These Twin Towers Were Not Destroyed By Terrorists

Are the Twin Towers back at Ground Zero? No, this photo is of the twin skyscrapers that architect David Childs designed for Time Warner in Midtown Manhattan at the same time terrorists struck Lower Manhattan.

It turns out that Twin Tower architecture is a common design in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Minoru Yamasaki design that was destroyed on September 11, 2001 may be the most famous.

Another pair of towers, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, were built by Cesar Pelli in 1998.

The Petronas Towers are the tallest pair of towers in the world, but soon will be outranked by the  Incheon 151 Tower under construction in South Korea. The Incheon twin towers are connected by "sky bridges." Designed by John Portman and Associates, Incheon Tower is expected to be the tallest Twin Tower in the world.

In 2008, About.com reader Connie Stevens sent us this comment:

"I just watched a program on the PBS station here in California about Cesar Pelli and the Petronas towers. It was facinating to see how these were designed and built. I couldn't help thinking while watching this program if the same thing would happen to these towers if they were hit by an airplane the same way that the World Trade Towers in New York were hit if it would collapse in the same way. I had seen a program that explained why the Twin Towers collapsed, would the Petronas towers calapse in the same way? I'm just interested because I wonder if a new way of construction could have prevented the towers from totally collapsing."

Twin Towers are tall buildings no matter where they are. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined specific changes we can make to improve the safety of tall buildings. Here are their recommendations: Safer Skyscrapers.