Tough But Welcoming Architecture: A Sign of the Times

Chicago-based designer, Carol Ross Barney, who is known for her nationally acclaimed work on an elementary school in a tough Chicago neighborhood, now more than ever has a reputation for designing "tough and welcoming" buildings. The new federal building is designed to withstand an attack similar to the truck bomb incident in 1995, which had torn through the building, "causing the building's floors to fall, or 'pancake,' on one other....Investigators later determined that the structural collapse killed more people than the bomb itself." The new three-story building "has shatterproof glass, a steel-plated main entrance and concrete bollards that are supposed to keep a truck or car bomb at a distance, lessening structural damage from explosives."