Architecture, engineering, and other design fields will forever be changed because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

ISU professors in civil engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture debated plans to rebuild the Twin Towers and what type of memorial would be tasteful.

Miriam Engler, associate professor of landscape architecture, said that more than a month after the attack, the question remains what to do to immortalize the victims of the tragedy. She was one of three panelists to speak at the “Designing After Disaster” forum Monday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“There is a need to commemorate, there is a need to heal: The question is, in what form?” she said. “When a child is born, we plant a tree. We put up a grave when someone dies.”

Engler said commemorations help individuals face immortality and help them to deal with very intense emotions.

“It immortalizes the dead, and over the years, becomes a landmark in history,” she said.

Because history is objective, and memory is subjective, the landmark will hold different meanings for different people, Engler said. She described the history of memorials, including various monuments, living memorials, the bombing memorial in Oklahoma City and the “new era” in the conception of monuments that came with the revolution of the ’60s.

One proposal that has been brought forth by four architects are the `Towers of Light,’ a sort of monument that would shine up from the footprints of the towers. This would be a temporary monument, in place until a more permanent plan was agreed upon. Mark Stankard, assistant professor of architecture, said the monument would be inappropriate.

“I feel that it’s not proper to build on the footprints of the buildings. Fundamentally, these are grave sites,” he said.

Stankard, a finalist in the Oklahoma City Memorial competition, offered many opinions about not only what the World Trade Center Towers symbolized, and whether rebuilding them is appropriate.

He pointed out that when the construction of the World Trade Center Towers was complete, it was the target of much criticism. They seemed out of place in the skyline and were viewed as a sign of arrogance. Now they are now considered to be very American, he said.

“Currently, there are many proposals as to what to do here. There is actually a New York City Rebuild Task Force,” he said. “The question remains: Should we rebuild? And what does it mean to actually rebuild? And who wants to work on the 100th floor of a building anymore? Would we be erecting, shall we say, foolish targets?”

Robert Abendroth, associate professor in civil and construction engineering, described the structure of the World Trade Center Towers, what systems may have failed in the catastrophe and the possible changes in design and construction.

After explaining the basic structures of the Towers, Abendroth said the building was constructed to withstand impact of a Boeing 707 airline – the largest commercial airplane at the time the towers were built.

In the recent terrorist attacks, the airplanes struck the upper portion of the buildings. The temperature from the explosion weakened the structure,” Abendroth said.

“At 1200 degrees centigrade the strength of steel is less than half of normal . the idea here is that the structure potentially collapsed on itself; the upper thirty or so stories fell on the lower story region . pancaking the structure.”

Abendroth proposed changes such as improved emergency access to the building to create less interference between those trying to get out and rescue workers trying to get in, hardened stair and elevator shafts, refuge floors for passive fire breaks, improved fire-suppression systems to handle, perhaps, a more intense fire, laminated, shatterproof glass and an automatic public address system that could inform people how to evacuate the building.

James Bolluyt, assistant professor in civil and construction engineering; moderated the forum in which three professors answered questions and posed challenging inquiries of their own.