Special Report: The NIST Building and Fire Safety Recommendations

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a draft of its recommendations for improving the safety of buildings—particularly tall buildings—in the wake of its exhaustive, three-year study of the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. These recommendations include changes to the way structures are designed, analyzed, constructed, and protected from fires and other disasters, and if implemented they could dramatically change the way designers think about building security.