Shortly after September 11, 2001, Arup, an international engineering firm, established an extreme events mitigation task force to study the potential impact of extreme events on current and future buildings. New concerns regarding fire resistance, building systems, evacuation, structural robustness, and fire fighter access were expressed by Arup's global client base. This presentation reviews the findings of Arup's ongoing study, and addresses issues ranging from building regulations to new concerns regarding building safety, to changing risk perceptions of building occupants.