September 11 Disaster Coverage | |||||||||||
AIA National Component Mourns, Perseveres | |||||||||||
by Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA | |||||||||||
September 12Washington, D.C. The shocking news of the World Trade Center disaster Tuesday morning, September 11, was followed only minutes later by the equally distressing sight of thick black smoke billowing just across the Potomac to the north, from the Pentagon. Rumors flew but panic was nowhere to be found as AIA EVP/Chief Executive Officer Norman L. Koonce, FAIA, assembled the AIA national component staff in the AIA headquarters Boardroom to begin an evacuation of the building, which sits a block west of the White House grounds. The streets were filled with barely moving cars interspersed with shrill-sirened Secret Service convoys. The sidewalks were awash with eerily calm pedestrians taking, as it turned out, the quickest mode of transportation out of the area. Some braved the subway, some went to friends' houses, but nearly everybody left the area immediately so the authorities could do their job. Within hours the streets looked as if it were early Sunday morning. Everyone grieved and came to terms with the day's horrors in his or her own way. By Wednesday morning, though, the AIA national component was back to work. Koonce called a second all-staff gathering to encourage people to talk to their colleagues, share their experiences and thoughts, and unburden their collective conscience. He pointed out the importance of the AIA mission, even in a time when the magnanimity of the previous days' tragedy made everyday activity seem trivial in comparison. That the terrorist attackers chose buildings that symbolize Americaits dominance in business, trade, and military mightshows the overwhelming importance of architectural form, which is so ingrained in the public psyche as to be almost subconscious. "We have important work to do," Koonce told his staff. Communications simple and ornate came into the AIA
on Wednesday the 12th. Mike Borshevski, Assoc. AIA, emailed from Russia: From Dorothy D. Barkley, executive director of the
Architectural Institute of British Columbia: The AIA national component returns those well wishes even as everyone's thoughts focus most intently on the victims and their families and friends. Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. |
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