Current Program Needs:  The United Nations (UN) headquarters is currently housed in New York City.  This facility accommodates almost all UN activities, functions, and meetings.  Problems associated with the current facility include: 1) security concerns for the UN, as it is solely housed at this single location, 2) security concerns for New York City, as the UN is easily accessible (as proven by 9/11) with limited military protection, 3) it does not promote a sense of espirt décor by providing various countries the ability to ‘host’ the UN delegates, and 4) it is often remote from the areas of concern.

Silo History Brief:  The Strategic Missile Command System was designed, constructed, and commissioned under the Eisenhower Administration as part of a national defense program.  The Titan II weapon system was first activated in 1962. As a result of arms and nuclear reduction treaties, the Titan II weapon system was deactivated in the mid 80's.  All but two Titan II sites have been dismantled.  Site #571-7 in Green Valley Arizona, just south of Tucson, and another located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California are all that remain in the continental US.  Other sites exist in Turkey, Germany, and Russia.

UN History Brief:  The UN was assembled in 1945 as a delegation of nations for peacekeeping purposes.  It was devised to provide a forum for dialogue between allied nations with a primary operative to guard against mass human injustice.   While the UN has many humanitarian functions, its primary genesis was a reaction to the construction and accumulation of nuclear weapons by multiple national powers that directly proceeded WWII.  

Current Silo Status:  The United States currently has four viable silos to be utilized.  Only one, however, is needed for each county.  While the United States Government originally owned each silo facility, many have either been sold by the government to private enterprises or have been destroyed.  Each silo that remains is currently monitored by the Russian government via satellite.  Public money is no longer spent on operational or maintenance efforts.

Proposed Site:  Abandoned Titan II B-5 Missile Silo #8, location #571-7, 390th Strategic Missile Wing, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.  Originally constructed from February 2, 1961 to October 25, 1962.  Currently adjacent to and monitored by Davis-Monthan AFB (active) and serviced by military air fields. 

Program:  Provide full facilities for a remote UN Security Council to include Assembly Chamber, Conference Center, Food Service, Council Meeting Rooms, and Research Library into an existing Titan II B-5 Missile Silo.  UN guest and council members housing is to be from the remote Davis-Monthan AFB with secured travel to and from the facilities provided by military escort.  The prototype design is to be executed at various abandoned missile locations in US, England, Italy, Germany, USSR, and Turkey.  Each silo is relatively consistent in construction and organization.

Abstract:  The Titan II Missile Silo Complex serves as a commemorative symbol of both the failure of Cold War diplomacy and our fear of technology.  Being both personal and social, this fear characterizes the modern psyche of post-industrial man.  As an object the Silo carries with it the remembrance of a time and place when fears of global destruction hinged on minute-by-minute negotiations between Super Power Nations.  Today this fear remains as nuclear weapons of mass destruction become common to even Third World Nations.  As a symbol of this fear, the Titan II Missile Silo provides a supportive forum to investigate the notions of memory and reference in commemorative architecture.  Conversely, it represents architectures ability to facilitate a corrective processes by using an existing memory and place as a programmatic element.   

Therefore, the proposal for the re-inhabitation of the Titan II missile silo is, fundamentally, to maintain its role of being a “deterrent” to the possible catastrophe that a nuclear confrontation would bring if undertaken at any scale.  However, in times such as these, it is diplomacy that seems to be the greatest weapon in our arsenal.  If, as a superpower, our leaders are not involved in the diplomatic process necessary to solve regional conflicts before they blow-up into international incidents, this nation’s status as such is surely endangered.  The site of the missile silo could also provide the necessary neutrality for diplomatic actions to succeed.  One of the problems with the siting of the UN within the context of Manhattan is that, though in theory, it is neutral ground, in reality, it seems that the U.S. holds undue influence there.  As recent events have unfortunately proven, Manhattan also serves as a symbol of American “Manifest Destiny”, a policy which itself seems to exude American doctrine of undue influence and, as some would claim, innocent aggressive progression.  In the middle of the countryside, where these silos were located, this perceptual impact would be lessened.  Further, given that in the modern terrorist’s quest for publicity and sensationalism, negotiations like the ones that would take place in this renewed institution, could, and more then likely, would become much less coveted targets.  Hence, the deterrent aspect would also contain a protective element.  It would send a message that the world community had begun to come together and that the protection of each member was paramount.  If the endeavor to achieve world peace is to be successful, every nation must have its voice, and the arena for this must be protected from all forms of extortion.

     The Titan II Missile Silo Project is emblematic of architecture’s potential to symbolically charge and insert meaning into an inert, outdated facility through the potential of adaptive reuse.  The proposal here is to symbolize that the lunacy of the Cold War and the lessons that were learned within this era can now serve as the foundation for an attempt to truly achieve a sense of applied reflection and informed honesty in diplomacy.  Through it’s aggressive yet poetically-made point that architecture can convey meaning and modify behavior, it acknowledges that communication is the ultimate tool that can achieve this state and that it is only within this context that true understanding can exist. It is ironic that the remains of one of the greatest destructive weapons that Mankind has ever produced, a device that in its time achieve its rather short-sighted goals of national security, be renewed to serve as a place where events can occur allowing the achievement of this goal in a more rationally evident manner.  Though the Titan II was an technologically sophisticated machine with a less than sophisticated goal, in its remnants a true acknowledgement of the potential of diplomacy could take place. Diplomacy is not as technologically advanced as the weapons of the Cold War, but it can none-the-less contain a greater potential for success.  As in epochs past, the architectural endeavor can again show its possibilities to create places that clarify and aspire to achieve even the loftiest of our ideals.