DAVENPORT COLLAPSE - FORENSIC INVESTIGATION - Part 1
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2023
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𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• Millennium Tower
𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• Champlain Towers South
𝙊𝙣 𝙋𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• On Point
𝙊𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙅𝙤𝙗 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• On the Job
𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• One on One
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As a local retired architect the first press conference sounded and smelled all wrong. I read an indifferent hardness by the city leaders. I did not hear an ownership of responsibility to those voting citizen survivors. I instantly read this rush to demolition as a desire to hide the facts which they were and are intimately aware of. I think an investigation will uncover collusion of city with the building owner, fraud and even bribery. They were not listening to the many opportunities to read the buildings imminent collapse. My heart breaks for these low income residents who weren’t shown the respect and santicity of life they deserved. And it will be uncovered and made public
One wonders if their response would have been different if the residents had been wealthy celebs....or city leaders' kids.
This is Champlain Towers again. The rich and the poor are both the victims of unscrupulous building owners, corrupt councils, and work done the cheapest way possible by people not qualified to build a dog kennel. Seeing the clothes still hanging in the wardrobe up on the 4th Floor is really sobering. It speaks to the humanity of the people who are trusting victims of unscrupulous owners. RIP.
@@alisonwilson9749 it would be the same. Champlain Towers being the case in point.
They definitely rushed order to demolish. They hadn't even cleared the building. Later that same day Ms. Lisa regained consciousness and was rescued. They next day they pulled animals out...they were going to demolish with living beings still inside.
The slumlord wilfully ignored the warnings of professional inspectors and contractors and now people are dead.
The contractor who took the pics several days before didn't take the job because Andrew Wold wouldn't spend the extra 50,000 it would have taken to shore up the building prior to working on it. Now it's going to cost exponentially more and will never make it right as 3 people are dead, one person had her leg amputated on site, and 50 people are displaced.
Seeing those pictures made this civil engineer say "holy shit" out loud... How did the city inspector not order an evacuation of the building?
Good question! I think you got a series of "authorities" who had no intuition for unreinforced structural masonry. That building style was used in ancient Rome (interior as well as exterior walls, of course, with wood beams). But, now a century has passed since we allowed/needed this style.
It's Iowa
The Fire Department was called the night before. How did they not notice the bubbles in the outer wall. The rule I was always taught with regard to evaluating a building as a Fire Officer was "When in doubt always assume the outer walls are load bearing walls and treat any distortions in them with concern if not alarm".
@@Helladamnleet the bland, complacent stereotype is confirmed.
@@jennyk2022 I think we will find out nobody thought that the brick masonry wall carried the load. the building design is not typical. Which brings to mind all of the modifications over the years to the windows and openings. If it's a facade, asthetic decisions are no big deal. So maybe all kinds of mods to that area of the building were authorized by permit in the past without realizing that changing the holes in the wall and inspecting the wall periodically would be necessary. Think of it like suspension bridges with cables. You can't just take a scissors and start cutting cables on the bridge expecting the loads to shift without consequence.
you should watch the interview with the local authorities who claimed something to the effect of "i don't think anyone can tell when a building will collapse". I was screaming at the TV. Yes, its called engineering! You certainly can if you know what you're looking at!
For sure. Video 2 of this series will make that clear... hopefully.
The whole story smells of corruption.
Well it proves that just using our public officials to guarantee building safety is not a good idea. Many of them have been in the position a long time and are coasting to retirement.
@@WindTurbineSyndromemore that people are greedy and can be bribed to ignore serious issues.
I'm not sure anyone can tell exactly when.
Of course, the question of "when" needs only be asked if the answer to "if" is a resounding YES
From an interview the warning contractor wanted to do the interior shoring work that the engineer had recommended that would have cost the building owner $50,000. The owner wanted him to drop that part out of the bid to save money. He refused.
That owner is about to get slapped with a massive lawsuit. And possible arrest.
@@TheEDFLegacy owner and contractor should absolutely be charged with negligent homicide.
It all truly depends on what was conveyed. If it were an immediate need of concern, the building would have been vacated. It really comes back to the engineer if he was fully aware at all points. He has a duty to protect life and property and if the situation warranted, he would have expressed do it now or else. Contractors try to upsell, it's not secret, the engineer makes mandatory requirements however.
@@platedlizard this wasn't negligence... this was intentional cutting corners. And intentional ignoring of issues over the last while.
@@mhamma6560 ~ That sounds about right, the engineer should have insisted on immediate safeguard action, telling the city of Davenport to revoke it's occupancy use if safeguards are not done.
From what I've seen of you on this RUclips channel, I've always been impressed with your character and the thoroughness of your work here. ✌🏾
Thank you. That means a lot!
Agreed 💯 %
@@BuildingIntegrity Regarding whether complete demolition is required, would depend on whether the other three elevations of the building are fanned out beyond the steel structure in a similar way and if so, the integrity of everything.
From reading some of the comments, I am wondering if a basement only exists below the collapsed area to house the boilers. It would explain a lot, since it is possible that building to full height above that area may have not been originally intended and only a single floor trade entrance and laundry room for the hotel considered. The alcove would have visually concealed a full height chimney stack.
If my hypothesis is true, the stack would have had deeper footings, accounting for differential settlement to the rest of the building which resulted in the collapsed area of the west wall breaking away. A basement plan would partly answer the question.
Taking the area to full height may have been part of the original build, but changed AFTER the original structural design. It certainly would not be the first time. These days, late addition of swimming pools is the major culprit.
PS.
My history is in the design and upkeep of major London theaters. Alterations to these buildings over the last 60 years have certainly caused some hair raising moments, particularly when circle seating areas that were unsupported across their entire front, were added, taken away, or moved. Fortunately leading structural engineers were always employed.
The stack is probably a common chimney for the multiple coal fired boilers in the basement. You can see the bricked up coal chute door in the alley. (The smaller bricked up sections were basement windows.) The steel drum shown may be a repair liner because the old masonry liner was failing inside the stack. The difference on the north building is that the south end of that north building is hung from the south (collapsed) buildings northern most beam.
Thanks for pointing that out. I thought it might be a garbage shoot
Stack = "Smoke Stack"?
I think you are correct. It would also make sense that the servant's quarters were built around this feature as well. Perhaps the retrofit more modern round structure was a boiler, tying into the old chimney for exhaust, and probably where all the old coal fired heating junctions were.
Good point. And the coal chute I recall seeing in old homes in Michigan long ago.
It may even have been a furnace for burning garbage. That is something many old buildings did. Garbage was burned to reduce bulk and the ash and debris would periodically get hauled out for disposal.
made in 1906, i would not be surprized to find out that it's called "stack" because it was and actual 100'+ smokestack hooked to the boilers and generators. looks about the right size. probably got amputated and had the space reclaimed on all but the first floor where it was a utility space to begin with. Actually, that would make a ton of sense with servants quarters around it, since it would be sweltering around that thing year round to provide electricity and hot water. It's probably only internal because the building was built right to the property line. It's also located at the rear right where the boiler room would have been. they would have regular coal deliveries so having them as close to the outside of the building is ideal unless you are sub-grade, then there's other methods of layout
15:40 the connections would be riveted, not welded. welding was not a popular means of structural connection in 1906. It wouldn't be until post WW2 that it became trusted enough
Bingo. Smokestack. We have to remember how buildings were heated in 1909. Wasn't with electricity. Boilers in the basement.
@@oldskolacura9798 Doesn't seem like that was a good design in the first place either. 😞
@@oldskolacura9798 for the most part stacks are independent because the wind load and expansion contraction make them unreliable. Notice it shoots the gap between the iron
This is a copy of my reply on another thread.
Regarding whether complete demolition is required, would depend on whether the other three elevations of the building are fanned out beyond the steel structure in a similar way and if so, the integrity of everything.
From reading some of the comments, I am wondering if a basement only exists below the collapsed area to house the boilers. It would explain a lot, since it is possible that building to full height above that area may have not been originally intended and only a single floor trade entrance and laundry room for the hotel considered. The alcove would have visually concealed a full height chimney stack.
If my hypothesis is true, the stack would have had deeper footings, accounting for differential settlement to the rest of the building which resulted in the collapsed area of the west wall breaking away. A basement plan would partly answer the question.
Taking the area to full height may have been part of the original build, but changed AFTER the original structural design. It certainly would not be the first time. These days, late addition of swimming pools is the major culprit.
PS.
My history is in the design and upkeep of major London theaters. Alterations to these buildings over the last 60 years have certainly caused some hair raising moments, particularly when circle seating areas that were unsupported across their entire front, were added, taken away, or moved. Fortunately leading structural engineers were always employed.
In this case, subsequent demolition of the stack may hold the key to the weakening of the structure.
@@seldoon_nemarhe might be mistaking the stack for a chimney, IIRC chimneys are structural as the buildings are built around them and/or attached directly to them rather than occupying a space within them as the stack would be
So glad you’re covering this. 🙏🏻 I like how you explain things.
Another thing that may be interesting: there is an extended video ("NEST camera footage shows minutes before Davenport building collapsed") that shows the previous few minutes, and the 'supports' that were added by the contractor were bowing slowly over time. It's almost imperceptible in realtime, but fairly obvious when you flip between the start of the video and immediately before the first piece of facade falling.
Yep
I'm not any kind of structural engineer. But I wonder how anybody thought that those thin metal rods could provide any structural support at all.
@@PicardoFamily11 They didn't. But the engineer's plans specified (heavy) supports, so they needed to put something there that to the casual observer looked like they followed those plans.
@@PicardoFamily11 I'm assuming they were meant for the outer lining of bricks that should just "look good". Still very shady ...
@@HenryLoenwind not even the most casual observers would think that. it was mentioned in the video that the supports (poorly designed as they are) were there to keep the rest of the facade from falling off the building while they do their structural hotfix
I'm very confused as to why a building in this condition was not immediately evacuated. The contractor and building owner are clearly liable, but what on earth was building control doing?
One of many questions people have. We need a thorough investigation to find out what went wrong, from the building to the chain of authority
The person who okayed it has resigned. They claim it was a computer error and they didn't intend to okay it.
I'm not saying this to defend them, just to let you know the city's claim.
I get the impression the contractor did not understand that portions of the west facade (the brick "columns") were load bearing. I wonder if the contractor even looked at the original design drawings?
On the permit from the city the contractor is listed as "owner" for the last permit issued. So take that for what you will
@@alexwyler4570 But the city didn't condemn it though..
Civil engineering was the career I wanted to pursue when I was a child, as I was fascinated by the architectural blueprints that my father used to bring home as part of his work in the building trade. My father always said that architects were the people that came up the vision for a building, while civil engineers were the people that made that vision happen. Watching your videos brings back all the memories of reading books about this, which is enormously satisfying as I actually ended up as a "software engineer" instead!
My first Love being an architect. Until I struggled with math which I loved. On my way to being a data engineer from BI.
I used to watch my daddy bring home beer n whiskey and when I grew up I wanted to be able to drink just as much as he did/could and let me tell you after lots and lots of practice I did in fact become just as good if not even a little better. yes sir. 65 and really have nothing to show for my life but man oh man could I put away that beer n whiskey just like daddy did - hope you enjoyed my story LOL
Exactly my career path.
💲💲💲.
@@Meganomaly3 😯😀🤩
In Toronto Canada a lot of the older buildings are constructed this way. Thanks for showing how the loads and forces are distributed through the structure so we can look for early signs of possible failure.
make sure only union-qualified journeymen fix them. Hard work is not enough. Knowledge and technique matter.
Alex Wyler, I appreciate your comment, especially regarding the Union.
@@alexwyler4570 I would point out that there are equally skilled people who choose not to be in unions.
Especially with unions becoming excessively political, some skilled workers choose not to be a part of them.
@@matthewmosier8439 When it comes to highly technical labour like this, how else do you guarantee workmanship? There's no other licensing body afaik and word-of-mouth alone won't cut it since the general public don't have the skills to even know what's good work here or not.
@@tomfeng5645 Independent groups. Basically, groups of contractors/ inspectors who's business is quality control.
Freedom requires some degree of responsibility and people need to stop trusting regulatory bodies, unconditionally.
As we can now see with the justice system in the U.S., blind trust in agencies invites corruption and politization.
The fact that the cirty wanted to demolish the building one day after the collapse, with people still in the building, is absolutely insane.... Especially now that you've pointed out that the remainder of the building might be structurally sound.
That screams to me that they wanted a cover-up.
@@Dallas_K Yeah my immediate thought was they had an instinctive CYA moment. Much harder to blame incompetence all around when you can't investigate the area.
I doubt the rest of the building is structurally sound. It seems the entire building has been twisting and turning for several years to compensate for the shifting loads. I would suspect cracks all over the place even hidden under "sound" non bearing facade. Thrre's been numerous gas leaks and water leaks going on for years, who knows how many leaks has slowly been desolving that masonry in unseen places?
@@Dallas_K nonsense
@@oldskolacura9798 I pretty impressed how quickly they have been able to demo it. I expected a mountain of debris but I haven't seen them haul anything away. Think how awful it is for the residents to have to leave everything you own behind especially old family photos, jewelry, personal papers. Things you can't replace.
This building's issues had garnered a lot of interest several weeks before the collapse. The common question/remark was WTF?
Agree 👍
I used to do a lot of urban exploration and I wouldnt have set foot in an abandoned structure with a wall that looked like that. Even if it was just the façade. And I was a foolhardy youth at the time.
I been following your channel since the Champlain towers south collapsed. I am intrigued by your description and analysis of the building collapses. You have helped me better understand what Is going on in a building and how the integrity of the building structure and the failure of the buildings. Both through the design, weather conditions, materials and possible poor maintenance as many of factors working in the buildings. Thanks for making it interesting and easier to grasp. Looking forward to your next video on this investigation.
Well stated. I too 'tuned in' during the Champlain towers south collapse. I am always looking for a good YT channel with knowledgeable individuals who know their technical field, as I know mine.
Excellent discussion from a local retired architect
Thanks!
@@BuildingIntegrity _Building Integrity for Engineering Czar!_
I think MORE Investigation is needed BEFORE they demolish if needed. I live your indepth videos. Thank you again.
Fr! Take it as a case study.
Good idea. If it's not going to collapse soon, now is the time to study it. The rest of the building seems to be holding its own.
But but but, demolition will insure that evidence goes away for good. As my dad taught us around 50 years ago during Watergate, it is never the crime, and always the coverup. Some people, mostly politicians, are incapable of ever coming clean on anything.
I normally don’t like paid promotions but I like the fact you put it on the end. I watched it for you!
I appreciated that, too.
You have a very good approach for the general public. With a degree in civil engr I'm seeing many of the issues quickly that you then point out. Thanks for all of these sorts of videos that you have done over the past few years, greatly appreciated. It's always a good day when we learn something. 🙂
"nitty gritty details" == the GOOD STUFF 😁👍
Hopefully you have managed to find a picture of what exactly the winning contractor did as I don't see any evidence of support beams that would have had to have been installed first, before they did their work. My thoughts are that it would have been very risky to removed any support beams for the facia or the main structural brick work.
Thanks for watching and the kind comment.
It would seem obviously necessary (at minimum) to strongly restrain the bricks in the wall. I've seen some images from the engineer's repair design that showed sheets of plywood supported by timber. Not sure that would be close to enough to hold the wall, but they didn't even do that. When combined with the design's interior cribbing to support the beams it seems more like what makes intuitive sense. Be interesting to see if the investigation determines that the cribbing & plywood would have prevented this.
I think you're right about holding off on imploding the building:
• Giving the less-damaged units a few days to evacuate will decrease actual losses (including irreplaceable items-which people like to pretend don't exist; getting a birth certificate replaced without an ID is EXTREMELY difficult) and therefore insurance claims as well as secondary fallout
• Leaving it up a little longer gives engineers a chance to do some data gathering
As for that construction method, we likely still have a shitload of those in New England. They just went and replaced wooden beams & columns in the designs with steel ones-sometimes actually retrofitting existing buildings. I tend to think of it as "balloon construction, brick edition".
The description I saw from another engineer was the building had started deteriorating due to water affecting the interior brick structure causing it to slowly crumble and drop into the void between the structure and the facade causing the facade to bow outwards.. The first repairs to the interior brick structure wasn't properly reinforced, the beams ignored, and the water issue wasn't resolved and instead was accelerated. The only thing done was to remove the brick that had gathered in the void and repair/paint the facade. The water and the deterioration accelerated and a new report was done. The owner refused the guy who stuck around afterwards quote as he wanted to reinforce the beams and the interior brick structure before carrying out the work. The ones who were hired didn't do that causing the collapse due to the removal of brick that was structural without adequate support to hold it and the beams up. Basically lots of cost cutting and hiring of workman who didn't understand/read the engineers report.
I've been in the construction field for years and will admit that BEFORE knowing that the masonry in the West wall was supposed to be structural, I would have likely been less concerned about a full collapse and rsther would have just assumed that the facade was going to fall off (still a dangerous scenario)
After hearing that the steel did not continue and only sat in pockets in the masonry, I would have immediately determined that a collapse was likely.
I'm pretty sure few men who inspected the building actually dug into enough detail to realize that the building used the outdated method of bricks for the structure of a load bearing wall
Ever since this collapse, I've been waiting for this video. It's like I tell my friends, you don't have an ax to grind; you just explain how things fall down.
Now I'm really hooked to see what modifications they made to this building. How could they so shift the forces throughout it. None of those pictures looked healthy. Also if you have large swaths of façade coming off a building in distinct paterns like that, your problem isn't the facade. It's the supporting structure behind it. Which should be a danger sign.
Arg! You've given us a cliffhanger! When will Part 2 be out?
IMO they need to delay any demolition until a full investigation has happened. I'm always leery when decisions are made to rush a demolition,, cremation, or otherwise make taking a second look at the evidence impossible.
Wasn't there something that happened in New York in early 2000's where they did that? Got rid of the rubble quick smart. Sure it will come to me...
They found a woman "peeking" out of the blinds of a window on the 3rd floor HOURS b4 the scheduled demolition. She pushed out the screen and yelled "I'm alive, I was waiting for help that never came".....it was truly frightening to know that the neighbors kept saying don't stop searching for 3 ppl missing and the officials ignored ALL of them. They were setting the explosives to demolish the building and they were only an hour away from doing it, when the woman was found in the building ALIVE and waiting for help to save her. Just unimaginable.
You did hear that she was NOT inside when it collapsed? She snuck in later to hide because she had multiple warrants out for her. She loses the hide and go seek game.
I was just wondering if you would cover this incident and a minute later this video popped up!
Hope you enjoy and learn something. The news outlets are generally following a lot of false leads... hopefully with this series I can focus the attention on the primary causal factors.
I definitely enjoyed this video and can’t wait for the follow up. I found your channel after the Surfside collapse and have been very impressed with your ability to break down the story to factual details. Sad topics, but the way you cover this material is great from an engineering perspective.
I've been in construction since 1972 and have always done very high quality work. Watching your videos inspires me to do even better. Thank you so much for all of your hard work in producing these videos.
While I currently work more as an industrial engineer/product design my degree is in civil engineering. I have watched several people's versions of this video and have been more or less frustrated feeling like everyone kinda totally missed key aspects relating to age and construction methods of that era. This is the only one that matches up to my experience and interpretation of the issues and events. For whatever that is worth...🤷♂️
Thank you for that. I try not to rush out the videos to be "first" but really try to understand everything so we can all figure this thing out together. This sometimes takes longer than I like, especially with my IRL obligations.
@@BuildingIntegrity I appreciate you taking your time to get things right. I knew when i saw the news that it was worth the wait to see your analysis of the collapse.
@@BuildingIntegrity Your videos all show the care you put into getting it right.
I get the feeling that the people actually working on that building had no idea how it was actually put together or how critical that wall they were working on was to the structural integrity of the building.
Outstanding work Josh....can't wait to see Part II and maybe III....I think the City has a lot of liability in this. Thank you for covering this tragedy. It is very sad people had to die and be seriously injured. Prayers for all those people.
The city doesn’t have liability where a project is signed off by an engineer. That’s why an engineering stamp is required on the permit submission.
The city has no liability even though it appears they played a significant role in this disaster. They have qualified immunity.
@@jaynecobb3701 Most cities are self insured. Which means the taxpayers cover the losses.
The suspense is killing me, we need part 2!
PS there was a fire in 1939 on the west side top two floors ballroom. This is covered in a newspaper article found in the Davenport library across the street. I’m an architect. A Fire introduces stress into the entire steel frame which is then exacerbated in the steel frame connections. A fire can also reduce the load bearing capacity of steel by as much as 50%. Because steel transmits heat very effectively a local fire can travel thru the frame. The fire was hot and sustained. Furniture being painted in the ballroom ignited the fire and caused the extreme heat experienced. This is factual history. I imagine it’s a contributing cause
Gail, if you could find the article and copy it and mail it to Josh, I think he would be appreciative. As he said in the video, he is not in a position to get to Iowa. Thanks
Yes! Looked a single family block house to purchase only to learn from neighbor, not seller, that the home caught on fire last year. Spoke with fire Marshall inspector for details and was advised plaster walls melted. Electrical panel was not replaced post fire. When I asked why no permit was pulled for electrical and did the wires melt, his response was, ma’am, do not buy that house, there will significant issues surfacing. Always call the fire department prior to purchasing residential or a commercial building and ask if it ever caught on fire, they can look it up for you.
Looking at the original plans for the ground floor, the collapse area was originally the main kitchen. I think the "stack" was probably the exhaust stack from large boilers in the basement, probably running the full height of the building to a chimney on the roof. It seems like a plausible size for that purpose in a building of this size.
Back in 1985 I worked for the water company. As part of the job I was sent to a large home in New Canaan CT that was built in about 1906. The home was having a major renovation do to it and it was a really nice home. One of the contractors was showing me around. He said the walls were made out of 3 layers of red brick.
Once the exterior was was noted as being out of plumb by residents, building owner, city inspectors, contractors and structural engineer. Given that exterior wall was structural, why wasn’t building condemned or evacuated pending structural repairs? In California, building would have been Red Tagged. In Florida, would this building have been condemned?
PS - You used the term welded. Weren’t all steel building riveted at that point in time?
PS2 - seems building should b scanned by laser to memorialize the actual positions of the remaining brick before building is demolished.
Riveting was the method that went from the 1800 to about 1930, according to online sources.
Yes, it would have been riveted. Worked on many buildings of this type of construction in Chicago.
I watch a lot of disaster videos because I’m typically interested in the sociological & psychological implications but you videos are so informative of the mechanical workings of structural disasters. The way you can explain these engineering concepts is brilliant. It never feels dumbed down but you explain it so well. I always look forward to your posts
Looking at what you show, which I love the detail you go into with things, I would agree that it would be a crime scene. I can see where both building management and contractors both have a big part in the collapse due to the lack of proper repair work, and shoddy workmanship on the work that contractors did.
Looking at the Plan, in addition to the beam ends being supported only by the bricks at their outboard ends, the tie-ins between the East-West floor beams and the North-South beam are not in locations where the loads would be readily transfered to the columns., except at c6 and possibly at C1 & C2
Given the age of the structure, I expect that the connections were riveted, and when the structure failed, the rivets pulled out of the gussets / connection plates.
In some ways, it's amazing that the structure did not suffer a more extensive collapse, given the extensive deterioration of the exterior wall and its foundation.
Sometimes, it's a good thing that we don't make 'em like they used to...
Could the "Stack" have been a smokestack, and that metal object could be an old boiler or furnace or something that was long retired, but left in situ?
Are there any Americans out there wondering why the city was in such a hurry to try and condemn this building particularly with possible survivors still inside? I'm absolutely sure it had nothing to do with the possibility that more negligence might have been found on the part of building inspection and code enforcement.
I live in the city of Davenport, I was actually hanging out with some buds a few miles away. The main theory me and other people have is corruption or attempt for a quick cover up by our local politicians. After the delay for the demolition 1 politician resigned and several people were put under investigation by our local FBI office located across the Mississippi in Moline.
Wonderful presentation as always. As unfortunate as this tragedy is, it could have so much worse - even as bad as Surfside was.
They built buildings much stronger then. Even the steel was way better quality.
@@alexwyler4570 yes indeed. They built *everything* stronger back then. I think in part because they didn't have all the engineering capabilities for 'maximum load/stress calculations' and other design tools. Driving blind, in a way.
From the Sanborn Maps it shows a smoke stack 20 feet above roof where it says stack ... as this building did have a heater/power house in it in 1910 at least - i will try to post link for sanborn map page in a reply
Thank you.
guess it doesnt post
The truss structure is probably mid building. My understanding is they were put in old buildings to allow for large open spaces inside the buildings, or when the engineers thought the structure needed a little more support mid building. They were a precursor to shear walls- the truss would be stable in plane.
Nice to see you back.
Your illustrations are state of the art.
As always you are very clear and thorough.
I hope there were no inhabitants in the building at the time of the collapse.
Three people lost their life. One person lost a leg. At least one other person was in the area of the collapse and recieved non life threatening injuries.
It’s very important for the surviving tenants to know if they can go in and get their stuff out or not.
It was demolished last weekend according to The Quad City Times..
Stack was another shortening of smokestack used in reference to ship, might that stack have been exhaust from a boiler in the basement?
This makes the most sense. Being born and raised in southern Florida, we don't have basements... or boilers really... lol
@@BuildingIntegrity glad I could help
Seems to fit with having a brick channel several stories high, plus it would make sense would be made redundant when converting it to apartments if added modern HVAC. Leaving a tunnel that could be used for new pipes, ducts, and/or wiring for the renovation.
Glad to hear from you. While I don't have any expertise in structures, I also wondered why the building was so precarious that people weren't allowed in to retrieve their belongings. Maybe the apartments on the west side would be too risky, but the steel structure seems to be holding.
Looking at the clothes on the hangers in that one closet, I imagine a heavy-duty drone flying in to retrieve the garments one or two at a time. But the vibrations from the drone could stimulate further collapse.
@@exrobowidow1617 , Yes, that sounds like that could happen. Best just give the uninjured tenants enough compensation to replace their belongings as well as get settled into new homes, plus some compensation for the sheer terror and misery of it all.
@@exrobowidow1617 Vibrations from the done would be small compared to normal wind buffeting. I'm noticing a YT channel of a professional engineer thinks the rest of the building is probably OK. The problem was this wall.
@Structural Integrity thank you for helping the community with your practical knowledge. The city certainly failed it citizens here.
Many photo editing tools will let you subtract one picture from another to find the changes. If you overlay that back on one of the images, it may give you more insight about what's going on.
I believe the collapse was caused by the movement of the support wall away from the center of the building over many years which resulted in the floor pulling away from the "2 inch lip" as described in the original plan which was intended to carry the weight of the floor. The entirety of the weight of the free floating floor was then borne by the beams that had already begun pulling from their pockets. Over time, the beams continued to withdraw from the pockets as the bearing wall continued to move away from the center of the building.
I think if you look at the photos in the document titled "Nuisance Abatement 23-6454" at times 2/9/2023, 03:39:12 PM and 2/10/2023, 12:12:41 PM, you will see evidence of the free floating floor and also that the beams have pulled four to five inches out of their pockets. At the time the photos were taken, the building was set to collapse.
Great content! I grew up in this community and have been very interested in this tragedy. Im glad you’re analyzing it and look forward to Part 2.
PS: I understand the building has no basement and so I wonder if the “stack” was the boiler and chimney location. This Midwest community experiences harsh winters and would almost certainly have had a steam heating system.
It was likely both ventilation and utility chases. The 1903 building my office is in has a utility shaft in it, as well. Pre airconditioning, it acted as a ventilation chimney as well as psace to run plumbing and conduit.
There is a basement. You can see the opening after they remove the rubble on the ground. Some people were worried that homeless people were down there when it collapsed as they were known to shelter there.
Thank you for another outstanding video Josh. There are so many of these old masonry or masonry hybrids around the country. Even a mild disturbance can bring them down.
Thank you, Josh, for bringing intelligent insights into what happened. Like your analysis of the Surfside collapse, it's the best on the internet.
I sincerely doubt if there was any "welding" of any steel components in this building, the connections would have been riveted with gussets and shelf angles. A lot of buildings of this period used "stacked" column construction (as you discuss) with a lot of those featuring "pilasters" of which some were just extended brick facade for appearance and some of which added section for column support. This building would have been stable if the contractor had installed a falsework to relieve the brick columns from the distress of the ongoing work and to give lateral support to the column sections.. You're correct in that missing array of bricks at the bottom of that stacked column is frightening! I have a suspicion that the engineer and the inspector are in a lot of trouble. Depends upon the contractural verbiage and all the lawyers that will be swarming... This building can be rehabilitated but it is going to be expensive-that fact is what caused the situation to deteriorate in the first place.
Thanks for your presentation.
The engineer specified extending the foundation inward and putting in support columns just inside the wall to take the load from the beams. But the owner managed to find a contractor willing to skip that and do the job cheaper (and one contractor who wasn't and got quite loud about it).
I don't understand why the US doesn't require work to also be overseen by an engineer when it's work that requires an engineer to design it. Contractors ignoring half of the engineers' plans seem to be the cause of collapse all the time...
@@HenryLoenwind It depends upon the jurisdiction and all manner of legal entanglement. I'm guessing you recall the 1981 "Skywalk" collapse at the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency hotel which killed a number of people. The engineer's plans were modified by the fabricator/contractor to simplify the welding design. Even though the engineer was not employed to inspect any of the work, the engineer was held responsible. This precedent has caused a lot of turmoil and has increased errors and omissions insurance costs by an order of magnitude. Basically I agree that there should be professional oversight, however the real estate interests in the US rule and anything that might increase costs are difficult to institute. Another example is the Champlain Tower collapse in Surfside, Florida. Florida is looking at various oversight control options to improve quality and maintenance. I don't expect any major changes. The new nightmare is the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. The ultimate combination of real estate designated engineering. Wonder if Las Vegas is taking bets on when it collapses? So the answer to your query is "call a realtor".
Fantastic! I've been hoping you would be covering this!
Thank you so much for covering this! 👍
Painting bricks is never a good idea: you will create an outer membrane preventing - at least in some extent - breathing moisture out from these stone sponges. This happens especially, if you use latex based paints. If the renovated areas were painted, paint samples should be taken and analyzed.
Also, it looks like that in ground floor there were at least three tall windows/doorways in the middle of where the collapse happened. These look like non-original design.
ONLY half way thru the video, and I am once again impressed with your ability to present complex material to the public in a straight-forward manner. The amount of cross-checking you've done to match up pictures with the drawing is certainly first-rate and so far unique in analyzing this structure's partial collapse.
I live 90 miles from Davenport. We have freeze thaw during the winter here. And soft vitrified clay brick is subject to being damaged. Add in 110 years of winters and humidity from human occupants will find the exterior brick wall. There would be no vapor barrier in this building unless it had been modified to incorporate new structure to insulate that west wall from the heat of summer and chill of winter. I did see bats of fiberglass insulation hanging from areas after the collapse. I don't recall it having the kraft type vapor barrier, nor did I see any poly plastic sheeting.
Specialist old building surveyors in the UK these days are saying that retrofitting insulation into cavities of older houses is a lousy idea as it creates damp problems (and we're experts in cold, damp weather over here😉).
@@alisonwilson9749 I am not sure I agree with your wording. People in Britain (and the Netherlands and ..) have lots of experience with cold and damp. I have seen less evidence of expertice. Going there from Canada, where real cold can cause serious condensation in walls, I often see construction that leaves me in disbelief. If people are adding insulation without considering moisture then trouble is on its way.
Hello, Im SO happy you are covering this!! I followed you very closely with the collapse of the champlain towers!! I have said myself since looking at what I can look at with this collapse that the rest of the building seems sound to me. since it's a historic building I was hoping that they would repair it. People think I'm out of my mind with comments on different sites on the Internet when I say about repairing it, people keep saying that the whole building could come down at any moment but I do not see that as a possibility. I'm glad to see your professional analysis on this. I will continue looking to see your thoughts with future videos that he may be making. I'm not an engineer but I am a can make sense of everything fairly well. Thank you for doing this!!!
My office is in a 1903 12 story "skyscraper" built in this same era. Most of the interior was gutted during a renovation, so we were able to get a good look into the structure of the building. Since the subject building was built in 1906, the columns are likely not welded, but rather riveted together. Truss D will likely be revealed to be an steel "X" riveted togther and then riveted to the columns. Because of the height of our building, its a precursor to themodern welded steel cage, so the thick masonry walls are just supporting the weight of the facade of our building. But it does have trusses in the interior, which place it at a disadvantage when reconfiguring the interior spaces.
That confirm my theory: most dangerous things to any structure are repairs, renovations, upgrades and such...
Respect for helping FL push it’s condo laws forward. ✌🏻 This just shows your continued concern for your industry. Wherever it occurs.
Be interested to know the history of the chiller unit or whatever the large metal unit is on the roof. Would be interested too to know if the new brick in the brick column aside the door, i.e. the element that blew sideways - appears to contain new bricks - were those higher density engineering bricks or did the density match the original masonry, likewise the repair mortar - was it modern cement mortar or traditional lime, the point being a stiff pier will attract more load...and what was the door frame made from, was it aluminium or uPVC...both less stiff than oak or steel...as presumably the original would have been. This is an excellent example of how load paths in masonry are not infinite - failure can occur, particularly when multiple discontinuities in masonry stiffness are present through the original fenestration and later modifications.
good to see your digging into this for us .Thanks
My brother-in-law bought his first house in a town that was financially supporting people like him that were willing to buy a home and help fix it up. Over the course of a few years, he was doing a lot of work but found brick under the house (crawlspace) and in the back yard and couldn't figure out why. When he got to the last room, a small bedroom on the second floor, he found the same brickwork intact behind the lath & plaster. He stopped and called a recommended contractor who came out, looked at it and told him to stop immediately. It turns out that the house used to have a brick chimney that ran from ground level up through the roof and what my b-i-l found was an unsupported section of the chimney; the only thing holding the brick up was the roof. Needless to say, it took a "professional" to do the required work without incident.
I would that that the servants rooms might have been reserved for guests who traveled with servants in those early days. Usually a man would have a valet and a women would have her maid to accompany them while traveling. That is why a lot of these properties have or once had a rabbit warren of small guest rooms. Typically refashioned to accommodate today's needs. I think that it would be unlikely for the hotel itself back then to house any of their own staff.
Interesting historical detail. Thank you. Posts like yours are why I like to go deep into the comments section.
“Colored accomodation”…
@@allangibson8494 Could be butprobably not. Historically, a valet and ladies maid would be have been white and probably even those from the south traveling with servants (paid).
@@kennixox262 Servants from the south were almost always black in the 1900’s following the collapse of “reconstruction”.
The White House service staff was almost entirely black into the 1990’s.
I saw the engineers inspection about 5 days ago. and he stated that he did not know if the beams were supported on steel or bricks .I think he should have found out before he drew up the repair plans . I think he should have come up with a plan to support all 6 floor beams at the same time to lift them to there original elevation .The wall started to deteriorate from the water leaking from the cooling tower on the roof. Notice the new gutters and downspouts. Cooling towers have constant run off to remove mineral build up and with no gutters it ran down the side wall of the building .
Since the guys that built the pyramids are out of commission…they should have hired Josh.
Supporting all 6 affected floor beams (and jacking them up) would only deal with the weight of a single story of floor and wall system. It would not relieve the weight of the upper stories, still carried by the load bearing wall. I think this fundamental oversight by the PE led to a total misunderstanding of the degree of danger involved. He apparently speculated openly about whether or not there were vertical steel columns inside the wall. Without knowing that for sure there is no way he could have done a proper structural analysis of the building!
My shop teacher once told me…”stop before you fix it to death”
recognizing the danger it probably would have been possible to jack the beams and repair the structural brick properly.
Coming from NY City, where as a teen in the 1970s I was an AVID collector or arhitectural ornaments from demolished or soon to be demolished buildings, (Usually 5 to 7 story tenement buildings about 25'x100', I used to sneak in at 2 AM and remove all the bricks behind keystones and spandrel panels etc and take home the terracotta or stone carvings. I well remember the facade bricks were high quality hard brick, one layer deep, backed up with 2 layers of comon red brick, making the wall a foot thick.
ALL of the brick walls on the sides (the longest walls) were load bearing, the wood joists spaced a foot apart were set in pockets in the brickwork. An interesting design was the ends of the joists, usually they were about 2x10's rough cut pine 24' long- were cut at an angle, the idea was in a fire the joists and floors could fall in without taking the walls with them- the angled ends would fall out of the pockets, not sure if that was done in other cities or not.
I have pictures in my book "The Gargoyler of Greenwich Village" of many of these buildings, even at that age- 14-15 I was able to safely remove ornaments from the facades and not cause a wall collapse. Even keystones could be removed because directly above was just a few courses of bricks to a windowsill above, it was the "coluns" of bricks between the windows that did all the supporting.
I remember a set of 3-4 connected buildings on E12th st that had 2 square grotesque panels located in one of the wider brick "columns" which was between two buildings, I knew I could safely remove one and had to leave the other to support the "column" but some idiot came along and removed the other grotesque panel leaving that whole column of bricks literally hanging in mid-air with nothing but the mortar adhesion and a little mechanical "locking" between the bricks!
At some point that wall collapsed onto the sidewalk.
It was the same kind of thing on a building on Eldridge St, two large figural corbels supported a slab of stone over the entrance, the stone slab was about 10' long, maybe 4' wide and a foot thick- one long side was embedded in the brick wall, I removed one of the figural cobels and knew I had to leave the other, again, some idiot tried to remove the other corbal and I later saw what happened- the corbel AND that slab of stone and a significant amount of the wall above were laying on the sidewalk!
That slab of stone weighed around 6,000 pounds, the corbels about 350 each.
Brick walls can take a lot of holes in them, BUT if a wall gets out of plumb, or a bulge starts to form- there's very little way of saving it beyond taking it all down and rebuilding it.
The old Broadway Central Hotel, built in 1867 partially collapsed onto Broadway in Aug 1973, a bulge was reported, and not much done about it, but a tenant who had a theater on the ground floor was on the phone with the buildings dept reporting cracking in the walls and strange noises, he was on the phone when the collapse happened!
There had been an illegal doorway cut thru a brick bearing wall in the basement too that contributed to the collapse. That facade on the street side was not a load bearing wall but it was mostly stone backed up with brick. Some research my part discovered that this hotel's walls were built on top the the fire damaged water soaked ruins of the LaFarge house, a theater that burned down- they REUSED 5 floors of the facade wall and ADDED 2 more floors and a huge mansard roof on top for the 1867 hotel!
Something tells me that with the fire and water plus adding 3 floors, and the subway vibrations underneath- the foundation started to sink a little and the inevitable happened- the wall collapsed.
As a side note, the floor loads involved were not great, I dont know what the original purpose of the building was, assuming it was always residential apartments, were talking about minimal floor loads from some furniture, a book case, bath tub/toilet, the brick wall would have had no issue at all supporting that, it wasn't like this building was a newspaper printing firm and that they had multi-ton printing presses up there running and creating vibrations.
Also, for 1906, I'm thinking the columns were likely cast iron and the beams wrought iron not "steel" as we know it to-day, which is of no consequence as it was the brick that failed not the beams.
It looked to me like the mortar was originally very poor lime sand mortar, you could scrape it out with a screw driver and pull bricks right out by hand, it also washes out from rain water washing down. That is why in NY City all th eold buildings typically had large projecting cornices on top of the facade wall, it was decorative BUT it kept the water off/out of the wall, invariably when these are removed due to wind damage/age, the mortar on the top floor gets severely damaged by rain and has to be repointed. This Davenport building has no cornice on this West wall.
Also, in Iowa there was a brick manufacturer in the 19th century whose bricks were very poorly fired, there's an old brick shed on my property line made with that brick, and their quality control sucked- some of the bricks are intact, others basically disolved like sugar cubes in water! what happened was the bricks were not fired properly in the kilns, either not hot enough, not long enough or both, so batches of their bricks went into buildings all over Iowa like that, and you can see some bricks at random in the walls half disolved while adjacent bricks are pristine! This MAY be a factor in this Davenort building collapse, the bicks looked like they were disolving from rain water in places
Super interesting post! Thanks for taking the time to make it. Posts like this make it well worth-while to cruise the comments section. Thank you.
Great presentation. Really appreciated your finding the drawings. I just can't wrap my head around how no-one aside from that one contractor saw this coming.
There's one window at 8:10 (second from left) that is horrendously cockeyed. Are those windows mounted in the facade or in the brick behind the facade? (or both?)
The outermost brick layer is the weather-proofing for the inner brick layers, which are made from a cheaper type of brick that is not weather-proof. So the windows must be mounted to the outermost layer to complete the seal.
Great video, as always, Josh. Thanks for doing it. As for tearing down the building, the city is probably concerned about the other facades failing in the same way in the future and doesn't want the finger pointed at them if it does. CYA, and all that, right wrong, or otherwise.
El Cheapo: I concur. It seems unlikely that the other walls would NOT have the horizontal beams resting on the structural brickwork. So, it is possible/probable that they are also at risk of collapse.
The alternatives are to repair the building or to pull it down. I suspect that the cost of repair and certification would be high, and I suspect that no insurance company would insure the structure (at anything less than an eye-watering premium!)
Would anyone who lives there be happy to carry on living there ?
Would anyone buy a unit in the building in the future? I suspect not, unless the price were to be ridiculously low. So the current owners are best served by getting the building condemned, as long as their existing insurance provides them with SOME payout, and if the (cleared) site has SOME value.
Good point - I wonder how much bulging, or cracking is seen in the other walls. This west wall could have been the worst on account of weather/water ingress.
Great work as always Josh. Even though I started watching this channel after the Surfside collapse, I'd be happy to never see you do another building collapse. That's from the point of view that they're devastating & I'd be happy to not see another collapse. There's plenty of other great content from Building Integrity. But when these awful tragedies do occur, I'm glad that I can tune into a fantastic resource to get top notch information. It's interesting, I learn some basics (& what to/not to be concerned about), & Josh just comes across as a good & genuine bloke. Love people that can say the difference between "I know this" & "this is what I think happened & here's why". To top it all off, Josh has a real talent for making complex things understandable to laypersons like me.
Impatiently awaiting Part II.
I've watched some videos on this but have waited for yours! Thank you for taking the time and effort to do these videos!
Thank you so much for doing this video! I was really hoping you would. I live in Iowa so this is close to home. As always, keep up the good work.
Will do!
I've been following your channel since the Surfside collapse. Really interesting. Can't wait for part 2!
Disclaimer: I am not a Civil Engineer (nowhere close), but after looking at the Aftermath of this collapse, I can't help but think that there was A LOT more wrong with that Building than just the Facade.
They should NOT demolish that Building until there has been a super thorough Investigation.
IMO this IS a Crime Scene.
Very clearly explained. I do think the building needs to stand a bit longer so a thorough investigation can take place. It is curious how the rest of the building didn't get pulled down by this collapse.
Amazing how you can deliver information to people that have no clue on the subject prior.
A brick wall bulging like that is just a pile of rubble with no structural strength.
I don't know what the council inspectors were doing but the building should be evacuated and fenced off immediately. I can see why the other contractor was concerned!
I'm always amazed at what a great teacher you are to let layfolks understand your very technical presentations. You have a GIFT for doing such, and thank you. Hopefully, your information gets to the right people to shout out that indeed, as you asked, that there needs to be an investigation prior to it being torn down is my opinion. ETA: PLEASE keep us up to date ALSO on the political decsions ... know not your focus, but is such a part that I won't see elsewhere unless you post about it.
Great -- I've been waiting for Josh's input on this sad tragedy.
I completely agree investigations need to be held. When an airliner crashes and people die, the NTSB doesn’t scrap the wreckage before getting every minute detail in an investigation. Why shouldn’t we do the same on a residential building that causes death, particularly when the remaining structure is relatively safe? Investigate and hold accountable. County just wants it gone because they’re complicit with the crimes.
Even if it is not a crime thing, it ought to be a learning opportunity.
Josh, thank you for latching onto this incident and offering your analysis. I appreciate your research, analysis, and detailed explanations. Great work!
*** As I watch this video, I have just learned of the Interstate 95 collapse in Philly. That is going to be devastating to the movement of freight and people all along the east coast.
I am in the Philly area. I’ve been following along since I first heard about it at 6:45 am local time. It’s now 5:30 pm local.
This is going to be a major problem for interstate commerce. The northeast corridor has now been detoured onto side streets more or less.
Another excellent analytic video. Thank you.
Another consideration of the deteriorated column adjacent the door, is that we can clearly see that about 30% of the load-bearing structure has been removed at the external column face. It could be that more than 30% of the material has been removed behind the column face, as more bricks may have been removed internally. That would mean that the column was not down to 70% surface bearing area, but potentially much less.
I love your analytical evaluation of these events. So methodically broken down. It looks like the brick veneer of the building was being addressed in the various repairs, but the structural supporting brick wall underneath was not given a lot of attention. Was the mortar of the structural wall decayed to being the weak point in the assembly? Also, with such tall windows, both existing and replaced, that caused a weak point in the lateral support, being there were no lateral beams connecting the east/west horizontal beams together.
Also, in the large wall repair, could the contractor not realized this wall was the sole support for the transitional beams? Just some thoughts.
A long-term issue of the building was that the weather-proof facade layer separated from the non-weather-proof inner layers of the wall, allowing moisture ingress and so the inner load-bearing bricks crumbled. There were some superficial repairs to the facade (when it was painted red), but the damage to the inner layers was never addressed.
I really tend to think nobody looked deep enough into the drawings to realize that there were no steel columns hidden underneath the facade.
To be honest, I have no idea why such a method would ever have been acceptable in construction in the first place.
@@matthewmosier8439 Why would one put steel in there? Brick in compression is very happy and sturdy...and unless you let it rot away will stand for hundreds of years.
@@HenryLoenwind Good question.
Concrete and masonry are a zero under tension. Concrete buildings are held up by steel, basically, since without it the concrete would crack and collapse.
The facade made of brick is even worse, in my opinion. Each brick can seperate from the others around and weaken the overall structure. There is also the movement of brick as loads pressure it to deform (basically balloon in or out)
A steel beam surrounded by brick would be great. A girder running atop the masonry at the level of the steal beams which tied their loads together and spread out the footprints would also be good, at least in my opinion.
Concrete and masonry are too trusted by people, I think because they have been so easy to shape into things and possibly because our minds psychologically associate those materials with strength and durability.
I suspect the original construction relied on those tall window lintels (of brick) to be sufficient lateral support. Which they may have been until the structural brick degraded (from water seepage & crummy facade work pulling it down). Interesting to know how the rest of the building’s exterior lateral support bricks/mortar are holding up…
And our city somehow got the mayor who was indifferent to the whole situation reelected. The corruption is deep. I appreciate you so much for bringing this to the public eye.
I almost lived here. I toured the building a month before the collapse.
I also live in Davenport and find its town council only interested in its local biz interests. I call this town Davenpothole.
Check out a graph of Davenport population vs years. Steady growth until 1980. Since then, it's been flatlined at 100,000
I'm guessing the building had a Ballroom. That would explain the higher roof line and the taller windows. I bet it was an elegant building that hosted the best parties in town. The truss likely has a heavier load. I bet it's also a firewall.
If they don't get someone else to do further work on the building they definitely should bring it down. It is shocking how some people get positions they clearly are not capable of handling. Usually they are in government.
Nice job explaining things. I'm looking forward to part two.
Can't wait to see the second video. I watched every one of your Surfside collapse videos at least once. I'm not typically interested in structural engineering, but I'm always fascinated by how things fail. While I live in the SF bay area, I fortunately do not live close to the Millenium Tower. :)
we stayed in the Davenport in 1973 when my dad was opening the Wilton JM pvc pipe plant ...the roof was leaking back then...
I'm an old fashioned Site Agent - here in Britain years ago every project over a certain size had one and It was a sad day when the practise stopped! Site Agents are employed by the contractor but with a high degree of independence - he is ultimately responsible for everything that happens on site - good or bad! Qualification was by practical time served experience rather than formal certification - starting in a trade and progressing through artisan management foreman & general foreman and many guys of similar longevity to myself shudder when considering that most of the "professionals" - Architects, Surveyors and even Structural Engineers gain specifying power without ever having laid a brick or bolted up some steelwork. Our Planning Departments and Building Control reside with the local authority ( council ) Planning can be highly political and for big schemes is open to abuse and financial irregularities - Building Regs (Regulations) are pretty stringent but much of the Inspection has been privatised.
I realise things are very different in the United States but for all you Persons of Note having to sign off on virtually everything - you seem to have an awful lot of buildings and bridges that fall down.
My first observation of this building is the fact that the "facade" seems completely free standing without any sign of tying in - and the standard of bricklaying is laughable (or it would be had it not killed three people). The idea that a single skin of brick can be slapped up six storeys trusting to faith, hope and charity that it will stick to the crumbling structure it covered up is to my mind - criminal.
I love this comment!!!
Thank you so much for this deep dive! I knew when I sent you the story you would be able to really get into the details!
If I was a person who lived in that building, the very first thing I would ask is why the building wasn't evacuated when all those signs of deteriorating showed up ?
And why no one listened to the gentleman who tried to warn about the collapse ?
I think it's too early to tear down the building and an investigation must be done. If I was an engineer, the first thing I would check is what saved the other facades. What did they have that helped them to not collapse compared to the West facade and that might imply that the changes done in the West facade might be the reason to that collapse.
Great to see you back again Josh!
Good to see you doing this. Nobody else can explain things quite the same. I watched your series on Surfside in Florida too.