[00:00.00] Well, my topic today is Architecture, and to be specific, what I am going to talk about is World Trade Center - the skyscrapers. After watching the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapse, twice reducing 110 stories to five in less than a minute, it's hard to see how the buildings could have ever been considered safe. It's even harder to see how engineers can look at the events of September 11, 2001, as a relative success in terms of architectural strength. Consider this: the rubble at the site weighed a million tons. The site spanned a vast 16 acres. The nonstop cleanup, conducted day and night, still took the better part of a year. Even if the greatest loss - so many human lives - is excluded, there's no arguing: this was, in all senses, an enormous disaster.

Well, my topic today is Architecture, and to be specific, what I am going to talk about is World Trade Center - the skyscrapers. After watching the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapse, twice reducing 110 stories to five in less than a minute, it's hard to see how the buildings could have ever been considered safe. It's even harder to see how engineers can look at the events of September 11, 2001, as a relative success in terms of architectural strength. Consider this: the rubble at the site weighed a million tons. The site spanned a vast 16 acres. The nonstop cleanup, conducted day and night, still took the better part of a year. Even if the greatest loss - so many human lives - is excluded, there's no arguing: this was, in all senses, an enormous disaster.