Civil Engineer at Ground Zero

"A project in which everyone wants a say"
Michael Stein is the Swabian engineer - responsible for the receipt of
the new World Trade Center in New York. The special thing about this
job? The cable net facade with Kevlar ropes. And that the whole world
is watching the outcome.

All had gone as expected, sitting Michael Stone, 43, not here: in the
middle of Manhattan, in the 24th Stock one of the many skyscrapers in
the 8th Avenue. He wears a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. On
his desk are blueprints, protractor and calculator. Concentrated, he
paints with a pencil sketch on one of the plans, then the phone rings.
Here is the New York branch of the Civil engineering studio Schlaich
Berger and Partners, a Swabian family business with headquarters in
Stuttgart. Stone has built the office almost single-handedly. His
assignment: the World Trade Center building one.
"It is all very happy together," says Stein, "and it's great that we
can help build on the 1 World Trade Center." Stein and his team that
is actually already out of the race, because they compete for the
revival of the terrorist scene Ground Zero only occupied second place.
The winner was the star architect Daniel Libeskind.

The runners make the race
But the then owner Larry Silverstein was so dissatisfied with the
draft that he, after much back and forth to build the 1 WTC architects
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) transferred. "Among them we have
always had good contact," says Stein, "and so we have slipped in
second in the team." The Stuttgart build the entrance of the building
and the antenna.
For Stein, this is primarily a technical one. But he adds: "The
special thing is sure that the whole world is watching this building
project." The civil engineering at the crossroads of society - hardly
a building site in the world so charged with symbolism. Of these, the
technician can not be tamed do.
Stone has always been ambitious: "I liked the profession of civil
engineer, that you can build things that will survive even one." After
graduation, study abroad and army he opted for the course as a
graduate engineer. "When you have the challenging fundamental studies
behind them, is open to anything really," he says - of rail
transportation on water supply and sanitation to skyscraper and bridge
engineering. It must be very late to decide where you want to work:
structural engineering, construction company or authority. "That's a
big difference from other engineering professions," said Stein.
For the essence of the synapses initially lacking
Nevertheless - he knew very early on where it should go: constructive
in civil engineering. "I was the link between creativity and science
thrilled," says Stein, "that you are not only invents things, but also
knows how to implement them later."
But for the synapses occur predominantly in the practice and not at
the university. "When you come for the first time in an engineering
company, one is completely overwhelmed," says Stein. The most helpful
experiences for him were the site visits: "There, I got only times a
sense of what is feasible and what is not."
Meanwhile, Stein has 15 years in the profession. The construction of
the WTC 1 also means a new challenge for him. It was a "project, wants
a say in which each". "The Libeskind design was changed so often that
he now almost no longer visible," says Stein. This has greatly
influenced the schedule: Originally, the building are already three
years ago, is currently going from a completion in 2013.
Civil engineers are alone with the responsibility
For the majority of the 1 WTC American companies are responsible,
which is so common in the United States. "This quasi-monopoly leads to
the fact that U.S. engineering firms to develop not as much as it
could actually. As we come into play. " His company specializes in
advanced materials. "We attach great importance to cooperation between
architects and engineers," says Stein, who teaches exactly a year ago
also at Renssellaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, the oldest
technical university in the USA, as guest lecturer.
There were numerous meetings with the architects of the main
requirements to Stuttgart, as the wind loads that the antenna must
endure. In addition, the input, as a contrast to the bomb-proof
construction, ease radiate.
After countless sketches and a model test, the solution was clear: a
network cable for the front entrance. "This is the most transparent
thing you can imagine," says Stein. The 122-meter antenna is covered
with fiberglass-reinforced panels to allow passage of the radio waves,
and is protected by Kevlar ropes and a spindle structure against wind.
And how is it now, with the special responsibility at Ground Zero? The
stone can hardly come close. Whether World Trade Center, bridges or
stadiums - once an infrastructure is created for people who bear the
responsibility of civil engineers. "But this is not generally
recognized," says Stein, "we are prepared for it either." Although
civil engineering students have to watch some videos of collapse, but
they are left alone in the question, how to cope in practice with the
pressure of responsibility: "Our job is often underestimated it."