TERROR IN OKLAHOMA CITY : Architect Hopes for Building’s Rebirth

James Loftis is hoping to rescue another victim of the Oklahoma City bomb blast--the building.

The man who designed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building said he would like to see it rebuilt. “I think we can do it as an act of defiance to evil,” he said Sunday.

Ironically, when Loftis designed the downtown office building during the anti-war protests of the 1970s, he was ordered to make it bomb-resistant, but not bomb-proof. Bomb-proof buildings, while possible, are impractical and their costs prohibitive, he said.

Now, he finds his pride and joy the site of the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil, its nine stories of concrete and steel ripped apart.

“That building is somewhat of a child to me,” the 53-year-old architect said in an interview.

When he first heard the explosion Wednesday, Loftis was a mile and a half away.

“I saw the mushroom cloud and then I saw a fire,” he said. “I thought an airplane had flown into the building.”

He rushed to the scene, offering to guide rescuers through the structure. He said he assured rescuers that the stairwells were solid and could be used. In fact, he said, the elevator shafts and fire stairs are sturdy enough to be restored and used again.

“I looked up in the debris on the second level of the building and it took me three times to realize there was a body there,” he said. “It was so disorienting. Bodies began to look like debris. In many ways, they were.”

Loftis speculated that the truck bomb exploded from a parking space on the street.

“There were a lot of people in buildings that weren’t nearly as bomb-resistant as our building who were injured or killed,” he said.

He said he saw an axle and a bumper from the rental truck believed to have carried the bomb resting hundreds of feet away from the building. “They were circled with orange paint, and (federal agents) said that was evidence and not to mess with that stuff.”

He said damage to the building might have been less devastating had the blast occurred near the middle of the structure.

“The building would have absorbed the shock better if it were 40 to 50 feet closer to the center,” he said. “It would have allowed the strength of the building to resist equally.”

“I would like to think the building saved a lot of lives,” he said.

The building, named after a local judge, was cited in 1983 as one of the 10 best buildings in the state by the architects of Oklahoma.

Rep. Ernest Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), estimated that it would cost at least $28 million to replace the building. President Clinton’s chief of staff, Leon E. Panetta, said Clinton would approve the rebuilding.

Loftis said he knows that many people want to level the site and start fresh, so the community won’t be reminded of the tragedy.

“I think it’s one of the things that our community has been proud of and can continue to be proud of,” he said. “I think we can build that building back and tell people that we will not be cowered by their cowardice.” He said that a memorial could be erected on the plaza.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.