[danajrock]

I was elated to see that I was not the only person up thinking about this building, 432 Park, and the dangers it poses to the city. A lot of you had excellent points in regards to the structural stability if so hit by a large commercial airliner. However, 432 Park has a very dangerous aspect in the design.
The facade, with the formed surface left as the final finish without any added facia, was poured in place from concrete using 14,000 psi white Portland cement, and cast around preassembled full-floor cages of #20 rebars with articulated steel formwork. The floor-to-floor height of each of the 85 stories is 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m), with 10 in (25 cm) thick floor slabs, although to damp the acceleration from wind loads, upper floors have slabs up to 18 in (46 cm) thick to add more mass. Now add in the 10'x10' plate glass windows and all of the interior marble and such and you have many floors of shrapnel.

But here is the unnerving aspect... aimed at reducing the potentially uncomfortable effects of swaying due to wind vortex loading on such a flexible tower, the window grid and interior space of 2 floors between every 12 occupied floors (so every 13th floor) are left open to allow the wind to pass through. These floors also contain modularized mechanical services for the six floors above and below to reduce ductwork. The height of each floor is 17 ft. so 34' for the pass through. The height of a standard Boeing 737 cargo plane leaving La Guardia Airport is about 34 ft. not including the tail.
The flight path for La Guardia Airport runs parallel to 432 Park. If the terrorists wanted to cause massive damage to the very wealthy and heavily packed tourist area below the 90 stories of plate glass, concrete, marble and steel it would be no problem to shear the building off at one of these points in the lower part of the tower.... not sure what they can do about it now.. but i live in the neighborhood and I worry for sure. Hopefully somebody has figured this out besides me and the terrorists who might be responsible for shelling out the 500million dollars for the land alone.. why??