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Remembering the Towers: Engineering Facts about the World Trade Center

Today, KC wishes to commemorate and honor the great engineering feats of the Twin Towers and to celebrate and look ahead to the new feats accomplished with the design and construction of the new World Trade Center. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all victims, survivors, and heroes of the September 11, 2001 attack as we look at the engineering integrity of the World Trade Center. Below are noteworthy engineering facts about the past, present, and future of the World Trade Center.

The Past

  • Development of the original World Trade Center began in 1946. “The original proposal,” according to the WTC Memorial and Museum, “was for only one 70-story building.” However, by the final iteration of the towers' design, the structures doubled in quantity and grew to contain 110 stories each.
  • Design of the towers began in the mid-1960s and construction began in the early 1970s.
  • Leslie E. Robertson, an American engineer who also worked on the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Bank of China Tower, was the lead structural engineer of the towers.
  • The towers contained 200,000 tons of steel, weighed 1.5 million tons, had 43,600 windows, and 239 elevators.
  • Construction of the towers ended in 1971.
  • The total construction cost of the towers was $900M.

The Present

  • Design of One World Trade Center began in 2005. Formerly referred to as the Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center is the building’s ultimate name as decided in 2009 and was designed by architect David Childs from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP, the original architecture firm who proposed the towers back in 1958.
  • Construction of One World Trade Center completed on May 10th, 2013 and opened to the public on November 3rd, 2014.
  • One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet tall, which, according to Reader’s Digest, is “a direct reference to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.”
  • Reader’s Digest also reports that One World Trade Center “is one of the safest, technologically advanced, and environmentally sensitive [buildings] in the world,” quoting Port Authority design consultant Eduardo del Valle who described its makeup: “[The tower] has a concrete core, with very thick concrete walls […] The podium has some heft blast-resistant walls at the base.”
  • The total construction cost of One World Trade Center was roughly $4B.
  • The structure is now home to companies such as The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Mediacom, BMI, The New York Academy of Sciences, Condé Nast, and many more.

The Future

The World Trade Center complex is the ultimate hub of life—it contains not only office space and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, but “over half a million square feet of new retail,” is surrounded by over 80 restaurants, and hosts a wide array of events year-round. The complex only continues to grow with new companies signing leases to occupy the building, like Spotify, a popular music streaming app, who signed a lease in February of this year, and SNY, the TV broadcasting station for New York sports teams, who signed their lease in March. Beyond its recreational attractions and business offerings, the design of the new tower is said to be setting “a new standard in design” through its masterful combination of green architecture, heightened safety measures, and historic significance. And with this historic significance, which has made the structure one of the most internationally-recognized buildings in NYC, perhaps the WTC will make a true stamp upon the structural engineering landscape. Perhaps the ways in which the tower exceeds NYC safety and environmental standards will, in fact, set new, even higher standards for NYC buildings and beyond.

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Wallkill Water System Interconnect Project

The Town of Wallkill is located in close proximity with two adjoining municipal water systems. During emergencies, the City of Middletown and the Village of Goshen share their water. KC, as the Town of Wallkill Engineer, located a suitable grant and successfully pursued the grant application that provided a 25% grant with zero interest loan for the construction of municipal water interconnections.

Upon receipt of the grant, KC worked closely with the Town in negotiations for an intermunicipal agreement between both the City and the Village, as well as assisted the Town with securing the required permits and approvals. All municipalities required the interconnections to function as full-flow connections with bi-directional meters and pressure-reducing valves. The interconnections also needed to allow the interconnection pits to be isolation points.

The connection with the Village of Goshen was configured to allow water to be sourced at one municipality’s well field and treated at the others’ treatment plants, which are located in close proximity to each other. Two connections were made with the City of Middletown to feed the two zones in the City and three zones in the Town of Wallkill due to its proximity to the Town’s booster pump station. KC designed metering vaults and site plans for various locations, as well as prepared contract documents and technical specifications for the project. The connections, once installed, will be able to provide service to three water districts from a combined total of 27 sources benefitting a combined population of over 50,000 people.

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Making Engineering Accessible

TED is a lecture series with events around the world focusing on Technology, Entertainment, and Design. As designers who work to create a more functional world, we at KC feel TED “Talks” generally do an excellent job of bringing big, complex ideas down to the ground. Here’s one of our favorites: Fawn Qiu’s “Easy DIY projects for kid engineers”.

Fawn Qiu’s mission to develop simple, clever, and engaging engineering projects for children is guided by three principles:

  1. Every project has a low floor, in that they are affordable and technically simple.
  2. Every project has a high ceiling, meaning there is plenty of room for the scope of the project to grow. Creativity is encouraged.
  3. Every project is customizable. In order to keep people engaged, it’s important to make sure they are invested in the project’s outcome. KC knows how important this is. Every one of our projects is a custom solution for a client with very specific needs—always new, always a challenge that we are thrilled to overcome.

We think accessible science projects are absolutely instrumental in getting children interested in the STEM fields from a young age. Watch Ms. Qiu’s video above, and then check out some of the links below for specific projects ideas. Be sure to find the KC table at your next school career fair!

  1. Gumdrop Structural Engineering Challenge
  2. Simple Pneumatic Machine
  3. Propeller-Powered Car
  4. Fluid-Powered Car
  5. Engineer a Bridge
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Shoreham Deep Water Port Project

KC was engaged to perform surveying and engineering services in support of a Governor’s Office initiative to provide a feasibility study for developing a proposed deep water port at the abandoned nuclear power plant site in Shoreham, Suffolk County, NY.

Survey tasks included setting horizontal and vertical control for a photogrammetric survey of the 125 +/- acre plant site area and bathymetric survey of the one-mile channel servicing the original power plant site. Additional tasks included providing primary control azimuth pairs to NYSDOT specs, ROW determination of bounds of Old County Road, topographic mapping of the 800 +/- surrounding project limits, and research/plotting of the LIPA and National Grid parcels defining the project limits and utility corridors serving the plant site.

KC is now involved in the feasibility study associated with the project. This study has been undertaken to determine if a deep-water port could reduce truck trips and traffic congestion on Long Island and Metro-New York roadways. Various components of a deep-water port have been factored into this feasibility study, namely site access requirements and improvements, linkages to existing transportation facilities, nautical configurations, operator interest, capital expenditures, maintenance costs, market forecasts, funding mechanisms, jurisdictional authority, permit requirements, potential environmental impacts, and construction effects.

Four feasible port planning scenario concepts have been formulated; a preferred concept has not been articulated as further analysis and the implementation of a public involvement program in a subsequent study phase would be needed to identify a preferred scenario concept.

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The Benefits of Design-Build

The design-build project delivery method differs from the traditional design-bid-build delivery method in that it involves one contract between a design-build team and the project owner rather than two separate contracts between the project owner and a contractor and the project owner and a designer. This method streamlines the process, unifying the designer and contractor to enhance their collaboration and prevent conflicts.

Design-build is still in its nascent stages in New York, where agencies are beginning to recognize the benefits of this increasingly popular delivery method, which include more innovative designs, accelerated project delivery, lower project cost, and fewer change orders. ACEC New York endorses the design-build delivery method under the condition that it is a two-step procedure, “a process that best protects the interests of the owner, design professional, contractor, and the public.” This process requires a New York State registered and licensed design firm, independent of the project owner and teamed with an equally qualified contractor, be selected based on qualifications and experience during a two-phase Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) process with transparent selection criteria.

An example of one such design-build project is NYSDOT’s D900034 Region 8 Design-Build Project in Ulster County, for which the KC Team was shortlisted in the RFQ stage and subsequently selected as the most qualified in the final RFP stage, with a perfect technical score. This design-build project involves the full replacement of two bridges: BIN 1040750 NYS Route 209 (3-span continuous steel girder bridge with a total span of 402 feet) over Rochester Creek and BIN 1019700 NYS Route 28 (7-span continuous steel girder bridge with a total span of 994 feet) over Esopus Creek.

As Lead Designer, KC is performing the structural design of the two structures, including the three-span continuous multi-steel superstructure and seven-span continuous multi-steel superstructure, staged construction and work zone traffic control, geotechnical work, and hydraulic analysis. Because of our well-integrated team and fast-tracked design during the RFP stage, we were able to deliver an innovative solution that reduced the overall bridge span length while maintaining full structural stability and adhering to all applicable codes and regulations.

KC is thrilled to help pioneer design-build projects in our backyard, and we look forward to playing a key role in future projects as New York joins this growing trend in the design and construction industry.