The opening programs of our series will focus on “Engineers’ Stories,” which is an aspect of the history of 9/11 and its aftermath that has not been well documented. Engineers played a critical part in the efforts of first responders in the hours and days after the collapse of the Twin Towers into the apocalyptic scene of Ground Zero. Assessing the danger or relative safety of debris on the Pile and the stability of damaged structures surrounding the site was the job of engineers on whose judgments the lives of rescue workers depended.
In the months after the removal of the steel and clearing of material from the “bathtub,” the additional engineering analysis of the causes of the collapse of the towers began: that investigation consumed the next decade.
The programs will bring together engineers who devoted months or years to this work to remember and reflect on their experiences. Both panels will be moderated by Najib Abboud, a Managing Principal of Thornton Tomasetti, who led the team in the forensic analysis of the collapse of the towers.
The second program will take a view that deals in decades rather than days and which looks back to assess what has changed as a consequence of 9/11.