Concurrent with its "Skyscrapers: The New Millennium" exhibit in The Octagon, the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) is displaying in the adjacent AIA headquarters lobby the only original model of the World Trade Center known to be in existence.

The 10-foot-high towers are arresting. Passersby almost uniformly stop with a jolt to see the highly detailed model that Yamasaki & Associates first gave to the Lawrence Technological University in Detroit in the mid-'80s. The university in turn donated the plastic and wood model to the AAF Prints and Drawings Collection in 1992. Since then it has been exhibited only once (at the U.S. Patent Office Museum) and had been in storage for the past year.

Also apparent in the reactions of visitors to the AIA headquarters is the palpable sense of loss and remembrance the model evokes. With trees, miniature pedestrians, and toy cars giving a sense of the enormous scale of the building, the model is, quite literally, awesome.

The Skyscrapers exhibition itself, which opens October 18 at The Octagon Museum, includes drawings, photographs, and models featuring 35 high-rise buildings of the mid- to late 1990s, many of which will be among the first skyscrapers completed in this millennium. Organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, the exhibition and its national tour are sponsored by Julien J. Studley, Inc. The World Trade Center model, which is in delicate condition, will not be a part of that traveling exhibition.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.