Crucial lesson have been learned from the collapse of the two towers at the World Trade Center on September 9, 2001. In 2004, high rise designers were instructed to comply with NYC local law 26 as adopted by the Housing & Buildings Committee of the New York City Council. This law defined new safety requirements for skyscrapers. These measures incorporate changes designed to make it easier for occupants to evacuate buildings in an emergency in addition to ingenious strategies to prevent, or at least slow down, the wholesale collapse of skyscrapers.
Many of these new regulations involve improving signage leading to fire exits, independent power supplies for signs indicating where the fire exits are located and phospholuminescent markers of safety exits. These provisions were to have been implemented within two or three years following the announcement of NYC 26. Other measures, involving improved sprinkler systems, are to be in place no later than July 1, 2019.
As the 9/11 incident was unfolding, those occupants of the Twin Towers who were in the lower floors, below the floors that were impacted by the planes, had a high rate of survival due to the comparative ease with which they were evacuated. One of the findings that led to NYC 26 was that the planes had severed the pipes to the sprinkler systems.
Evacuation of the higher levels was further hampered by difficulties in finding the fire exits. This is the reasoning behind new mandates for luminescent markers or exit routes, power supplies for exit signs and increased signage indicating where the exits are located. A team of architects for the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, in charge of designing the re-build of the World Trade Center, is in the process of developing state-of-the-art evacuation systems that incorporate the use of elevators.
Elevator-assisted evacuation is currently in place at the Burj Kalife in Dubai. At 168 storeys, this is currently the tallest skyscraper in the world. A similar system is being proposed for a new, 108-floor structure in South Korea. Stepping into an elevator, even one that is clearly designated as fire-safe, goes completely against the grain for people who have been trained throughout their working careers to take the stairs in the event of a fire. Building tenants will need to be completely re-educated in buildings where this pioneering system is implemented.
High-rise designers in America are also learning lessons from their international counterparts. One strategy borrowed from the British, who have been using it for years, is incorporating separate staircases for firefighters. Wider staircases are also being designed to make evacuation easier and faster.
Other cities throughout the country and throughout the world are incorporating lessons learned from 9/11 and seeking ways of making tall buildings safer for the people who occupy them. Interested parties in Los Angeles, which is no stranger to accommodating extreme building measures, is also hard at work to improve security and safety.
The world will never be perfectly safe. Even if the ultimate high-rise can be designed that will not collapse, at least before everyone has left the building, there will be new sinister threats to take the place of high-rise fires.
Many of these new regulations involve improving signage leading to fire exits, independent power supplies for signs indicating where the fire exits are located and phospholuminescent markers of safety exits. These provisions were to have been implemented within two or three years following the announcement of NYC 26. Other measures, involving improved sprinkler systems, are to be in place no later than July 1, 2019.
As the 9/11 incident was unfolding, those occupants of the Twin Towers who were in the lower floors, below the floors that were impacted by the planes, had a high rate of survival due to the comparative ease with which they were evacuated. One of the findings that led to NYC 26 was that the planes had severed the pipes to the sprinkler systems.
Evacuation of the higher levels was further hampered by difficulties in finding the fire exits. This is the reasoning behind new mandates for luminescent markers or exit routes, power supplies for exit signs and increased signage indicating where the exits are located. A team of architects for the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, in charge of designing the re-build of the World Trade Center, is in the process of developing state-of-the-art evacuation systems that incorporate the use of elevators.
Elevator-assisted evacuation is currently in place at the Burj Kalife in Dubai. At 168 storeys, this is currently the tallest skyscraper in the world. A similar system is being proposed for a new, 108-floor structure in South Korea. Stepping into an elevator, even one that is clearly designated as fire-safe, goes completely against the grain for people who have been trained throughout their working careers to take the stairs in the event of a fire. Building tenants will need to be completely re-educated in buildings where this pioneering system is implemented.
High-rise designers in America are also learning lessons from their international counterparts. One strategy borrowed from the British, who have been using it for years, is incorporating separate staircases for firefighters. Wider staircases are also being designed to make evacuation easier and faster.
Other cities throughout the country and throughout the world are incorporating lessons learned from 9/11 and seeking ways of making tall buildings safer for the people who occupy them. Interested parties in Los Angeles, which is no stranger to accommodating extreme building measures, is also hard at work to improve security and safety.
The world will never be perfectly safe. Even if the ultimate high-rise can be designed that will not collapse, at least before everyone has left the building, there will be new sinister threats to take the place of high-rise fires.
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