Opinion ID: 2644804
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: 7 World Trade Center

Text: The Con Ed substation in question was built in 1970 to provide electric power to the World Trade Center site, built on land owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agreement between the Port Authority and Con Ed allowed the Port Authority to build above the substation. In 1980, the Port Authority exercised that right by entering into an agreement with 7 World Trade Company, L.P. (“7 World Trade”) to build 7WTC. Pursuant to that agreement, the Port Authority would own 7WTC, which would be designed, constructed and operated by Silverstein Properties, Inc., 7 World Trade’s agent. 7 World Trade held a 99-year lease on 7WTC. The substation was built on a trapezoidal parcel of land, and 7WTC was designed as a trapezoid to mimic the shape of the parcel. To achieve its design goals, the building included two sets of support columns: 24 internal load-bearing columns that formed a rectangle at the center of the structure, and 19 external columns that were laid out along the building’s trapezoidal perimeter. The trapezoidal shape also required that in the northeast corner of the building, the steel girders connecting two columns (Nos. 79 and 44) formed an oblique angle, 4 rather than a right angle. The relevant building standards at the time 7WTC was constructed specified that: Through accident or misuse, structures capable of supporting safely all conventional design loads may suffer local damage, that is, the loss of load resistance in an element or small portion of the structure. In recognition of this, buildings and structural systems shall possess general structural integrity, which is the quality of being able to sustain local damage with the structure as a whole remaining stable and not being damaged to an extent disproportionate to the original local damage. American National Standard: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, § 58.1, Section 1.3 (1982). Construction on 7WTC was completed in 1987.