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After the 1995 destruction of Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building, the U. S. General Services Administration addressed security in all federal buildings, especially against truck bombs and other blasts and flying glass shards. Landscaping techniques incorporating street furniture and plantings can improve standoff conditions, if land is available. Sometimes the cost of improving blast resistance performance can be unrealistically expensive. At government complexes, police stations, historic buildings and other violent threat-prone venues, blast windows provide building occupants with high-level protection.

Open architecture does not have to be sacrificed in this age of security jitters. So said experts during a recent conference in Chicago, Illinois, called "Transparency: the Art and Science in Building Design," sponsored by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago. Terry Palmer, a principal of structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Seattle, Washington, cautioned attendees of the April 15-16, 2004, conference not to blow the subject of blast resistance out of proportion. He presented a concept for cable-supported glass walls outfitted with friction, viscous or yielding dampers to absorb blast pressure.

Presents information on a project at Liverpool University in England, which was designed to measure the effect of explosions on structures. Reason for attributing to the establishment of the project; Reference to a pressure pulse loading rig; Aims of the test rig; Features of the rig.