WORLD TRADE CENTER ARCHITECTURAL RECORDS SAVED AT LAST MINUTE

The archives of the architectural firm that designed the World Trade Center have been rescued from shredding at the eleventh hour, reports Dave Iztkoff for the New York Times_. The firm, Yamasaki Associates, in Troy, Michigan, was founded in the 1950s by the modernist architect Minoru Yamasaki, who in addition to the Twin Towers designed the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Yamasaki died in 1986, and his office was closed in January. Ted Ayoub, one of the last employees of the firm, contacted the Society of Architectural Historians, which in turn contacted the State Historic Preservation Office in Michigan. Mark Harvey, Michigan’s state archivist, assembled a crew to drive a truck from Lansing to Troy, with one day’s notice, to save the archive from being shredded.