World Trade Center

An organization that stands outside politics across national boundaries, in service to those who develop and facilitate international trade. With its unique global mission and membership, the WTCA has been a world leader in creating innovative service for international business.

-- WTCA mission statement

While the New York one has gained some notoriety as of late, "World Trade Center" is in fact an international brand for what the World Trade Center Association (WTCA) terms "business shopping centers". The usual tenants are export-oriented companies and government agencies, who get (usually) a very central location, access to the WTCA's databases and reciprocal facilities, hosting for services like Internet access, translation and (especially in the developing world) even things like electricity and physical security.

As of April 2002 there are over 300 WTCs scattered around the world in almost 100 countries, a snapshot of which follows:

Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Aden, Algiers, Almere, Amman, Amsterdam, Anchorage, Ankara, Antwerp, Arnhem Nijmegen, Aruba, Athens, Atlanta, Baghdad, Bahrain, Baja California Greater Tijuana, Baltimore, Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Barranquilla, Basel, Basel Af, Beijing, Beijing China, Beirut, Belfast, Belgrade, Berlin, Bogota, Bordeaux, Boston, Bratislava, Bremen, Brescia East Lombardy, Bridgeport, Brisbane, Brno, Brussels, Bucharest, Bucharest Victoria, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calcutta, Cali, Cardiff, Charleston, Chengdu Af, Chicago, Chongqing Af, Cleveland, Club Hong Kong AF, Cochin, Coimbra, Colombo, Curacao, Curitiba, Cyprus, DaeGu, Dallas Ft Worth, Damascus, Delhi Gurgaon, Denver, Detroit Windsor, Doha, Dresden, Dubai, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Eindhoven, Ekaterinburg, El Paso Juarez, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Frankfurt Oder, Gaza, Gdynia, Geneva, Genoa, Ghent Af, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Great Plains, Greenville Spartanburg, Grenoble, Guadalajara, Guangzhou Af, Guarulhos, Guayaquil, Haikou, Halifax, Hamburg, Hangzhou, Hannover, Havana, Heerlen, Helsinki, Hengdian, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Houston, Hudson Valley, Iasi, Inchon, Indianapolis, Istanbul, Jacksonville, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Jonkoping, Kansas City, Kaohsiung, Karachi, Katowice, Kiel, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, KwangJu, Lagos, Las Vegas, Lausanne, Le Havre, Leeuwarden, Leipzig, Lexington, Lille, Lima, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lugano, Luxembourg, Lyon, Macau, Madrid, Makkah, Malaga, Mallorca, Malpensa Airport, Malta, Managua, Manaus, Manila, Marseille, Martinique, Masan, McAllen, Medellin, Melbourne, Memphis, Messina, Metz, Mexico City, Miami, Milan, Milton Keynes, Milwaukee, Minsk, Mississippi Jackson, Missoula, Monaco, Monterrey, Montevideo, Montpellier, Montreal, Moscow, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nanjing Af, Nantes, Naples, Nassau Bahamas, New Delhi Af, New Orleans, New York, Niagara, Nice Sophia Antipolis, Norfolk, Novosibirsk, Odessa, Okinawa, Orange County Irvine, Orlando, Osaka, Osaka AF, Oslo, Ottawa, Oxnard, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Panama, Paris, Pearl River Delta, Penang, Pernambuco, Philadelphia, Phnom Penh, Pittsburgh, Podgorica, Pointe a Pitre, Port Said, Portland, Poznan, Prague, Providence, Puebla, Pusan, PyongYang, Quito, Raleigh Durham, Ribeirao Preto, Riga, Rijeka, Rio de Janeiro, Riyadh, Rome, Rostock, Rotterdam, Ruhr Valley, Sacramento, Salzburg, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Juan, San Marino, San Salvador, Santander, Santiago, Santo Domingo AF, Sao Paulo, Sapporo, Sarajevo, Schenectady, Schiphol Airport, Seattle, Seoul, Sevilla, Shanghai, Sharjah, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Singapore, Skopje, Sofia, Sofia Af, Southampton, Split, St Louis, St Paul, St Petersburg, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Surabaya, Sydney, Tabasco, Tacoma, TaeJon, Taichung, Taipei, Tallinn, Tambore, Tampa Bay, Tashkent AF, Tel Aviv, Tenerife, The Hague, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Tokyo AF, Toronto, Trieste, Tripoli, Tunis, Turku, Ulan Bator, Utrecht, Valencia, Valencia Venezuela, Vancouver, Veracruz, Verona, Vienna, Vienna Airport, Vigo, Vilnius, Warsaw, Washington DC, Washington Dulles Airport AF, Wichita, Wilmington DE, Zagreb, Zurich

The WTCA is a non-profit organization that sponsors the WTC Corps, a volunteer corps that teaches basic business skills around the world, and the WTC University, a distance-learning initiative.

References

http://www.wtca.org

World Trade Center is the name of many building projects around the world. However, this writeup will refer to two specific buildings in the New York City World Trade Center complex.

One World Trade Center, also known as Tower One, refers to the North Tower, while Two World Trade Center, Tower Two, refers to the South Tower.

Design:
Minoru Yamasaki and Emery Roth designed the two towers as well as the rest of the World Trade Center complex. The World Trade Center towers represent Yamasaki's gothic modernist style and the architectural ethic of Le Corbusier.

The towers are a prime example of tube buildings. Similar to the IBM building in Seattle, the towers were designed with outer steel beams and columns that created a steel tube. This design alleviated problems of wind sway and vibration. Each of the towers had 240 Vierendeel trusses on the outside of the structure connected to each other via normal steel trusses. Dampers were added to absorb shock. As a result, there is no need for internal load-bearing walls.

Construction:
The $400 million towers broke ground on August 5, 1966. The World Trade Center commercial complex spans sixteen square blocks. When construction began, a 1.2 million cubic yard "bathtub", a 70 feet deep hole in solid bedrock was created. Add 200,000 tons of steel, 425,000 cubic yards of concrete and 3,500 workers. Mix well for 9 years. The North Tower was completed in 1972 and the South Tower was completed a year later.

History:
The idea of building a World Trade Center was conceived by real estate broker David Sholtz. Being a former Florida Governor, Sholtz had close contact with New York State Governor Thomas E. Dewey. After much discussion, Sholtz convinced Dewey to present the idea to the Port Authority in 1947. Two years of bureaucratic red tape later and the idea was rejected by the City Board of Estimate.

In 1956 David Rockefeller had already began construction on