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Skyscrapers lose their luster after US attacks
( 2001-09-21 10:43 ) (7 )

The glimmering magic of the New York skyline was forever altered by last week's attacks -- and it is more than the destruction of the 110-story twin towers anchored to the bedrock of lower Manhattan.

The attacks changed the perception of skyscrapers as testimony to man's ability and vision to that of an instrument of death. More than 5,000 people are believed dead after hijackers rammed two jetliners into the World Trade Center.

As time marches on and reality settles in, some people who work in skyscrapers are beginning to feel extremely unsafe coming to work, a normal response to the disaster, said Russell Friedman, co-founder of the Grief Recovery Institute.

"Clearly working in tall buildings is a concern. The brain is set up to look for potential dangers to its existence," he said.

After Sept. 11, the brain has moved into hypervigilant mode and perceives everything as a threat, said Friedman, who has received requests from major corporations to deal with employee fears in the wake of the disaster.

And New York is known the world over for its tall buildings, he said, making it the most obvious connecting threat.

To some, it is more than just working in a tall building that unnerves them. It is working in a a highly visible or landmark building, such as the Chrysler Tower or Empire State Building in New York, or the Sears Tower in Chicago -- the tallest US building -- which was evacuated after the World Trade Center was hit and again Thursday on a rumor.

ACCOMMODATING WORKER CONCERNS

A worker in the Empire State Building -- once again the city's tallest -- said people have lined up in orderly fashion to go through security checks despite the fear and fright which followed last week's horror.

"I think they need to be normal," he said, in the midst of the terror that still pervades.

An Israeli worker said: "I lived in the Middle East during the Gulf War and last week, I was scared for the first time. This is bigger, scarier stuff."

Companies have said they will try to accommodate worker concerns. All employees who worked for Kemper Insurance in its offices on the 35th and 36th floors of the Worth Trade Center's North Tower are accounted for, the company said.

The company, which plans to stay in New York, is "certainly sensitive that some employees may have issues over working in high-rises," said Linda Kingman, a Kemper spokeswoman.

"I have not heard anyone say 'I am nervous being in this building.' But if someone doesn't want to be here, I am sure it can be worked out," said a spokesman for publisher Conde Nest, whose namesake 48-story building looms over world-famous Times Square.

Survivors of the disaster who lost friends and co-workers in the World Trade Center are more hesitant to commit themselves to working in a high level.

One 20-year Salomon Smith Barney employee who escaped physical harm from last Tuesday's disaster said she might go back to work in a landmark skyscraper just as a matter of not allowing the evil to rule her life.

"I feel they have the bodies. I don't want to give them the minds too," she said.

SWEAR YOU WON'T

Carr Futures, which is currently operating out of the midtown building of its parent company, Credit Agricole, occupied the 92th floor of the North Tower. Carr lost 69 of its 141 employees during the disaster.

"I'd be very hesitant to be working in a target building again, "said David Mangold, a senior vice president with Carr, who was in Mexico when the plane hit.

But Sandy McMillan, his wife, was more definite.

"I was watching on television that they were talking about rebuilding the World Trade Center," she said.

"And I made David promise that if they do, he will never, ever work there."