I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, so I’ll note that a new federal building has just opened in Oklahoma City to replace the one that was destroyed by the terrorist Timothy McVeigh.
OKLAHOMA CITY – A new Oklahoma City federal building with shatterproof glass, a steel-plated main entrance and concrete plugs outside opened on Monday, 8 1/2 years after the bombing that killed 168 people.
Two dozen employees of the Small Business Administration settled into their new offices, the first tenants of the building, which is kitty-corner from the site where the Alfred P. Murrah Building once stood and a block from the memorial to the dead.
Eleven agencies are scheduled to move in over the next several months. Workers were still putting the finishing touches on the fountain and walkways.
SBA employee Cindi Anderson, a 39-year-old single mother, was nervous about the move until she toured the building and saw its security features.
“With everything going on in the world, it’s a little bit scary, but I’m more comfortable now,” she said.
Others were excited about getting their own private offices, a rarity in government service, said Dorothy Overal, district SBA director.
Her assistant, Jerry Reese, said it was important to rebuild after the bombing as a show of resolve: “If we didn’t do it, the terrorists win.”
The SBA had no offices in the Murrah Building, which was destroyed by a truck bomb driven by Timothy McVeigh on April 19, 1995. He was executed in 2001.
The three-story, horseshoe-shaped building was built at a cost of $33 million.
The main entrance is enclosed in three-quarter-inch-thick, floor-to-ceiling steel plates. The building is set back from the street, and its windows are specially treated so they will not shatter in an explosion. Waist-high concrete plugs are designed to prevent vehicles from getting too close.
Still, its proximity to the Murrah site prompted several employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to say they do not want to move into the building.
About half of HUD’s current 103 employees worked in the Murrah building. HUD lost 35 employees in the bombing and is the biggest agency making the move. HUD officials in Washington have said they are making special arrangements for employees who refuse to move into the building.
No law enforcement agencies will be based in the new building for fear this could make it a target.
The building is to be dedicated next May. No name for it has been announced.
Federal agencies have been scattered throughout Oklahoma City since the bombing. SBA employees had moved out of the nine-story Murrah building five months before the attack and had been using leased space until Monday.
Matthew Madison, district manager for the General Services Administration, said this is the first federal building, other than a courthouse, built in the United States in more than 15 years.
“It has the greatest possible technology enhancements available,” he said.
Other agencies moving in are the Food and Drug Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration and offices for the Army and Marines.
I’m glad to hear of it. May the new building’s occupants know peace and security while they are there.
“If we didn’t do it, the terrorists win.”
…
The main entrance is enclosed in three-quarter-inch-thick, floor-to-ceiling steel plates. The building is set back from the street, and its windows are specially treated so they will not shatter in an explosion. Waist-high concrete plugs are designed to prevent vehicles from getting too close.
“If we didn’t do it…”? Sounds to me, based on how “it” was done, that the terrorists have already won, at least on one level.
I am not intrinsically opposed to thick steel plates and concrete plugs, but to state the obvious, security does not come primarily from barriers, weapons or any other kinds of devices: it comes from making fewer enemies and having more allies worldwide. And, of course, from not producing more Timothy McVeighs here at home.
And if you don’t agree with me, the terrorists win! 🙂
Hmm. If few other fed buildings are equally well-reinforced, why would anyone go after this one again? I sympathize with the thought, but what’s the odds?
Oh well, glad there’s a building to house all those folks again.