Do you want the Twin Towers rebuilt exactly as they were???

We are advocating that the Twin Towers be rebuilt as two 110-story (or greater) buildings, offset from each other; built at a minimum of 1362 and 1368 feet tall respectively with a TV antenna placed on Tower One. We advocate that they feature the following safety enhancements and modifications:

ï Fireproof ceramic polymer coatings applied to all columns and members that will not be removed easily;
ï Sprinkler systems using foam.
ï I-beams or cast reinforced concrete instead of trusses for floor support;
ï Stairwell walls made out of concrete, reinforced with rebar, rather than drywall;
ï Compliance exceeding City of New York fire and building codes;
ï Bio-terrorism sensors in the HVAC system;
ï More environmentally friendly construction.





Many urban utopian types, particularly Beverly Willis and her organization, Rebuild Downtown, Our Town (r.Dot) loathed the Twin Towers, and have stated so publicly on several occasions. These groups in general and Ms. Willis in particular have perpetuated several lies, half-truths, and myths about the Twin Towers and the WTC site. We'll address them in turn:


Willis Myth: "The Twin Towers failed in their mission to revive Lower Manhattan."

Fact: The Twin Towers in particular and the WTC site in general cleared out the slum area known as "Radio Row." The WTC site spawned the creation of Battery Park City and the World Financial Center, neither of which would exist today, were it not for the Twin Towers. Until the Twin Towers were built, Lower Manhattan was a depressed slum. Today, it is a high-end, gentrified area populated by stock brokers, investment bankers, lawyers, accountants, and IT professionals. Not bad for a pair of buildings that "failed to revitalize the area."

Willis Myth: "The Twin Towers were only partially occupied. They were money-losers."

Fact: The Twin Towers were 97% occupied. Larry Silverstein "lusted after them," (his words) because of the rental revenue he would receive. The Port Authority enjoyed $1.35 million per DAY in observation deck fees based on 150,000 visitors paying the $9 fee. The City of NY in turn enjoyed some $40 million in annual sales tax revenue levied upon the observation deck fee. We haven't even accounted for souvenirs, food and beverage as well as other merchandise sold atop Tower Two. Windows on the World was also quite lucrative, and resulted in quite a good sales tax revenue stream for the city from its expensive and well-enjoyed menu. If the WTC site was such a "miserable failure," why did Westfield America fight to insure it gets a similar mall configuration so it can charge TRIPLE-DIGIT rents per square foot of retail space? Ultimately, Westfield sold back its rebuilding rights rather than remain enmeshed in the Libeskind quagmire. Why did the city's most prominent real estate developer want this space so badly he signed the leasehold from his hospital bed? Successful developers don't invest in failed paradigms. They invest in successful ventures that will produce a return on their investments. Silverstein, Westfield and Marriott would not have sunk their money into a failed site, yet Ms. Willis continues to traffic in this falsehood.

Willis Myth: "The Twin Towers were Ugly Banal Boxes"

Fact: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The exo-skeleton of those "ugly banal boxes" featured pointed gothic columns, which became a Port Authority standard (Newark Airport's three terminals contain some of those elements). The colums topped off into a filligree at the building's capitals. Their chrome finish played with the sunlight and reflected the color of the sky. Their simplicity was their beauty. Perhaps, Ms. Willis finds them banal, because she did not win the design contract some 40 years ago. While some people found the Twin Towers ugly or banal, most people find Libeskind's plan to be ugly and downright painful to look at.

Willis Myth: "The Libeskind Plan is a wonderful design."

Fact: Really? See "What's Wrong with the Libeskind Plan." Its numerous failures are outlined in great detail.





1. Aren't Tall Buildings in General Dangerous?

Some people allege that tall buildings are unsafe. Part of the basis for their argument is that a ladder truck or cherry picker cannot reach upper floors...in fact seven floors is usually the limit for this apparatus. Large commercial office buildings have several stairwells to permit egress. Unfortunately in the case of the Twin Towers, those stairwells were cut when the attack planes hit. The attacks of 9/11 were quite unusual, and no architect or engineer could have planned for it.

2. "The Twin Towers were poorly and negligently constructed. They did not meet NYC fire codes."

We hear this argument frequently, and sadly it is a mis-conception that has taken on a life of its own. The Twin Towers met and in many cases, exceeded both Port Authority and New York City fire and building codes at the time of their construction some 35 years ago. The FDNY, and many safety groups gave their approval on the buildings. Fire and building codes, have of course been updated significantly since then. The Twin Towers were designed to take the impact of a Boeing 707 carrying half a tank of fuel traveling at 200 knots...in other words, an accident. They were not designed to take an impact from a Boeing 767 with 10,000+ gallons of Jet A rammed in at speeds nearing 600 knots (Tower 2). Aeronautical engineers were surprised that the planes did not break apart from this high-speed flight in the dense atmosphere near sea level. Despite these impacts, the Twin Towers stood for well over an hour, saving nearly 30,000 lives. Civilians killed were located almost exclusively above the crash lines, where stairwells were cut by the plane impacts. Below the impact points, emergency workers were sent into the buildings teetering on collapse by their superiors, and with digital radios known to have signal problems. The issues surrounding the rescue operation were well documented in the NY Times series "Deadly Flaws in Rescue Plan" and elsewhere.
The Twin Towers like any other commercial office building had fire suppression systems designed to fight wood and paper fires, as well as electrical. Since it is not a reasonable expectation to have thousands of gallons of petroleum products burning inside an office building, the Twin Towers were not designed to handle this type of fire, and certainly not designed for a petroleum fire raging through 10 or more floors. Civilians will not work in a structure designed to have large quantities of petro-chemicals burning within. Even if one accepts that most of the fuel burnt off in the initial fireballs, the remainder as well as the fireballs themselves were more than enough to ignite several entire 40,000-square foot floors.

The spray-on fireproofing, considered unacceptable by today's standards, was state-of-the-art at the time of application and really the only choice. The Twin Towers were built during a transitional period when asbestos was being phased out and a suitable substitute was being sought.

The American Society of Civil Engineers bestowed their Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award upon the Twin Towers in 1971. OCEA Awards are not given for ordinary buildings, and are certainly not given for buildings which don't meet basic fire and building codes.

The Building Owners and Manager's Association gave the Twin Towers its "Building of the Year" Award from 1999 - 2000. Port Authority literature rightfully touted the buildings as a "Towering Achievement."

3. "What is your basis for saying the Twin Towers were soundly constructed."

Numerous professional engineers who have studied the buildings said they performed better than expected. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a report on May 1, exonerating the Twin Towers, but suggesting that reinforced stairwells and better fireproofing methods be used in any large structure. We've incorporated these suggestions in our advocacy to rebuild. The American Society of Civil Engineers contributed to that report.

4. "The FEMA report is hogwash. I'm waiting for the two-year report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology."

We believe NIST will come to the same conlcusion FEMA did. The mechanics of why the Twin Towers collapsed were documented by the Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel, Nova, PBS, and the British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as FEMA. It is common knowldge that the buildings collapsed because the blast from impact of the plane crashes blew fireproofing off the steel columns and members; burning JetA set other combustibles ablaze; and raised temperatures to nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit; the steel buckled, triggering a straight-down progressive collapse.

5. "I don't ever want to see the Twin Towers that murdered my husband."

While we understand the grief driving the statement, the buildings did not have the intelligence of making a pre-meditated decision to collapse on their occupants on 9/11/01. The murderers were bin Laden, and Al Qaida, and that's where any anger should be focused....it's the whole reason why we are at war. The buildings performed better than could be expeced for the forces they were subjected to.





1. Working In Tall Buildings -- "No one will work there"

People will move into, live, and work in improved, stronger Twin Towers. An improved Twin Towers will absolutely become the world's premier "power address" - for all the same reasons that building them is imperative: They symbolize the heart of world trade, world peace, and the triumph of civilization over barbarism.

The Twin Towers were only part of the 9/11 plot of destruction. The Pentagon, a mere 5 stories tall had an entire side destroyed and 200+ people killed. One of the hijacked planes that crashed in PA was going to be used as a kamikaze bomb against the White House or the Capitol, also low-slung buildings. Shall we abandon the Empire State Building, Sears Tower, John Hancock Tower, The Library Tower, Trans America Building, and others? Shall we build nothing higher than 5 or 6 floors?

China is set to build a skyscraper in 2007 that will be the new tallest building the world. The current record-holder is now Taipei 101, a 101-story building in Taiwan. China is not stopping this construction because "no one will work there."


2. The Twin Towers Were Targets

Anything we build at the WTC site is a target, whether it's one story, 55, 70, 110, or more. The height of the building is not what makes it a target, but rather what it symbolizes -- terrorism is a war of symbols. Once again, the 5-story Pentagon was hit on 9/11 and has been rebuilt without any issue. Seven WTC is being built five stories taller to accommodate its lesser width than its predecessor, also without issue. Altering our lives, such as what we build, or who we vote for to accommodate terrorists will provide neither security, nor freedom.






1. Support A Memorial?

Team Twin Towers, Inc. absolutely supports an appropriate memorial honoring those we lost. This is expressed in our mission statement.


2. Support Making The Entire Site A Memorial Park?

Team Twin Towers, Inc. supports rebuilding the WTC site and including appropriate memorial elements.






1. Have any of your members lost a loved one on 9/11?

Yes, some members of Team Twin Towers, Inc. have lost friends and loved ones on 9/11. Many of our supporters have survived the attack and despite their traumas want the Twin Towers rebuilt. Examples: One supporter at the Manhattan meeting on September 5th, lost her mother...and she wants the Twin Towers rebuilt. In the earlier part of this year, the husband of a stewardess who was on one of the attack planes, wrote that the Twin Towers should be rebuilt. We are sure there are many others out there who have not come forward. All of us in Team Twin Towers have had some personal connection to the site.

Many of our supporters nearly lost their lives. Others have lost their jobs, businesses, property, and yes loved ones.



Click our How To Help? link for details. For a lot of people, the best way to help is to sign our petition. The petition is not restricted to residents of the United States. Anyone with an interest in seeing the World Trade Center rebuilt is asked to sign the petition. After all, it was called the WORLD Trade Center. The more people involved, the better the chances are that the Twin Towers will rise again.





"When once you have tested flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return."