by ArchitectureWeek

In our second week since the terrorist disaster in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, emergency crews continue to work on rescue and recovery, families, friends, a nation, and the world mourn their losses, and most of the U.S. struggles toward normalcy in our daily lives.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani updated the official casualty figures for the World Trade Center area on Thursday afternoon, September 20. The latest estimates suggest some 25,000 people successfully escape the World Trade Center buildings. But 6333 people from around the world are missing or dead, with only 241 bodies recovered, and 6291 are counted injured.

Altogether secondary to the tragic, overwhelming human losses, the loss of buildings is also shocking. All seven buildings of the World Trade Center complex are total losses. Of nearly 300 acres of commercial space, perhaps only a small portion of one of nine story Plaza buildings still encloses recognizable space.

A neighboring church has also apparently collapsed, and repairable damage to surrounding buildings is extensive, including damage to One Liberty Plaza across Church Street to the east.

Satellite image of the intact World Trade Center in its lower Manhattan context. Photo: spaceimaging.com Satellite image of the World Trade Center disaster site on September 15, 2001. Photo: spaceimaging.com   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.