NEWS INDEX 2001 October

Architects to discuss Sept. 11 attack and the built environment

Melissa Mitchell, News Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

10/12/01

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Students in the University of Illinois School of Architecture are organizing a forum on Oct. 18 to discuss the World Trade Center attack and its impact on the built environment.

"Town Hall Meeting: Rebuilding a Way of Life in the Face of Disaster" will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the atrium of Temple Buell Hall, 611 E. Lorado Taft Drive, Champaign.

"September 11 is already being viewed as significant as the Great Chicago Fire, the San Francisco Earthquake and Hurricane Camille as to its impact on how we will plan and build our cities," said Michael Andrejasich, interim director of the architecture school.

"Architects have been charged with securing the health, safety and welfare of the public, and in the attacks that occurred and the loss of life that resulted, this principle was shaken," said UI architecture student Zachary Borders, national chair-elect of the American Institute of Architecture Students Forum and the event’s moderator. "We cannot, nor should we, forget the countless lives that have been affected. However, we, as future architects and designers, have the capacity to look at these tragic events and to take from them lessons that can restore faith and security to the profession and, especially, the public."

Guest commentators who will participate in the meeting:

• Frances Halsband, New York, an architect and 2001 Plym Professor at the UI. A spokesperson for the American Institute of Architects, Halsband will discuss the design of the World Trade Center.

• Carol Ross Barney, Chicago, architect for the new Oklahoma City Federal Building. Barney is a past Plym Fellow and UI alumna.

• Mir Ali, UI professor of architecture and president of the Tall Buldings Council. Ali’s book, "The Art of the Skyscraper: the Genius of Fazlur Khan," recently was published by Rizzoli, New York.

The town hall meeting is being organized by the Student Advisory Council and the American Institute of Architecture Students Forum.