Building Security: Handbook for Architectural Planning and Design

Barbara A. Nadel, editor in chief McGraw-Hill, 2004, 672 pp., $89.95. “The Oklahoma City bombing marked the beginning of a national, industrywide approach to security planning and building design to combat terrorism,” New York architect Barbara A. Nadel observes in the opening chapter of this authoritative and weighty (nearly four-pound) volume. Nadel’s book — she wrote four of the chapters and recruited more than 50 contributors from more than 30 organizations to write the other 27 chapters — systematically leads readers through an at times grim but increasingly critical part of today’s architectural and planning terrain. (See a related article on Page 1 and commentary on Page 2.) Building Security is a state-of-the-art examination of how courthouses, commercial high-rises, hospitals, museums, stores, schools, subways, women’s health centers, multifamily housing, and many other kinds of properties can deter criminal activities — from turnstile-jumping to mugging to terrorism. “Ordinary” crimes like burglary and robbery used to rank uppermost in most security calculations. No more. Worries about terrorism have become pervasive, exerting a large and growing impact on the built environment. In Chapter 1, “Lessons Learned from September 11, 2001, and Other Benchmark Events,” Nadel reports that since the destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, extensive research has been conducted into how to lessen terrorist threats through site planning, controls on access and vehicular circulation, “standoff distance” (the setback from public streets), hardening of building exteriors, tougher window systems, and other means. Some of the guidelines included in the book are disturbing because they contradict sound urban design. A table in DMJM Technology security specialist Terry L. Leach’s chapter on federally owned or leased buildings includes these recommendations: Place the building at least 150 feet from the site’s boundaries, eliminate parking beneath the building, and “locate parking as far from the facility as practical, but at least 30 feet away.” If the most severe recommendations in this book were rigorously followed, the public spaces of America’s cities and towns would become much less inviting. Some contributors seem to focus on security to the exclusion of all else. Don’t blame Nadel. She is giving us the security firmament as it currently exists. It’s a relief, then, to find discussions such as a chapter by Sharon C. Park of the federal Heritage Preservation Services and Caroline R. Alderson of the US General Services Administration on security design in historic preservation. Park and Alderson pay close attention to urban design, looking at how the barriers meant to protect structures such as federal buildings can actually enhance the sidewalks and public spaces. In another excellent chapter, Deborah Bershad and Jean Parker Phifer, both with the Art Commission of the City of New York, present imaginative examples of grilles, fences, gates, and other devices that help safeguard parks, subways, museums, and other public facilities without making those facilities harsh. In a chapter on master planning, David V. Thompson and Bill McCarthy of RTKL Associates in Baltimore assert that a major goal of building owners, landlords, and public agencies should be “designing for transparent security — invisible to the public eye.” They declare, “In a free and democratic society, security must be achieved without resorting to a bunker mentality.” Much of the information in Building Security is broken down into easily digestible tables and bullet points. Six hundred black-and-white photos, renderings, plans, and other illustrations complement the text. Nadel’s own outlook can be discerned from a chapter-opening quotation attributed to U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock of Boston: “When it comes to our public buildings, we must re-inoculate ourselves with a commitment to fundamental values — to openness, to engagement, to accessibility.”