy design?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/86502566@N03/16267367576">Paul Silva</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To fight terrorist networks, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/designing-our-way-to-a-better-world">we need to understand them and learn from them</a>. Obviously that doesn’t mean training to become terrorists ourselves. But we can learn from the way many terrorist organizations operate – via highly networked, decentralized connections. This kind of setup has a lot in common with the networked way in which many of us will live and work in the decades ahead.</p>
<p>Since the wake-up call of 9/11, terrorism has come to characterize many of the <a href="http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/234879/the-terror-years/9780385352079/">military conflicts in the 21st century</a>. Today’s terrorist networks demonstrate a highly resilient way of organizing diverse and often distantly located people toward a common goal. This system of organization helps explain why, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/are-we-any-safer/492761/">as journalist Steven Brill argues</a>, we are not much safer now than we were before 9/11, even after spending US$1 trillion on homeland security. As <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/War-of-the-Flea,676555.aspx">studies of guerrilla warfare</a> have shown, centralized, hierarchical, top-down systems, like our current Department of Defense, have a hard time defeating a decentralized, nonhierarchical, networked ones, like the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>Centralized, hierarchical systems may appear stronger, with more power and efficiency on their side. But networked, nonhierarchical ones have much greater capacity to take a hit and to keep functioning, as the sizable literature on <a href="http://www.resalliance.org/publications">ecosystem resilience</a> has repeatedly shown. Networked systems even have an “antifragile” quality, as <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/176227/">scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb has argued</a>, with an ability to bounce back even stronger after a shock. All of which suggests we need to fight terrorist networks in networked ways of our own.</p>
<p>I am an architect and urban designer by training and so I leave it to policymakers and defense strategists to contemplate what this means militarily. I want to focus on what I know: the target side of the equation. How can we reduce the targets of terrorism, getting rid of concentrations of people of a particular type to reduce the likelihood of a devastating strike? How can we rethink our cities and our buildings so that instead of trying to fortify our architectural bull’s-eyes, we eliminate them with a denser weave of diverse activities across a metropolitan area? </p>
<h2>Designing away targets, not fortifying them</h2>
<p>The idea of doing away with the targets of large concentrations of people doing the same type of activity may seem like a restraint of Americans’ freedom, a violation of the First Amendment right to “peaceably assemble” in whatever kind of conglomeration we choose. But it’s really a call for us to assemble in new ways, aided by digital technology, so we can do so with peace of mind. </p>
<p>In some ways, the 9/11 terrorists were sending us an unintended message: Concentrating the military command in the Pentagon, or financial and governmental organizations in the World Trade Center towers, makes them – and all of us commuting to workplaces like this every day – more vulnerable.</p>
<p>Taleb captures this idea in the title of one of his book chapters: “The Souk and the Office Building.” The modern office building may seem efficient by gathering so many people in an organization together. Such structures, though, remain vulnerable to what Taleb calls “fat tails,” in which <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/176227/">distant events have inordinate effects</a> on their operation – think of a power failure that can incapacitate an entire corporate headquarters.</p>
<p>Office towers also have what I describe as a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Designing-To-Avoid-Disaster-The-Nature-of-Fracture-Critical-Design/Fisher/p/book/9780415527361">fracture-critical nature</a>; they’re subject to catastrophic failure when hit by an unanticipated force like a commandeered airplane.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136965/original/image-20160907-25231-btolu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A souk, with many access points and a diffuse layout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bhaktiamsterdam/7426935774">Bhakti Dharma</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Taleb contrasts the familiar U.S. urban landscape with the Arab bazaar or souk. Comprising a network of small shops along covered streets, without any center or clear boundaries, there are multiple ways in and out. Souks might seem more vulnerable to attack, given their accessibility. Such complex webs of human activity, however, are also highly resilient – not just economically because of their diversity of small businesses, but also militarily because of their distributed nature.</p>
<p>In the heavily damaged souk in Aleppo, Syria, one businessman still <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/03/29/witness-the-stunning-devastation-inside-aleppos-destroyed-souks/">opens his shop to serve coffee</a> to patrolling soldiers, an act of resistance as well as a sign of resilience. Can you imagine an accounting department on a bombed-out skyscraper’s 43rd floor, for instance, opening for business after an attack? </p>
<p>It’s significant that an Arab urban form, the souk, may serve as one of the best defenses against a type of attack emanating from the Arab world. Unlike most shopping malls that stand like isolated targets in the midst of parking lots, souks typically cover existing streets and turn them into pedestrian precincts, as Milan, Italy, did long ago with <a href="http://www.ingalleria.com/en">its Galleria</a> and as Las Vegas did more recently with <a href="http://vegasexperience.com/">Fremont Street</a>. The mall and the city become an integral whole. </p>
<h2>We’re already living with digital souks</h2>
<p>Souks may seem far removed from modern life, just as office buildings seem to epitomize it. But that’s begun to change with the rise of a sharing, collaborative or on-demand economy. Many people now work anywhere that has a high-bandwidth internet connection. We shop anytime for goods and services that are delivered to our doors. We meet anyplace some good food or coffee allows us to linger.</p>
<p>We have, in other words, already created a kind of digital version of the souk, with service platforms providing people access to experiences as diverse as those encountered by the customers in Arab markets. <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Platform-Revolution/">Such platform companies have great resilience</a> because of their accessible, distributed character and their ability to compete successfully against gatekeeper organizations. Look at how quickly Uber has overtaken taxi companies and Airbnb traditional hoteliers by leveraging excess capacity to meet people’s needs at a lower cost. These companies also exist everywhere and nowhere, not concentrated in an office building or a hotel, but spread across a city or region, in individual apartments and cars. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136935/original/image-20160907-25257-ro85jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hey! Here’s where we keep our top brass!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/la-citta-vita/6040339754">La Citta Vita</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Our greatest weakness comes from the old thinking that still pervades not just our military, but also our public policies and development assumptions. We continue to zone our cities as if the sharing economy didn’t exist, build our roads as if driverless cars won’t happen, and pursue economic development strategies as if the platform revolution doesn’t matter. And, despite the message that terrorists have sent us, we continue to maintain and construct targets for their attacks: The Pentagon remains a bull’s-eye from the air, as do the office towers recently built around the World Trade Center site. Such buildings may embody defiance and feel like proof of our resilience; really they only show how little we’ve learned from our enemies. A physically strengthened or more highly defended target is still a target.</p>
<p>The fight against terrorism requires that we start thinking in new ways about how to live and work in a 21st-century economy. Just as we need to acknowledge and embrace the distributed, on-demand nature of how many people will create and exchange goods and services in the near future, we also need to start imagining a more distributed and diverse built environment in line with that economy and in defense against those who might want to attack us.</p>
<p>America began as a nation of small shopkeepers and small communities scattered across the land. While the movement of people chasing economic opportunities to metropolitan areas seems unstoppable, we need to inhabit our cities and suburbs in much more networked ways. While this will take at least a generation to accomplish, we can already see it in trends like the home office, flextime, and walkable mixed-use neighborhoods. These should become the norm, even as we reduce, as much as possible, the number of big, symbolic structures that only tempt terrorists – foreign or domestic. We need to think souks, not office buildings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Are terrorist attacks also an implicit design critique of our urban landscape? An architect and urban designer suggests we can fight terrorism by not building obvious targets.Thomas Fisher, Professor of Architecture, Director of the Metropolitan Design Center, and Dayton Hudson Chair in Urban Design, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/641992016-08-25T17:54:13Z2016-08-25T17:54:13ZRebuilding ground zero: How twin mandates of revival and remembrance reshaped Lower Manhattan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135555/original/image-20160825-6622-g23kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lower Manhattan's new skyline.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NYC skyline via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the beginning, rebuilding ground zero was fraught with strategic consequence, for the city of New York and for the nation.</p>
<p>The original World Trade Center complex, completed in 1973, represented the <a href="http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/history-wtc.html">culmination of a decades-long effort to revitalize</a> the city’s founding center of business. Forty years later, rebuilding those 16 acres reprised history – with new meaning, in a new century, in a new geopolitical context brought forth by 9/11. </p>
<p>The destruction of the massive complex created a rare opportunity for New York City to rethink its long-term economic needs in the downtown area, while sending a message to the world that regardless of whatever al-Qaida terrorists aimed to do, New York City would come back stronger than ever. It was an unparalleled opportunity in the city’s history that otherwise would not have happened.</p>
<p>This opportunity carried with it an unquestionable priority: everlasting remembrance of those who died on that fateful day. September 11 transformed the human meaning of the World Trade Center site. What had been secular was now sacred, a graveyard for nearly 3,000 souls. Those 16 acres, achingly defined by past images of the iconic twin towers anchoring the skyline of lower Manhattan, were now unbearably painful ruins transformed into repositories of memory. </p>
<p>That led to many tough questions: How would the need to commemorate the loss of thousands of lives be accommodated with the need to rebuild an economic future for lower Manhattan? How would the rhetoric of defiance and resilience translate into concrete plans, architectural reality, political decisions, building priorities and economic costs? And who had the power to execute the ideals and ambitions of rebuilding when property rights were split and political power fragmented?</p>
<p>Those are among the many questions I sought to answer in my book “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/power-at-ground-zero-9780190607029?cc=us&lang=en&">Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money and the Remaking of Lower Manhattan</a>” by unraveling the political and economic dynamics behind the controversies and conflicts that shaped the process of rebuilding, including billions in public aid to ensure visible construction progress by the 10-year anniversary. </p>
<p>Five years later, though it’s not yet fully complete, the palpable energy on the site belies the conventional wisdom that delay has been destructive.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135552/original/image-20160825-6614-15vdyh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering the victims was an unquestionable priority in the rebuilding of ground zero.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Hack</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Symbolic city building</h2>
<p>I started this research after completing “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Times-Square-Roulette-Remaking-Press/dp/0262692953">Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon</a>.” The successful redevelopment of naughty bawdy West 42nd Street became testimony to the city’s ability to once again think big and execute on an ambitious scale. </p>
<p>Rebuilding the World Trade Center site, however, differed from the Times Square project in two salient ways that complicated the task: The cast of players was much larger, especially on the intergovernmental front, and the emotional overlay of 9/11 created an unprecedented planning condition. If Times Square served as the symbolic soul of the city, the World Trade Center served as the symbolic pulse of its economy – despite the fact that much of downtown’s financial establishment had moved to midtown Manhattan. </p>
<p>As in Times Square, the importance of symbolic politics loomed large at ground zero. And for 15 years, rebuilding ground zero has been the <a href="https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/3587/Politics%20of%20%20Planning.pdf">world’s most visible redevelopment project</a>. </p>
<p>To understand the multiple forces underlying the decision-making, I spent 12 years sourcing hundreds of primary documents, reading through thousands of articles and consulting scores of public testimonies, economic reports, design statements, meeting minutes and other documents. This research is also based on more than 150 interviews with nearly all the players and many others whose involvement or expertise was relevant to unraveling a story in which complexity prevailed at every level: design, emotion, security, governance, control.</p>
<p>While modern city building is often dismissed as cold-hearted and detached from meaning, the opposite was true at ground zero, where every action was infused with symbolic significance and debated with emotional intensity. </p>
<h2>The twin mandate: To rebuild and remember</h2>
<p>The cleanup effort removing 1.5 million tons of debris out of the 70-foot-deep hole of the World Trade Center site was unexpectedly rapid. Its completion in May 2002 marked a profound turning point: It signaled the start of renewal at ground zero – a dual effort to rebuild and remember.</p>
<p>A month later, then-Governor George Pataki made a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/02/nyregion/02REBU.html">surprise announcement</a>, declaring: “We will never build where the towers stood.” From that point forward, the “footprints” became sacred ground, inviolable. A permanent memorial would have to “<a href="http://www.wtcsitememorial.org/pdf/LMDC_Guidelines_english.pdf">make visible the footprints”</a> of the original towers, which meant that commercial redevelopment of the World Trade Center replacing 10 million square feet of office space would have to “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/opinion/turning-to-renewal.html">coexist harmoniously with the memorial itself</a>.”</p>
<p>Whatever was built on the site had to be architecturally ambitious. Simply replacing what was lost or replicating past approaches to city building would constitute a pallid response to human loss and physical destruction of such magnitude. The rebuilding response demanded a big, inspiring, physical presence that embodied the symbolic aspirations of American values.</p>
<p>If these twin mandates – to remember and rebuild – were clear in the minds of public officials, how to achieve them was not. They were competing claims. The terrorist attack created a compelling public interest that trumped prevailing property rights. </p>
<p>Repeatedly, the legal prerogatives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as landowner, and Larry Silverstein and his investment partnership, as owners of a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center site <a href="http://nypost.com/2001/07/25/signed-sealed-and-delivered/">executed just six weeks</a> before 9/11, were challenged by the politics of accommodating the twin mandates. Ultimately, the property rights of both stakeholders were amended. The Port Authority and Silverstein <a href="http://www.panynj.gov/corporate-information/foi/13209-WTC.pdf">relinquished</a> development rights on the 4.7-acre memorial quadrant, and responsibility for the development of the commercial office space <a href="https://www.panynj.gov/corporate-information/pdf/092106_minutes.pdf">was realigned</a>. The Port Authority took on development of the iconic One World Trade Center (aka Freedom Tower) and a second tower while Silverstein took responsibility for three additional office towers.</p>
<p>But the process was terribly messy, terribly tangled and, at times, terribly chaotic.</p>
<h2>Many voices: ‘Who’s in control?’</h2>
<p>The decision-making arena was packed with many contending voices: elected officials, government decision-makers, private real estate interests, the families of 9/11 victims, civic leaders, preservationists and the editorial boards of the city’s daily newspapers. There was no powerful rebuilding czar, a modern-day <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/the-legacy-of-robert-moses/16018/">Robert Moses</a>, who could overcome the conflicting imperatives and incessant pressures to “get things done.” </p>
<p>The idea of a master builder was out of fashion. But also there was no overriding governance structure to set priorities among competing building ambitions, clarify the inevitable trade-offs and resolve the inevitable disputes. And that repeatedly gave rise to the question, “Who’s in control?” </p>
<p>The ambiguity of the control issue not only created constant confusion; it weakened the public sector’s position when it came to negotiating the terms of rebuilding with the private leaseholder. When government entities are not united, developers are able to exploit the fissures among government agencies to their advantage.</p>
<p>Tension between the political needs of the public sector and the commercial demands of the private investors permeated conflict after conflict at ground zero. Other tensions constantly simmered throughout the tortuous process of rebuilding: tensions between City Hall and Albany, between the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority, and between the Port Authority’s two governing sides. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135543/original/image-20160825-6593-somc7v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bloomberg beams at a press conference in 2010 after a critical milestone is passed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Woodhead, Courtesy Silverstein Properties Inc.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pivotal factors</h2>
<p>Rebuilding advanced in fits and starts. Public contention, even conflict, had a way of clarifying what would be politically acceptable, and “delay” gave planners and elected officials time to correct plans, reverse decisions and build coalitions of support. </p>
<p>By 2006, the big conflicts over what to build were settled, thanks in part to the eventual acquiescence of those involved, making continuous accommodations and adjustments throughout. By 2008, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal leadership assured the opening of the memorial on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and by mid-2010, the government entities and Silverstein had found a solution to the money question that had bedeviled progress on the commercial office towers.</p>
<p>Contrary to the narrative of delay that prevailed throughout the many years of controversy, rebuilding the emotionally charged terrain was relatively fast-paced compared with the typical two-decade timeline for big development projects to reach fruition.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1273&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1273&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135544/original/image-20160825-6588-bn0elr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1273&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One World Trade (aka Freedom Tower) rises a symbolic 1,776 feet into the sky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Hack</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Money, a lot of money – US$25.5 billion, by my estimate – made a big difference in the timetable of achievement at ground zero. Billions from the federal government for recovery and rebuilding. Billions from the Port Authority for a grand transportation hub and an architectural icon for Lower Manhattan. Billions in subsidies for the timely development of private commercial office towers. </p>
<p>While there was a time when observers wondered whether anyone would set up shop above the ruins of a terrorist attack, One World Trade Center stands tall at 1,776 feet, anchored by media giant Condé Nast. The other towers are gaining tenants and the 100 retail shops at the complex have been opening, including a two-story Apple store. Nearly two million people have visited the Memorial Museum since it opened in May 2014.</p>
<p>After 15 years, this monumental effort – fraught by ambitions, power struggles, public dismay and constant criticism – stands as a much valued achievement, a statement of political will and public purpose. Many of the revelations here and others in my book are not part of the conventional wisdom about rebuilding.</p>
<p>Lower Manhattan is stronger today than ever before, the result of a constellation of social and economic trends that would not have materialized without the energy and dedication of many and the billions in public funds that made the new World Trade Center a reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne B. Sagalyn received funding for this research from the Russell Sage Foundation; the J. M. Kaplan Foundation (Furthermore grants in publishing); the Regional Plan Association of New York; and Columbia Business School via the dean's office, Robert Berne Research Fund and the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate. Sagalyn is a board member of the Skyscraper Museum and the Regional Plan Association of New York.</span></em></p>Those involved with the monumental task faced many challenges as they balanced the unquestionable priority of remembrance with the commercial task of recreating an economically vibrant downtown.Lynne B. Sagalyn, Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor Emerita of Real Estate at Columbia Business School, Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.