Ralph,

You caused me to try to imagine the architect & engineer that would say 
something to the effect of "no problem" when asked to design a new 
building reusing the columns.

Now my headache has returned.  Go taunt someone else with your demented 
mind games!

-jc

On Thursday, May 22, 2003, at 07:31  PM, Ralph Walter wrote:

> In a message dated 5/22/2003 6:33:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> No word from the professor on whether the fireproofing, floor trusses 
> and thin-set travertine will be awarded a Bronze Star.
>
>
>
> The travertine (Nelson Rockefeller's favorite stone, I believe), at 
> least where it had been used as stair treads coming up out of the PATH 
> station, was very badly worn when I first saw it about 1977 (when the 
> WTC was 4 years +/- old). The treads were subsequently replaced with 
> granite.
>
> The other thing about steel is that it is NFG in a fire.  We saw 
> photos in architecture school of some building where a  steel beam had 
> melted in a fire and was wrapped around a charred wooden girder.  
> Several years back I inspected the interior of the Meridian building 
> in Philadelphia, opposite City Hall, several months after it had a 
> fire that killed several firemen and burned for days.  There was one 
> level with a sort of bowl in the middle of the floor, where the 
> concrete floor slab and steel beams beneath had deflected 6' or 8'.  
> On the other hand, the building Owner was trying to claim the building 
> as a total loss, and we (on behalf of the insurers) determined that 
> although the beams were in many (if not most) cases bent all to hell 
> and needed without question to be removed and replaced, the much 
> heavier (thicker) columns showed no evidence of having deflected in 
> the fire and could have remained in place as framing for a rebuilt 
> building.  The whole thing was ultimately demolished, but I suspect 
> more as a result of a lousy rental market in Phila at the time and the 
> building having been technologically out of date.
>
> Ralph