The Williams Center Incident (1997 novella)

The Williams Center Incident is a short novel (novella) written by John Steinberg in 1997. It describes the Williams Center, a fictional group of fourteen skyscrapers in the Lower Manhattan Financial District of New York City, two of which (the so-called Towers A and B) collapse after two jet planes crash into both within a few minutes from each other. The Williams Center and its collapse are famous for similarities to the World Trade Center and it's collapse four years later on 9/11. After the 9/11 attacks, the novel was rewritten with several changes, most notably the substitution of two passenger planes crashing into the Williams Center in the storyline for a building implosion that damaged the towers' structural columns due to an accidental gasoline explosion in the top floors of the towers. However, the original edition of the novel was not made available again until 2011 as it was originally banned due to the uncanny similarities between the disaster as described in the novel and the real life attacks.

Original 1997 iteration
The first half of the Williams Center Incident introduces protagonist Roger Hernandez, a disgraced former software engineer. He was fired from his previous position as a software engineer following a hacking scandal, and he currently worked as an employee at the Williams Center. A little before the novel's halfway point, Tempest Airlines Flight 13 accidentally crashes into Tower A. Tower A was next to his building and collapses from the damage caused by the aircraft.

From the halfway point onward, the story follows Hernandez as he begins to leave his 77th floor office in Tower B when Tempest Airlines Fight 13 hit Tower A. He ultimately returns after being informed by security personnel that Tower B was secure and that employees should go back to their desks. He was hurriedly composing a letter to his granddaughter Rachel back in his office when he glanced out the south side of the building and saw another plane, Oceanic Airlines Flight 249, en route to collide with his office building. As the plane drew nearer, he began to run for cover, and just as it was about to crash through his office, he dove under a coworker's desk at the last minute.

With the aid of his flashlight and the sound of Hernandez's calls for assistance, an employee from the 75th floor called David William eventually finds him. As William was making his way to Hernandez, he noticed that his coworkers had chosen to rather take the steps up rather than down. They had been killed as a result of this decision to go up the stairs, with the exception of David William and Darrel Francesco, who both changed their minds.

In the chapter that followed, the two men then proceeded down the stairs, which Hernandez thought was blocked farther down. Although there was some debris in their path, the two men were able to go around it as they left the building. The two eventually entered the outside world and traveled only four blocks from the tower before stopping and turning to face the skyscraper they had just left. The fire department had arrived to put out the succeeding inferno after fires spread to the upper and lower floors. Additionally, police were on hand to aid people in leaving the site. Hernandez was skeptical about it collapsing, but they started to run as the skyscraper started to give way from the fires.

They rushed north as the tsunami of debris from the crumbling structure caught up to them and boarded a bus to escape. Hernandez later went to the hospital for his wounds while William drove back to his home in New Palestine. Hernandez calls William to find out what had transpired later that night when he had finally returned home from the hospital.

2007 revision
In September 1994, Roger Hernandez, a disgraced former software engineer, is working at a computer in his office. He was fired from his previous position as a software engineer following a hacking scandal, and he currently works as an employee at the Williams Center. A little before the novel's halfway point, Hernandez was hurriedly typing a letter to his granddaughter Rachel back in his office when he saw the windows on his floor starting to crack. Meanwhile on the floor above, a computer starts to catch on fire while a malfunctioning typewriter jams and starts to smoke before also becoming engulfed in flames and exploding. The fire in turn engulfs the floors surrounding it, the blast exploding the windows. As his office started collapsing around him from the initial blast, Hernandez screamed and then dove under a coworker's desk.

After the smoke temporarily clears, He is later found and rescued by an employee from the 75th floor called David William. As William was making his way to Hernandez, he noticed that his coworkers had chosen to rather take the steps up rather than down. Some of the coworkers consequently burned to death as a result of the decision to go up the stairs with only several exceptions, most notable being of David William and Darrel Francesco, who changed their minds. However only David would survive alongside Roger Hernandez.

In the subsequent chapter, the two men continued to descend the stairs, which Hernandez initially believed to be barred further down. The two men were able to maneuver around some rubble in their way out of the building as they continued their descent. After leaving the building, the two went only four blocks away from the tower before coming to a stop and facing the building they had just left. After fires spread to the upper and lower floors, the fire department was called to put out the ensuing conflagration. Police were also present to assist people in leaving the area. Hernandez was initially dubious about it collapsing, but as the skyscraper began to give way from the fires, they began to flee.

They boarded a bus and fled northward as the tsunami of rubble from the collapsing structures caught up to them. While William drove back to his house in New Palestine, Hernandez later went to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. Later that evening, when William had finally arrived home from the hospital, Hernandez calls him to ask what had happened in the morning at work and what went wrong.

In a brief final chapter covering the history of the buildings, the flaws of the complex were uncovered. This chapter revealed that the Williams Center buildings affected by the planes were built almost similarly to those of the World Trade Center's; The towers were also designed as framed tube structures, with closely spaced perimeter columns providing part of the strength to the structure, but also had an incorrect application of a technique called "flat slab construction". Worse still, the structural systems had already failed due to excessive heat and that there were a limited number of steel reinforcement bars embedded into the concrete supports, which gave the buildings only half their needed strength, yet they were still able to stand without any signs of collapse unless the metal supports were weakened by high temperature.

Similarities to the World Trade Center's collapse
Although the novel was written before the 9/11 attacks even occurred, there are some uncanny similarities between the fictional and real-life versions. Like the real-life World Trade Center on 9/11, the fictional buildings were struck by aircraft and fell during a morning in September. The protagonist was also frequently compared to Stanley Praimnath because the experiences for both were very similar.

Also, some people credited John Spielberg's story with precognition and clairvoyance in the years following the 9/11 attacks, however he later dismissed claims of his foreknowledge of 9/11 coincidental, instead claiming that the actual similarities were all because inspiration of the story came from the 1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash, stories involving Kamikaze pilots, and the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store.

He also stated the construction techniques of the Williams Center buildings seemed to be a combination of both techniques used in the World Trade Center and the Sampoong Department Store. This is further backed up by a footnote on the very last page at the end of the 2007 reissue. John Spielberg also attributed the similarities to the fact that protagonist Roger Hernandez was just above the impact of Tower B and that the uncanny similarities to Stanley Praimnath's story were pure coincidence.

Explanation of the Williams Center's Collapse
The structural system of the Williams Center complex is briefly discussed in a footnote at the end of the 2007 reissue. This was initially denied by John Steinberg because, when he first drafted the story, he neglected to take structural systems into account and instead based the collapse of Office Tower B on the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in South Korea. However, Steinberg later acknowledged he later went into the technical aspects of what lead to progressive collapse of the office building and thus wrote an essay that went into further detail of the collapse. According to said essay by John Steinberg, the gas explosion as depicted in the 2007 revision of the novella had badly damaged the fireproofing from the surrounding floors and partially damaged the weakly reinforced concrete external walls, which is why the glass on Hernandez's floor fractured. As the fire quickly spread throughout the affected area on the floor above and heated up the exposed structural steel, the blast also blew out the windows on that floor, partly taking the glass from the lower floors. Conversely in the original edition, the impacts from the planes also removed fireproofing from a large part of the impact zone.

Hypothetical Structural System
According to said essay by John Steinberg, the buildings in the novella were stated to be partially clad glass buildings with closely spaced perimeter columns providing some of the structure's strength, but its also stated that a substandard concrete mix of cement and sea water and poorly-reinforced concrete was used for the ceilings and outer walls. The fictitious buildings were also built with incorrect application of a technique called "flat slab construction" and thus had concrete columns that had a reduced diameter. Worse still, only a small number of steel reinforcement bars were embedded into the concrete supports, giving the buildings only half the strength they required. Despite this, the buildings were still able to stand without showing any signs of collapsing unless the metal supports were weakened by high temperatures.

In popular culture

 * The 2011 novel 9/11 Before It Was Real connects the writing of The Williams Center Incident to 9/11 through time travel.
 * The 2017 animated film A Fracture in Life begins with a summary of Steinberg's novel with additional writing to connect it to the events of Oskar Schell following the 9/11 attacks. This kind of makes sense considering that the film is a spiritual sequel to the 2011 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which was in turn based on the 2005 novel written by Jonathan Safran Foer.
 * The 2020 Doctor Who fanfiction Gone by The Towers partially parodies the 2007 iteration, with the source of the explosion being a female worker who is actually a masquerading time lord known as the Tinkerer who somehow experienced an explosive regeneration. The intense regeneration is said to have damaged the fireproofing and melted the structural support beams of the towers, and caused the collapse.
 * Winston Harris' 2023 novella Munitions, especially relating the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War and impeachment of Donald Trump, also begins with a summary of Steinberg's novel.