Defensible Space: Will Terrorism Transform Our Cities?

In the aftermath of the WTC attacks, will security needs transform our cities? This article looks at new urbanism, defensible space, and previous attempts to design secure cities.

1 minute read

September 25, 2001, 5:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is propelling a civic debate over whether to change the way Americans experience and ultimately build urban public spaces. Are a city's assets -- density, concentration, monumental structures -- still alluring? Will a desire for "defensible space" radically transform the city as Americans know it?... The last decades, however, have seen a major increase in terrorist attacks on the public centers in Europe, the Middle East, and now the United States. Dispersal rather than concentration is being talked about as the viable pattern of life and work, where monumental buildings will give way to camouflaged sheds, or entirely scattered to home offices.Urban planners are ill-prepared to respond to this new reality."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: A City Transformed: Designing 'Defensible Space'

Monday, September 24, 2001 in The New York Times

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