Davenport Collapse Security Cam Analysis Pinpoints Origin
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- Jeff Ostroff analyzes the security cam video of the collapse of the Davenport apartment building, in Davenport, Ia on May 25, 2023. The video provides slow motion and frame-by-frame analysis showing where on the building the first bricks started to fall, leading to the partial collapse of the west wall of the apartment building owned by Andrew Wold. The Davenport Apartments at 324 Main St, in Davenport, IA.
00:00 Introduction to Security Cam video Davenport Collapse
00:32 Full 9-second security cam video of the collapse
00:46 What the security cam video is showing on Davenport Apartments
03:29 Compare the security cam video to the side of the building
04:31 Photos of buckling brick wall day of the collapse
06:03 Frame-by-frame analysis shows where the first bricks fell
09:30 Compare bracing on the video to what the engineer designed 
Хобби
I inspected this building 2 years ago to bid the remodel. On the collapsed section, I noticed large cracks in the floor, 2-3" wide. Those cracks ran from the rear exterior wall, all the way across the floor and up the walls, and across the ceiling. They transferred from inside to outside on that exterior wall. The cracks that are seen before paint are traced to directly inside where the floor was separating. Around the columns inside where the ceiling was exposed, were large cracks in all directions including large chunks of concrete just missing. I warned him that day I felt completely unsafe being in there. I states I think this building is falling and those arent settling cracks. I told him to get a structural engineer. He would not hear it. I also told his supervisor repeatedly for 2 years that its gonna fall. 2 weeks prior, I once again told his now former supervisor that the new paint isnt gonna hold that building up. I would love to chat direct with you. I have alot more info from that day. Including the fact Andrew was in the basement that day trying to stop the sinking. And still wouldn't listen to evacuate.
Good info! You can DM me on my FB page: facebook.com/jostroff would love to hear more and see any photos you got
Is there a reporting mechanism for situations like this that would mandate a structural engineer inspection? It seems the city may have known something based on repeated extensions (that shortened people's lives).
Floor cracks in an upper floor or on the ground floor? Multiple floors?
Summary: the owner heard the red flags from the engineers, but didn't want to hear it.
Wow, it's unbelieveable that the owner ignored so many warnings from people who do this for a living. You should probably be glad you didn't get the job as the owner would have tied your hands and you don't want your name associated with a building that collapsed. It's sad that the city didn't force this owner to do the right thing.
You've done a good job of capturing the failure of the building. A small correction is that the door in question led directly into an apartment. This is unit 105 which was ordered to evacuate. This was my unit from 2015 to Jan of this year. I moved out due to safety concerns that weren't being addressed by the building or enforced by the city. By 2021 the door would no longer open and close correctly and the drywall was cracking in my unit. You could literally hear brick fall when the door was opened and closed. My daughter would no longer enter through this door for fear of a collapse. Their solution was to shave the door and replace the drywall and studs. Yes, this was a joke. An engineer was supposed to review and confirm structural integrity but this never occurred. If it did, I was never provided with a report.
One thing that of significant is that the building suffered tremendous damage due to a Derecho in 2020. The wall was already in trouble and this added to the situation. The caps on the roof were off for months, allowing water to pour directing into the structure for months while insurance and aid was in the works. Things only got worse from there and any fixes that were made were purely cosmetic.
Wow! Thank you for that insight from an "insider." Glad you got out before this disaster happened. Also sounds like your daughter has a finely honed sense of danger. Good for her and anyone with her.....
Given the fact that 2-3 died in this collapse, I'd say there are a bunch of people associated with this property who are going to face criminal charges, at least they should.
I’m thinking 3. The news stations have not publicly speculated anything but photos this morning showed three blue tarps on the rubble and a crime scene vehicle came.
It's the state. They rarely hold anyone accountable for their actions. Usually they have Qualified Immunity or other legal insulation to protect them from the consequences of their own negligence.
You're living in a fantasy world.
Na the same scum that are landlords, are the judges, and lawyers. The same who hire illegals to do shoddy work to save money. Nothing will happen but you being blissfully unawares of the actual problem.
Should
But the owner is politically connected and some elected officials also are owners
My heart absolutely breaks for that engineer who tried to warn them.
Jeff, this is what we call a full masonry building. All the wythes bear part of the load, including the outer wythe, which is kiln-hardened brick that sheds water. So I think it is a mistake to call the outer layer of brick a veneer, because it is structural, not decorative.
The inner wythes are made of a softer, cheaper brick that requires the protection of the outer wythe, because exposure to water over time can literally melt this softer brick into clay and turn the mortar into sand. The weight of the roof is carried by all wythes to the ground, and the weight of the steel structural beams is carried by the inner wythes, which have pockets that the beams sit in. As an example, my 1903 full masonry house is three stories tall. It has a steel main beam supported by brick columns. Some houses like mine have steel columns, instead of brick. Others have wood main beams and wood columns. My first two floors are three wythes thick, and the third floor is two wythes thick. This building was six stories tall, so the bottom floor would have been about six wythes thick.
The Davenport building was allowed to leak for so long that the inner wythes were weakened, and the outer wythe began to bulge away during freeze thaw cycles. At ground level, this opened up a tremendous gap that allowed the soft inner bricks to break off and fall down into the gap as the steel beams pressed down in the pockets. The wall was collapsing in slow motion. When you see the outer wythe fall and blow out in the video, you are seeing the steel beams collapsing because the wall can no longer support them.
Thank you for that information
Wow. Super information. Was wondering what supported the weight from above, and how the steel beams were supported.
@@uploadJ To use my 1903 house as an example, in the basement my steel main beam is supported on the end by the limestone foundation, and then there are four four brick columns along its length. On each floor, the floor joists are perpendicular to the main beam and span the entire building, which is quite narrow because it’s an urban house. Each joist end sits in a pocket in the brick wall.
In the Davenport, I am guessing that the interior steel structure had a grid of steel beams supported on the ends by pockets in the brick and vertically by steel columns. The floor joists would have been supported by the steel beams and, around the perimeter, the brick walls. The failure to maintain the brick wall properly led to the brick compressing downward and dragging the steel beams downward with it. The sagging floors in the apartments are a dead giveaway that this collapse was slowly in progress for a long time.
There may possibly also have been design flaws that led to inadequate support on that wall, causing the steel structure and the brick to be overloaded on that side of the building.
@@maud2739 re: "and vertically by steel columns."
Does not seem to be the case, Maud. Go re-read the first comment in this thread. It is explained thusly: "this is what we call a full masonry building" . Steel was used for beams, only, not columns. Thank you.
@@uploadJ You’re quoting what I previously wrote. “Full masonry” refers to the exterior walls of the building. If you look at the images of the collapse, you can see the structural steel is not only horizontal but vertical. The columns in the basement were probably steel. As I wrote in a later response, if this is a typical full masonry building of the period, the steel structure would have tied into the masonry walls at the perimeter. The masonry walls would have held up the roof and supported the outside ends of the structural steel. The center of the building would have been supported by structural steel.
I rented in this building a 6th floor unit from April 1997 to October 1998. My unit was upper left hand corner, but on the other side of the building.
Back then it was not uncommon to find in the hallways water leaking from the ceiling.
I work inside this building roughly 8-9 years ago they gutted the hole inside from new plumbing, walls, electrical cabinets, to flooring everything but it seem like they skimp on the outside 😳 unreal
Yeah, it looked as if it had had a recent "update" to the interior.
@@freeradical6390 Yes, you can even see the steel studs they used for the drywalled partition walls tangled up in the collapsed debris.
that is what we call "polishing a turd" no matter how hard you rub it and how shiny you get it, underneath that is still just a .....turd.
likely none of it was done right and further weakened the building, helping it to collapse.
possibly downspouts and buried storm water drains leaking for many years eroded the soil away ad they ignored it until failure.
IMHO, far too much collapsed at once and was happened, for there to not have been a long term underlying cause. which was of course ignored, because someone was clearly getting income from. I'd say the issue started 10+ years ago and very likely exacerbated by the remodel. lack of skilled people and red-flags thrown I guess.
The exterior facade bricks were only an indication of the real failure point - The inner structural brick walls (lighter colored bricks). They supported the steel floor beams that tied to the interior steel framework (min structure), the brick walls were structural elements!
That brick contractor dodged a major problem by not getting the contract.
Yes I would feel relieved
Yeah, I think that contractor realizes that he didn't know what he was getting into, trying to repair a thick, load-bearing wall holding up the whole building. It sure as hell would have cost more than $50,000 to do the repair correctly...
@@johnbergstrom2931 The first bidder listed $50,000 just for the bracing. The winning bid was for $40,000 all in.
@@harleymcclure9802 Well, that makes sense. $50k for bracing, maybe $250k to rebuild the wall...
@@johnbergstrom2931 the outter bricks were supposed to be decoration, and not load bering.
Absolute criminal incompetence. That building should have been condemned. That masonry was horror-show.
Looks like a few people tried to save it, but it was too late and done wrong
What do you expect wen boomers hired an infinite supply of illegals who have no business being in this country firstly and really no business taking jobs from people that actually know what they are doing?
The city condemned some of the apartments In that building back in 2021.
I know one thing, if I had been looking at those apartments and as I walked to my car noticed that brick wall 'disassembling' itself, there's no fu*king way in hell I would have moved in there...
@@jeffostroff At what point do you condemn the whole building and just say that no more rehabilitation can be done - the structure is too far gone? Would lives and property have been saved if the whole building was condemned in 2021 or do engineers think that, with enough money and skill, all faults can be corrected?
I live in Davenport and I don't bother watching the news anymore for updates. Honestly, I've been looking forward to your videos to help explain it. Obviously it doesn't help with the 3 still missing people but it still provides answers. Unfortunately, at this point they have transitioned from a search and rescue to a recovery with the 3 missing people.
1 just found dead
All three have been found. If they would have called the experts right away, who knows if those three men could have been saved. They wanted to tear the building down the next day. Probably to hide what they knew was wrong.
@@tricia2544 Now all 3 missing were found and identified :(
the building was a nice old hotel from the early 20th Century back in Davenport's golden age as a blue collar industrial town. It sadly was neglected for years after being converted into an apartment building and major repairs to the brickwork and framing were never done over the years till it was far too late and probably too expensive and father time finally had enough and collected it's dues.
The security camera footage from the previous few minutes before the collapse has been released. It's subtle, but watching at high speed makes it apparent that the supports had been slowly buckling for several minutes before the final collapse.
One thing I note is that the braces were called out as multiple 4x4s. It's possible I am mistaken, but the actual supports do not look like multiple 4x4s, nor does it look like they did the OSB+steel angle called out in the drawings. It looks like someone put in a single metal pipe and called it a day...
In his last video about this a few days ago he mentioned that those were not 4 x 4's.
I mentioned this in my previous video and in this video that I did not think that those looked like 4 by 4 they were 2 by 4 and they. Weren't even staked into the groand there are missing the sheets of o s d
That long brace did buy them one or two more seconds, so there's that. It does very very slowly start to arch inwards.
That building should have been evacuated a long time ago. Neglagence on the city's part for allowing such an obvious threat to fester. In the old pictures the wall had been painted before at some point. May have covered up faulty work when windows were removed. Tragic! Love your work Jeff!
City had condemned several apartments in there in 2021
The seem to have found a scapegoat because one of the city's engineers resigned. I'm sure they'll be looking for other to blame in the upcoming weeks.
Dear residents of the Davenport. We are watching what happened to you and protest also!
We hear you, we realize your losses. First a catastrophe then homeless. Unimaginable. The wealthy would have chopped off heads, figuratively! Demand and litigate your rights against landlord, city code enforcement dept, HUD and who ever else provides funding for this apt building and adjusted rents and the city itself. Get outside area lawyers, we all saw this happen!! Excellent work Jeff! Thank you from all who live in low income affordable housing that often becomes our graves, literally, whether we die there in apts or under them!
Better quality low income affordable housing cause the law suits are piling up! Will be cheaper to build standard housing rather than SUBSTANDARD HOUSING!!!!
I absolutely love your analysis and how you break down these structural failures. You keep it interesting.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it Dorena
I am surprised that a structural brick wall does not show stretcher courses or Flemish bond or any of the normal brick laying patterns to link inner and outer walls. Stretcher courses and Flemish bond were part of my very first building license exam. Boston, 1972
Yes, I am sure this will come to light in lawsuit
Awesome Jeff!! I really enjoy your coverage of these tragic collapses, and I learn so much from all your research and analyses!! Thanks for all your hard work!!!
Thanks so much for coming back for more and watching all the videos
Such a shame when a hundred year old building and its inhabitants suffer from neglect
We will see many more likely
@jeffostroff tell me about it ,there's a 1868 building in portsmouth ohio that is a two story formerly three story brick built building that has a severe atleast 10 ft lean I wish i had help to save it ,I want it because I'm starting a horse carriage restoration shop and this building was the john dice carriage manufacturer mr dice sold carriages as far as Missouri in the late 1800s
@@wesbrackmanthercenthusiast4695 Knock it down. The mortar they used back then in brickwork is basically dried out, brittle and useless now...
Save the old bricks and use them for a new building.
@@johnbergstrom2931 Many building codes don't allow used materials. However there was and still maybe a market for used Chicago bricks years ago colonial brick would salvage Chicago face and common brick and sell them for use down south.
@@danielbackley9301 You can certainly use them for a veneer, a walkway, a brick fence, lots of stuff.
Another thing to keep in mind is that those CMUs weren’t bearing any load. They effectively were transferring the load to the thin, old brick column between them and the surrounding brick under “repair”. Insane.
*subs because I'm a local and want all the good info possible*
*About to watch a bunch of your old videos because your voice is 10/10!*
I've said it on an earlier Davenport video, but thank you SO MUCH for not only covering this, but continuing to update as more information becomes available.
Thanks glad to help!
I love how you shed light on these tragic situations. Thank you for your videos! ❤
@Maud, thank you for explaining the load bearing vs veneer. Was about to do same. Please understand everyone this entire facade was tied together and it appears they were trying to retrofit it into a more modern construction style of load bearing steel columns or CMU with a non-load bearing CMU or stud wall with a brick veneer. The veneer only bears it’s own weight and you would have a relief angle every 20’ or so. You would never have a 6 story building with entire veneer bearing down on bottom row of brick. This building could have been properly maintained and reconstructed as load bearing brick wythes or a load bearing steel column or CMU wall interior of a brick veneer, but this is NOT how you would go about that process. This is negligence on part of the owner, engineer, and contractor.
You didn't quite get it. Water infiltration weakened the brick which was supporting the steel beams, Shoring was supposed to placed inside, under the beams, and all the brick removed and rebuilt. The owner didn't want to pay for the shoring and eventually found someone who agreed to do the work. There were no doubt other issues, but the engineers plan for supporting the beams seems robust.
I didn't live in the building, but a couple minutes from it.
The downtown area of Davenport has always had a reputation of potholes, old buildings, etc. There's always construction on the roads, and not a ton ever gets fixed. Its basically becoming a running joke for as long as I've lived here. So, if you're wondering "How did the people of this city let this building go on like this?", its because we're used to this kind of deterioration, especially towards the west end.
Like the old potholes on beacon hill in Boston back in the day
I lived in Davenport a long time ago, when the state was solid blue and the city wasfairly well maintained.
Yes, I think this is political.
It started to shift to red about the time I left ... and Republicans just don't give a dam.
I was curious, so I looked up the Google drive-bys. The one on 4th St. from 2021 shows the red painted brick. The one in the alley on the opposite side from 2017 shows orange paint over the same surface. If one layer of paint is bad for brick, I can't imagine that two layers are better.
A lot of patches were done on that building for sure.none helped.
Thank you, Jeff, for your careful attention to detail and the patience you have in comparing photos to video. It helps so much!
Glad to help Maria
I agree Maria.
Thank you so much. This was very informative. My heart goes out to the people living here and their families.
Yes there is going to be that gut wrench moment when they find 2 bodies in the rubble
Jeff, did you see the video where the previous maintenance man said back during a hurricane that the section of roof where the building collapsed was torn off and rain was pouring in for a week and the owners didn't care. I was thinking maybe that water pouring in for that long damaged that part of the building and weakened that area🤷♂️
A hurricane in Iowa?
@@timramich Tornado or high wind storm. Net effect is the same. Someone in a previous comment verified a specific type of storm occurred some years ago and revealed the large amount of water that entered the interior of the building as a result.
So fixing it properly would cost too much so they decided to go the cheaper rout and pick the cheaper contractor and this is the result.Someone needs to go to prison to prevent this from happening again with these older buildings.He,the owner,probably has his personal wealth separate from the companies revenues to shield him personally from any lawsuits.The way these slumlords get away with murder is disgusting
There was no contractor, he pulled an "owner/contractor" permit, which means he can just hire whoever he wants off the street to do the work, and then rely on his "supervision" to do the work correctly. You can do the same thing if you want to remodel your home, but then its up to you make sure it gets done right and passes inspection. And just because it passed inspection doesnt mean the work and workmanship wasnt horribly shoddy.
And lets keep in mind, the owner of the property has at least two other multi story buildings.
I think this owner is going to do jail time.
@@johnbergstrom2931 The owner is most likly a LLC.. so your going to send a corporation to jail?
The politicans secretly likes slumlords because they provide low income housing.
Your coverage is always comprehensive and on point.
Thank you so much!
This is the most detailed research I've ever seen. Keep up the great work.
Another awesome review of the videos and photos
Jeff, all that time you invested in doing detective work on the Champlain Towers South collapse was not wasted. From your analysis of this collapse it is obvious that you have learned a lot about what to look for, and how to look for identifying "landmarks" on the structure before and after the collapse in order to be able to speak knowledgeably about which parts are still standing and which are gone. The time you spent on Champlain gave you a great deal of insight into the forensic analysis of structural failures.
Have you had a chance to look at historical satellite and street view timeline photos from Google Maps yet? They might show stages of work done on the property over the decades. It appeared there was rebar in the gray CMUs and maybe the collapsed concrete flooring. In one area of exposed gray CMU I only saw a couple of steel ties sticking out of the block that would presumably be all there was to hold that section of façade.
If you get the chance, you might study the notorious 1933 Long Beach Earthquake in California. Most of the downtown buildings had been constructed with unreinforced masonry that could not withstand the shaking. Some of the unreinforced buildings that were left standing had to be retrofitted with horizontal tie rods through the floors. There are metal plates and compression nuts visible on the outside of the buildings even today where the horizontal tie rods are functioning similarly to a concrete post tension slab. This Los Angeles brick building that was used as the exterior of Jerry's apartment in the TV show "Seinfeld" shows the diamond-shaped tie rod plates through the floor and ceiling levels. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld#/media/File:757_New_Hampshire_Ave_2.jpg
The owner of the property just made this so much worse for himself by hiring unlicensed clowns do make the repairs. It will end up costing him much more than it would have been to just properly repair the building in the first place. He obviously went with the cheapest bid from an unlicensed “contractor”. He is responsible for the likely deaths of the 3 missing individuals.
But hey, those dudes waiting on the sidewalk outside Home Depot had to have something to do that Sunday... How else could they have afforded their tacos???
@@johnbergstrom2931 Around here they hang out at the 7-11 because Home Depot runs them off (and doesn't sell beer).
Building should've been evacuated and/or condemned. Doesn't take an engineer to realize how unsafe it was.
Imagine taking that contract rather than telling the client "Um, you're going to get someone killed!"
He dodged a bullet
Watched your first video on this, now this one, you break it down so we'll, thank you. Impressive
If you look at the google earth pix of the building from the alley view, the third and fourth sets of windows have a lower sill than the others. This is an indicator that they were for escape, to an outside fire escape. The building probably had the escape removed at sometime in the past. The building appears that it was 3 or 4 building or additions, you can see that in the alley with different foundation hights. Could the removal of a fire escape sometime in the past have weakened the walls structure? I'm just guessing.
I saw this collapse video yesterday and I just knew you would put out your video analyzing it Jeff! Fantastic video as usual, and just like Champlain towers, this was completely avoidable.
I think we will see many more collapses like these
Would “just” the facade falling would not bring down so much of the building? There HAD to be so much water damage in the structural wall! Great coverage! This one wonders what the bid included from the guy who lost the bid and warned the workers earlier.
IIRC it was $50k in bracing that the owner refused to pony up for. And it seems like the final approved permit for the same job was submitted as basically a $3000 DIY that the building owner was taking care of mostly in house.
Yes. It's how those old buildings were engineered at the time. The brick was actually support. Like many things, people today only view things from a modern perspective and think that's the way it's always been.
It's not necessarily water damage. The mortar they used back then was crap, it dries out and gets brittle, eventually providing no adhesion between bricks. You end up with a wall held together by just gravity.
@@matthewbowen5841 Yeah, probably with Home Depot sidewalk workers...
@@matthewbowen5841 Yes, and it's quite common for an owner or "handyman" doing the work to severely under-report the estimated repair costs as the cost of the building permit increases substantially in many types of jobs.
always great insight, thanks!
Looks like the third floor window was moving down causing the buckling on the veneer layer between the two second floor windows. There is alot going on in the video. Great analysis.
THANKS Ron!
Another great job Jeff
Right on. Thanks for sharing.
Great, detailed yet interesting video.
Jeff, you are straight money. Please continue your fantastic work!
Thanks so much spauldo!
These breakdowns are really interesting. Thanks
Glad to help!
Your right about the collapse happened due to a combination of things - I totally agree with that. After viewing other videos (drone's view) & this video you showed is that the bldg will collapse when there is a rain storm, high winds etc. Right now, the rubble is giving it stability. They need to be pretty careful about moving the rubble to find people. Wonder if heat sensor equipment can pernitrate thru rubble?
You can also see on the roof how it hangs due to the collapse - downward/slanted upward to the left. No doubt says the top of the bldg has been pushed inches to the left (& the unit is still intact with the roof but fell towards the 'right' of the bldg). This bldg is TOP HEAVY. The speed of the collapse, weight of floors/bricks, of course gravity (& momentum) created vibrations (like an earthquake) weakening any additional supporting beams/walls no doubt creating gaps along the existing window frames. Plus, the part of the bldg that didn't fall is more likely leaning inward - nothing to support it.
It's going to take some great skilled people/companies to bring down this bldg since the left side -> top of the bldg is leaning left. Hope the business beside it has moved to a new permanent location.
Very interesting. Thank you!
Why would ANYONE think that wall was repairable??? ..espeically working from the bottom, lol.
Then theres the bricks behind the facade! Looks more like a rubble pile than a brick wall!
The building would have been savable if proper shoring and qualified competent workers were doing the work. The issue is the owners did not want to pay for any of that.
Not a mason by trade and it's been 40 years since I pounded nails or rather tried to for a living . But as bad as that wall looked the only way so have fixed that properly in my opinion would have been to start at the top and remove the entire damaged veneer and then repair whatever needed to be repaired properly.
More is coming out about this that bothers me. I hope this will make more regulations. Just like here in florida so many buildings were condemned after Surfside now I hear they are closing buildings there to. Something needs to happen to stop this. Great video
I'm afraid advocating for additional regulations to be ignored (as many existing ones were in this case) isn't the insurance policy many think it is
It's America. There will be no regulation.
Nothing being closed
Those voids not being properly filled to the arches Im convinced, greatly increased the failure of this building. Those blocks aren’t doing anything if there is a gap above them. The leaks are the root cause. %99 of the buildings that collapsed are due to leaks.
Hi Jeff, did anyone ever find out about the steel reebars behind the H beam at Champlain Towers, this mystery intrigues me to this day.
Same here we have heard nothing
It will probably be in the NIST report, an ill-conceived, boneheaded column addition. It's definitely not an 'impaled column' from the collapse - that theory is retarded and impossible unless you alter the laws of physics...
Always enjoy your Video's Jeff!, Been watching ever since the Champlain Towers collapse!, Jeff here too BTW
Andrew wanted me to bid this job too… luckily my masons are well seasoned and told me to step away from this fast. That was back in Feb. of this year. Couldn’t believe it when I seen it in the news.
Love the coverage Jeff ❤ how is Champlain towers north ? Are they still doing work on it ?
Yes, who knows when they will be finished.
@@jeffostroff Maybe when they run out of money
@@thomasblanchard6778 That's not even an option. They would have to finish fixing it or it'd be condemmend, uninsurable and they'd all lose their investments. They will have to come up with it or lose a lot more.
The building's owner seems to have price shopped for the cheapest way to get the city off his back. If he really did tell a contractor that he did not want the shoring, etc., that the structural engineer specified, I hope he gets criminally prosecuted. Also, how much work would a contractor do for only $3,000 when the responsible contractor (Shaffer) estimated it should cost $50,000? Was the contractor that the building owner selected even a state licensed contractor? And if so, what type of contracting license was it, and would he have been qualified to handle a job like this? The 2x4 shoring you pointed out was a joke. It looked like something that an ignorant unlicensed contractor might have assumed would meet the requirements. And did the contractor ever see the engineer's specifications, or was he only doing what the owner told him he wanted done?
One of the clearly displayed facts about the condition of the building is that the bricks of the"load bearing" layer behind the facade were badly deteriorated and crumbling. Do we know how many bricks deep this inner wall was originally? Was there also evidence from interior photos of damaged apartments that the inner course of the load bearing brick wall was also crumbling? Were there any horizontal ties joining one course of the load bearing wall to the courses inside and outside that course? Could the accumulation of debris between wall and facade have also exerted an inward pressure on the bearing wall. And for me perhaps the biggest question is whether the debris accumulating between the wall sections in fact coming from the inside of the facade or from the outside of the bearing wall? @melitatunnicliff8385 's comment about the limited function of the steel is critical.
The biggest factor was the mortar they used in this brickwork. The stuff they used back then wasn't very good - gets brittle, separates from the masonry, becomes pretty useless over time. Modern mortar, with Portland cement, is infinitely better.
Great video man!
Glad you liked it!
Having a 1900’s brick house I am seeing lots of things that were neglected and lots of people working with no idea how to actually repair the structure.
I agree that the structure was already too far gone for the repair that was proposed.
I can understand how the failure was overlooked by the inspector and not fully understood by the engineer.
Neither one was fully aware of the scope of the problem neither cared enough to do a proper inspection room by room and floor by floor.
How much time does any inspection take today even the contractor has only an hour to look at the building? How much evidence is required to determine what the actual problem is? You can’t do anything but guess with a one hour visit.
My house has triple brick foundations and cellar walls and double brick up to the parapet wall on the flat roof.
I wanted to tear the roof off and re-sheet it but I was advised that doing so might cause the rest of the structure to move and cause a similar collapse as the type in this building.
Old brick construction isn’t like old post and beam, it’s not like old wood framing.
Each piece is installed as the building is assembled and unless you are prepared to install bolsters to keep the walls from buckling out when you remove the parts holding it together a collapse can occur. Like an egg it’s a strong structure and if the forces are in balance everything is fine but cracks in the sides and no support to hold the sides and it’s Humpty Dumpty.
Thanks Jeff for the videos on this collapse, I wasn't aware it took place until I saw your first video.
I have studied all the available photo/video coverage as well to determine the failure mechanism(s). Given when this building was built and its close proximity to the River, I assume it was originally either, an office building, manufacturing, or a government building. Looking at the satellite photo, it looks like the building has 3 add-ons. At some point in time, the interior was probably completely stripped out, then the apartments added. I don't think there were any mandatory building standards in 1906.
The collapse appears to be related to the exterior wall failing but, I am not sure of the structure design. Depending upon picture location, I see differences. Also, is the building load carried on steel I-beam columns or the brick wall? Given all the complaints about water and sewer leaks within the building, the I-beams could easily rust out at the attachment points (and I do see lots of rust). That location of the collapse, from various pictures over the years of Google Streets photos, is a 12' X 30' section at the ground level that has been reworked (probably several times) that may have been garage bay doors originally (but hard to tell). Also, some parts of the exterior wall show 1 course of red brick, while other areas show 4 courses (which may be where the large doors were located). The concrete block walls appear to be cast concrete in some areas, other areas possibly large concrete tiles. It will be interesting to see the actual failure mechanism(s) if and when that information is made available. I think we can assume at this point, the causes fall into the categories of lacking/improper maintenance and risky short cuts when the apartment retrofit was installed.
I've heard the building described by engineers as a 'structural hybrid'. The steel frame and exterior brick wall support and stabilize each other. Both are load-bearing. Neither alone will take the load. Was apparently considered state of the art/advanced in the early 1900's, but it's a stupid way to design a building...
@@johnbergstrom2931 yes the steel structure ought to be able to support the load.
@@jeffostroff 116 years ago, the decision to build that way probably came down to the timeless motivation, the owners wanting to save money. "Steel is expensive!"
Makes you wonder if the people doing the brick work (or even the contractor who got rejected for the job) knew what they were up against, or if they just thought the brick was a veneer, something that wouldn't collapse the building. I personally don't think they knew...
@@johnbergstrom2931 In researching 1900's high-rise building construction, I saw both load bearing by a totally steel structure and the combination where a steel support structure is used but, is tied to a brick wall for all its support. Interestingly, I also read that the construction techniques used in 1900 are so much different than now, applying modern day construction practices will actually acceleratate deterioration of the structure. Thus, a thorough understanding of the 1900's construction is mandatory before attempting any repairs.
Jeff is SIMPLY THE BEST !!!!
[Cue Tina Turner song now]
I really like how you really dug into this and really point out some areas. I am going to sub to you.
Thanks an welcome aboard!
Jeff - You are the best on YT for collapse analysis - Champlain, Fern Hollow, and others. I know you are not an engineer, but you really do good analysis of the cause. Nailed it on this one as well.
At 4:15 the right side of the arch above the right CMU infill is the point I believe the collapse started. There is a dark spot right above the jamb, possibly a single missing brick.
Elsewhere, I saw that this wall is 5 structural wythe thick (5 x 4"= 20") with a 4" veneer and a 1" minimum cavity. The wythes are supposed to be interlaced with blocks turned 90 so the 20" all acts as one, not 5. This missing brick releases the front arch, so only 80% the strength. My guess there has been water into the bricks, why the veneer fell away prior.
Where the illusion of a brace is to the right I sense that the arch noted above is rotating a bit, causing more load on the arch root. The first puff of smoke is possibly the brick behind this hole crushing. This crushed the column at the arch root, taking the next arch behind the illusion in that red block area. The failure spread in a classic 45 degree slope pair with the veneer falling forward, the 5th & 6th dropped in unison. The two shear lines along the window jamb probably have a column or pilaster there to support a more major beam line.
The bowing out of the veneer with the cavity filled with prior debris was also bowing the 20" wall, not a good thing. The quality of the brick in the cavity is very suspect. This wall shows many locations over the years of alterations. This is bad in unreinforced masonry, every repair picks up less than the average load, the existing more than average. This starts stairstep cracking seen in the veneer. Further there are many grades of brick, the original brick appears to be low strength, mix that with higher strength later creates inbalances.
Near me, Port Townsend, WA the brick of this age building is particularly bad. It's source was the cheap bricks ships used for ballast in, before taking timber out. The shrinkage of epoxies will just crack the brick beyond where the epoxy penetrated. Have to use a lime mortar similar to the original to not cause problems. Not with a collapse, but I have seen all of these problems in buildings there, caught when it can be repaired.
Interesting and detailed post that reveals detail I had not seen before. Thank you.
How was this not ordered vacant and condemned?
Do you know when the owner bought this building ? What actually could have been done to save the property? All I can think about is that son who slept outside waiting for his father to be found. Heartbreaking 💔
Ironically he bought this building June, 2021, just weeks before our Champlain Towers south collapse here in Miami
I live In Davenport - It's amazing how much the news was covering this and then stopped.
No more bodies to find. If it bleeds, it leads...
Whoever was working on this building has clearly never played Jenga
What I am gathering from the video is it starts off with sounds of debris falling but it is not visible at first. The first visible sign is that puff of dust that appears at the right arch that is filled with CMU blocks. Looking at the infill the CMU blocks do not fill the top curve of the arch meaning it is open to the interior cavity. My thought is bricks on the interior here began to collapse and that puff of smoke was from the bricks on the interior side of the wall falling and the dust escaping through that opening at the top curve of the arch. 7:14 the wall appears to bulge inward in a concave form directly above the openings. Also within the first few frames of the facade coming down the first floor section remains in place and in images of the debris afterward the CMU block section can still be seen standing up.
Yes without filling tot he top of the arch, there is no load contact, and it is as if you never built the CMU filling in that window at all. All loads go down on either side of windows
Great analysis
Good breakdown. I concur.
I find your channel amazing!!!
I live in a two story townhouse with a basement in Middle River, Maryland. I noticed stair step cracks on my wall behind my entertainment center, another large crack in my stair leading up stairs and my bathroom and kitchen door frames have cracks all the way around them.
I have been here 8 years and the landlord has already replaced the bathroom, because the tub sunk and separated from the drain. Directly under that is my kitchen door and basement door. The Landlord saw that the wall next to the basement door was blown out in the center and said "Oh that's a problem" and returned with a contractor to patch it with a black patch.
I'm waiting for my house to fall down.
Move out.
Good job Jeff!!!!
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video Vema
Thank you! I am learning so much from this! Whenever I think about this building I think, giant game of Jenga! I would LOVE if you did a video explaining what kind of shoring could have supported this building properly while the work was being done. Also, the rest of this building seems pretty solid. I wonder if this was not taken seriously because it was just the facade? Was there water leaking through the wall? It looks like there was some serious leaking inside. There is a pipe hanging down pouring water in the video of after the collapse. Just wondering the role water could have played.
The outer wythe of brick is not a veneer, that is a mass masonry wall with header bricks interlocking the multiple wythes (layers of brick). The wall is missing a massive amount of mortar likely leading to bond failure of the wall. Likely freeze thaw lead to the face of the bricks to fail due to the paint trapping the moisture.
Hi Jeff thank you for your videos, will you be doing an update on the Champlain collapse ?
Weve had to brace lots of brick/block/concrete walls.
Usually the engineers calls for one or multiple sheets of 3/4" plywood plus 4inch angle iron down to a footing or placed diagonal to the structure and ground to hold it back.
Doesnt look like any of that was done and on a super large scale like that would be very difficult to do properly with how much damage/buckling there was.
Were any of your buildings 6 stories, thick load-bearing brick walls? The Davenport is a whole different animal than you're used to...
@@johnbergstrom2931 How do you know what im used to? Have you been to my jobsites?! Havent noticed you there. But anyway, that's literally what I said above.
Also, if you listened, what I said is what the engineers directed them to do, but they failed to do so, only propping 2x4s up.
@@evictioncarpentry2628 Even the recommended engineers plan would have been inadequate in this repair. These people didn't know what they were getting into. The wall was just in the process of collapsing and it would have taken a herculean effort to fix it - evacuation of that side of the building, propping up the internal steel frame and essentially dismantling and rebuilding the brick wall.
@@johnbergstrom2931 What part of my original comment where I said " it would be very difficult to do due to the amount of damage/buckling" did you miss?
The recommendation was not a solution. It was a method to stop any further buckling which was supposed to buy some time for further inspections and engineered work.
@@evictioncarpentry2628 You're kind of a bitter, touchy internet troll, you know... Lighten up.
You can obviously see how the bricks trapped between the outside veneer and the inside wall pushing the veneer out, but what about the inner walls? Was the inner wall bowing toward the inside living space? Basically, was the same thing happening on the inside as what we saw happening on the outside? I think I already know the answer. We have to wait for the investigation. Wish I had a fast forward button.
Yes great question Steven
The tilt angel of the fluid cooler on the roof clearly indicates internal structural failures. If the cooler was not properly supported, that, due to sagging with age, could have caused the water incursion others have described. One bad idea after another.
Failure of the façade did not cause this. Failure of the structural wall behind the façade or failure of the structure along with failure of the wall behind the façade is what cause it all. It seems clear that the structural wall bricks have been falling for quite some time as indicated in the pictures.
I think the façade was irrelevant except in as much as it added to the weight of the load bearing wall. Clearly the façade was hiding the fact that the load bearing wall was collapsing.
Wow 😮 watching the building fall is haunting. So preventable too.
Yes, this was a valuable security cam video for finding the root cause
IMO, they should have used better brooms to hold up the facade.
As soon as you mentioned the external veneer, I remembered watching varied discussions and filming of London, Eng. Grrenfell Apts. An absolute, traumatizing Horror show. I haven’t finished watching your analysis to see if you bring that up. If not, I would be interested if you have any comment about this version of Bad Building Designs
an older pic showed it only had 1 downspout . It has a very large HVAC which would weigh tons. Could inadequate water diversion, water damage, and rot cause the HVAC to cave in the roof ? How much tonnage can a roof of that era take ?
I've been eyeballing the hvac too, but with all of the major structural issues in the wall and at the bottom I'm not sure it plays a big role. Post-collapse it obviously lost some of its support but it likely was collateral damage. Now, drainage and lack of maintenance up there could certainly have contributed over the years in a number of ways. The building seems to have had a number of major internal water issues.
The electrical system in the building that collapsed must've had a series of short-circuiting branch circuits/ feeders that completely destroyed the local distribution system. That's why the Nest camera stopped recording when it did.
Thanks. I wondered why it stopped recording.
@@cremebrulee4759 I’m not positive but it’s likely that both buildings were connected to the same utility transformer set up.
@@electricalron Pictures of the building show the utility transformer very close to the building, maybe some of the falling rubble damaged that transformer. I'd think there would be a main breaker or fuse for the building that would trip or blow before the primary fuse for the transformer would.
@@brianleeper5737 The problem here being, the primary is fused inside that enclosure, and that same primary line ran to the transformer of the building with the Nest camera ...so the primary was shorted to ground if the enclosure was crushed and a bigger primary fuse on that lateral circuit would have blown. Lateral circuits are fed from the main feed line which is starts back at the substation.
@@uploadJ Pad mount transformer that feeds my house is fused at both the transformer AND the pole it's fed from. That pole feeds 2 other padmount transformers and they all have a fuse at that pole too.
It wasn't the brick veneer that was the cause of the failure, but the main wall failing behind the veneer!
They should find the entire structure was compromised by water intrusion throughout the building, making me think plumbing or roof leaking water into the brick structure. The water soaked brick would then have freeze/thaw damage on the inside of the outside wall causing the mortar to fail, and the brick to crumble!
But the interior brick walls also failed due to the effect of water soaking throughout the building. It only points out how much coverup had been going on over the decades, rather than proper maintenance to correct the defects! But that was evident by the photos of the interior walls prior to the failures.
This reminds me of the major bridge collapse in CT in the 80’s. My ex and her family lived south of Hartford, I’m not from there, just spent time on leave from the military there.
The State ordered a review of their bridges and found many to be is a similar state of disrepair.
The States answer wasn’t to begin an aggressive repair program, but to “close” all affected highways and bridges with signs that stated “road closed, state liability limited”. Didn’t stop the cops from writing tickets, just an attempt to shield the state from deserved lawsuits.
2:10, I can see massive modifications made to the building to accommodate a modern HVAC system.
What other modifications were made over the years that we couldn't see?
We see the the outer brick come down but I don't think it's the outside that caused the collapse as you said. As we saw at the tower, it was more an internal problem with the water. I wonder if we will see any pics from the bottom floor of columns that collapsed. I can't believe with the gap of 14" that it would bring down the whole area. I'm getting sick of seeing this neglect and people losing their lives for money or poor contractors cutting costs or both.
Thanks @jeffostroff cause tv coverage stinks other than saying 3 people still missing.
Odd since much of the video and pics came from that tv coverage (WQAD and WHBF)
@@dubuque1 the national news isn’t covering it much. I’m in Florida and I was thinking with the 💩show the city and FD has done that it would attract more national attention.
Reading some of the comments from people and watching these videos, it's absolutely criminal what that building owner did just to save a few bucks. Hope there's some sort of justice waiting for him. Thank you for such informative videos, I've learned so much more about structural engineering from your work.
Thanks glad to help
I have been looking at the whole thing for some time as well. Your videos have helped, but the real cause of the failure is from the roof leaking and the original roof drain being inside in this location, it was built for the water to drain here, causing most of the roof to pass thru the structure here. Yes it could have never had a problem but this leaking went on for at least 40/50 years.
The new owner new of problems but always probably thought it was just the outer portion, but from your pics it was exactly what I suspected and if the rest of the building is not in bad shape it could all be fixed.
No, that isn't the cause. You are talking out of your ass...
Water didn't cause the building to fall, removing load-bearing brick did.
The underlying cause is the stupid 'hybridized' design of the building, plus the aged brittleness of the crap mortar they used back then in masonry work. Throw in a cut-rate, bumblefuck repair job, you get collapse.
If you watch the full version of the collapse video, at about 2 1/2 minutes before the main collapse, you'll see a chunk fall just to the left of the last steel brace on the right.
It should be noted. there are special paints for painting brick, mineral-based that allow the brick to breath
Just looking at the pictures after the exterior bricks were removed I could tell that there was little support and was horrified that it didn't collapse while they were being removed due to the vibrations. Clearly no one was listening to the experts.
Think of a V,the the bricks between the door and the old window that are Swiss cheese shifted and the pressure V'd up to the next weakest points.
if the support beams were not properly shored would that not cause a failure at the beam attachment to bring the floors done above it?
Another engineer said there was no support between the cement blocks and the brick arches. Therefore all the weight of that section of building was supported by the narrow construction between door / cement bricks, the 2nd cement bricks and the construction after that.
Thank you Jeff for educating us. City officials sure are not being transparent
The structure here apparently had enough redundancy in much of the structure to prevent total collapse. Could this be due to the structural framing plus interior walls acting like shear walls. The part that collapsed looked like a square cake with a square piece cot out with a knife. In CTS only the one shear wall prevented the part over the lobby from coming down.
PS, also I hope you explore why painting this was such a bad idea! Thanks again! I will be watching all your videos. They are great. I had no idea I was into this stuff.