The Design Flaw That Almost Wiped Out an NYC Skyscraper

[Pardus]

April 17 2014 12:39 PM
By Joel Werner and 99% Invisible

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/...at_could_have_wip ed_out_the_skyscraper.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/citicorp.html

How Manhattan escaped tragedy
Part 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZhgTewKhTQ#t=84
Part 2/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fUwgH0gOWo
Part 3/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBjyB8EY2m4

The story in The New Yorker in 1995.
http://www.science.smith.edu/~jcardell/Courses/EGR100/protect/reading/59StoryCrisis.pdf

The Citygroup Center in Manhattan, New York, formerly known as the Citycorp Center, had a fatal flaw which could have led to a major disaster, killing tens of thousands of people...

In 1978, the skyscraper's chief structural engineer, William LeMessurier, discovered a potentially fatal flaw in the building's design: the skyscraper's bolted joints were too weak to withstand 70-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

Fast Facts:

The Citicorp crisis of 1978 was hidden from the public for almost 20 years.
The 30-page document outlining the structural mistakes in the Citicorp building was called "Project SERENE." The acronym stands for "Special Engineering Review of Events Nobody Envisioned."
Six weeks into Citicorp's repair, a major storm, Hurricane Ella, was off Cape Hatteras and heading for New York. With only half the repairs finished, New York City was hours away from emergency evacuation. Luckily, Ella turned eastward and veered out to sea.
Citicorp Center was the first skyscraper in the United States to contain a tuned mass damper, a pendulum-like device that reduces the sway in tall buildings caused by the wind.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

Was this on Engineering Disasters on the History Channel several years ago? I remember seeing something similar (if it wasnt this one) where a graduate student actually discovered the flaw in the drawings.

 

[lupi]

Was it the n?

 

[JulesMaximus]

That is a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

 

[Drako]

Was this on Engineering Disasters on the History Channel several years ago? I remember seeing something similar (if it wasnt this one) where a graduate student actually discovered the flaw in the drawings.

Yes, I remember seeing that. Amazing that they got fixes done before the big storm hit.

 

[Shlong]

I remember watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewy1jA8Wuk8 around 5 years ago.

 

[waggy]

wow..

 

[vshah]

great story

 

[phreaqe]

That is an incredible story. I had never heard anything about it, but read the whole new Yorker story. Thanks for posting that.

I know it was built a long time ago, but it still seems that 175 million for a building that big is a very low cost. I would have thought it would be way higher then that. And the repair cost also seems low, I would have thought with all the drywall and carpentry work being done off hours it would cost way more then 1-2 million.

 

[rsutoratosu]

I used to be in that building on the 53rd floor, pricy building to be in..

we walk down x number of stairs when that yankee pitcher flew into an apt building a few years back. They thought it was another terrorist attack.. took forever to get down

 

[K1052]

Also known as "why engineers and contractors should actually talk to each other".

 

[Markbnj]

The coolest thing about it, imo, was that the original architect initially blew off the grad student, then questioned his own vehemence and looked into it, discovered the flaw, and went as far as considering suicide before bringing it to the attention of Citi execs. His reputation survived and if anything was enhanced. The second coolest thing is that Citi was so impressed and glad that he came forward that they picked up $6m of the $8m cost and just asked him to pay what his insurance covered.

 

[Rakehellion]

It was Bush's fault.

 

[NoTine42]

That is an incredible story. I had never heard anything about it, but read the whole new Yorker story. Thanks for posting that.

I know it was built a long time ago, but it still seems that 175 million for a building that big is a very low cost. I would have thought it would be way higher then that. And the repair cost also seems low, I would have thought with all the drywall and carpentry work being done off hours it would cost way more then 1-2 million.

Construction used to be much cheaper. When it was completed in 1973, the worlds tallest building, Sears Tower (now Willis tower) in Chicago "only" cost ~$150 million. (Per Wikipedia)
We are now just used to seeing costs like Jerry Jones spending $1billion on a football stadium.

 

[phreaqe]

Construction used to be much cheaper. When it was completed in 1973, the worlds tallest building, Sears Tower (now Willis tower) in Chicago "only" cost ~$150 million. (Per Wikipedia)
We are now just used to seeing costs like Jerry Jones spending $1billion on a football stadium.

I think that's just it. I know it used to be cheaper, but it just seems that a building like that should cost more then a stadium even though it was built 40 years ago.

Although, I just used an inflation calculator and I guess I was WAY underestimating inflation. 175mil back in '73 is somewhere in the neighborhood of 930mil today. In that perspective, I guess its not that cheap.

 

[Imp]

Reminder of why I want to get the hell out of the field... Some of the stuff is just a crapshoot.

 

[Markbnj]

Reminder of why I want to get the hell out of the field... Some of the stuff is just a crapshoot.

And I know in some famous cases, such as the collapse of those hotel skyways in Kansas City years ago, the architect/engineer ends up taking the fall for changes made on the fly by the contractor.

 

[Imp]

And I know in some famous cases, such as the collapse of those hotel skyways in Kansas City years ago, the architect/engineer ends up taking the fall for changes made on the fly by the contractor.

Engineer's usually the architect's bitch.

The job requires stressing out over stupid design details that take forever to compile, factoring in the likelihood that the people building it won't follow it, and then trying to be on site to make sure the people building it haven't completely screwed it up. All the while, you make barely around 6-figures at the top end and if anything fails, you will be sued and people may die.

Reward vs. Risk != Compute