One of the most prominent structural engineering companies, WSP Cantor Seinuk (WSPCS), by using reinforced concrete core at One World trade Center Tower, effectively has authenticated that position.

“Our message helped raise support for the choice of reinforced concrete for rebuilding Ground Zero,” said Concrete Alliance President Robert A. Ledwith. “It started with the 7 World Trade Center building. The architects at Skidmore, Owens & Merrill and structural engineers at designed a tower with a core of cast-in-place, reinforced concrete–an extra-strong backbone running the full height of the building. And for One World Trade Center,” he adds, “Skidmore’s and WSPCS’s design provides even better protection for stairwells and elevators.”

The developer of 7 World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties, Inc., said he was determined to build “the world’s safest skyscraper.” That’s the chief reason its stairwells are surrounded by cast-in-place, reinforced-concrete.

The stairwell walls in One World Trade Center are even more massive. On the floors already poured, the core walls measure three feet thick or more above ground level – and up to twice that below grade. Higher up, the “cast-in-reinforced” concrete will slim down to two-feet thick concrete walls around the tower core.

Tishman Construction Corporation completed the 52-story 7 World Trade CEnter in 2006, and the company is also managing construction of the 105 story at One World Trade Center. For both buildings, WSP Cantor Seinuk took on the structural engineering task of assuring that Skidmore’s architectural concepts would perform as intended when in the real world.