This Skyscraper Almost Destroyed the NYC Skyline!

[FrancisR]

"Endangered the lives of 200, 000 people, luckily, there was a press strike so no one reported on it"
Damn That was almost a disaster for their quarterly revenue

[creech]

Apparently one of the problems was the architect had specified certain fasteners on all the beams, these allowed the building to wobble in the wind, the contractor changed them out without consulting the architect, to a more standard, sturdier fasterner, but it would cause the building to "snap." Some people did actually figure it out while the building was being repaired. There were so many welding teams working on the building, from the outside that the welding torches traced out the structure of the building., tipping people that there was a structural issue. Also people wondered why there were NO welding crews available in three states. They also had big crews for sheet-rocking and painting. They would go in after people left their offices, ripping out the walls, welding the beams, then putting up new sheetrock and repainting, so people wouldn't realize there was work going on.

[RIZEREN]

“An architects dream is an engineers nightmare” words to live by lol

[shibno]

*Builds a building that looks unstable so it looks cool
*It’s actually unstable

[hiyukelavie]

Some blame the architect, some blame the contractor

But none of this would have happened if they didn't make that strange real estate deal in the first place

[Oisin]

It wasn't a design flaw, but a flaw with the standards. The wind code at the time only required winds at the cardinal directions to be checked. This is an important point as it's a key reason why the building owner couldn't sue LeMessurier for negligence.

It didn't have a 1/16th risk of collapsing. It had a risk of the steel connections exceeding their design capacity in a 1 in 16 year wind event. This design capacity has a number of material and load safety factors built in, so even if a 1 in 16 year wind event happened the building would probably be fine. The code required the building to resist a 1 in 50 year wind event which was the issue.

You also left out some other key points such as mentioning Diane Hartley who was the student who raised the question to LeMessurier. It's disappointing that you left her name out of the facts but still found space to mention the architect who played a relatively minor role in the story.

I'd recommend reading the original New Yorker article as well as the paper by Eugene Kremer on the topic to gain a better understanding. It's disappointing that people will watch your video and not grasp the facts of the case incorrectly.

(Edit:Typo)

[HowardSkub]

“Luckily there was no press to warn people of their impending doom” lmao

[virgilio]

Church on the corner.
Architect: Lets build the entire skyscraper on stilts onstead of just the side that has the church on the corner...

[apretarded]

It wasn’t some random student crying, I don’t know the name but they ended up being a talented architect, they calculated the structural issues of the building alone and came up with the plan to fix them while still studying.

[Barrybecker]

The actual name was “Citicorp Center”. I worked there 1987-90 on the 27th floor. So glad I’m only hearing about this now!

[eraldway]

It wasn’t a design flaw. More like a construction flaw. This building was designed with a chevron system and each chevron was in multiple pieces and was suppose to be welded on site. In order make construction easier these were bolted instead. This was overlooked and the building was built with bolts. The repair include them adding steel plate snifters that were welded at each bolted connection.

[aeronaut]

Looks like someone built a giant popsicle made out of glasses entirely as a skyscraper. 💀

[qc]

I would say it's lucky the structural engineer took that phone call and listened to what a student had to say

[gonzalotapia]

There is a happy ending because rare thing 2 happened. A student wasn't afraid to question her teacher, and the teacher was humble enough to accept that he was wrong.

[twentysecondcenturywoman]

My god we need more traditional architecture. Please bring back art deco New York 😭

[ragemodegaming]

Engineers: function
Architects: form

Function over Form!

[neilperry]

It was a architecture major who worked out the fault with the building.

[mino]

Also known as the building shown in nearly every “Suits” transition clip of the New York skyline

[reaper]

I can think of something worse that happened with towers in New York

[Vince_]

It already ruined the skyline by its ugliness 😭