The former headquarters of Pfizer in Manhattan (NYC, New York) was being remodeled into 1600 residential units.
Workers noticed that the beams that support several floors more than twenty stories above ground-level were starting to buckle due to excessive compressive loads.
Authorities in NYC assured us today that everything is under-control and that all the steps required to mitigate the risk have been executed.
Structural failures due to "mission creep" are not a new phenomena. The Quebec Bridge collapsed TWICE during its construction. Those failures became the impetus that led many Canadian engineers to wear iron rings:
The Iron Ring is a ring worn by many Canadian engineers as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession. The ring is presented in a private ceremony known as the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer.
The text of the calling was written by English poet Rudyard Kipling, at the request of Haultain. Haultain asked Kipling to author the calling partly because of Kipling's poem The Sons of Martha, which paid tribute to an engineer.[7] Kipling's calling sought to emphasize the responsibilities of an engineer, affirming their responsibility to "not henceforward suffer or pass, or be privy to the passing of, Bad Workmanship or Faulty Material."[7] Kipling's calling also affirmed that an engineer must not compromise their work, in spite of external pressures; and was a call for professional unity between engineers
Repurposing office buildings as apartments is tricky. Significant extra weight is added with more interior walls and soundproofing. More power, water and sewer lines are also required. Often the city sewer lines in the area are inadequate.
ReplyDeleteFinally, the building may have hidden issues, or sections made with substandard material. For myself, I have never liked living in apartments and the higher they are, the unhappier I get.
Terra firma: The less the firma, the greater the terra.
DeleteThe I-35 bridge collapse over the Mississippi was at least partially caused by project managers staging piles of paving materials in large heaps. Structural engineers assume most loads will be "distributed".
DeleteKind of make me wonder if some DIE Project Manager decided to stage all of the sheet-rock against one section of exterior wall, you know, to make it tidy and to keep the floor area clear.
That I recall reading once upon a time, Wal-Mart supposedly built some of there rather large buildings with the intent of making them relatively easy to convert to residential housing if needed.
ReplyDeleteHave been involved in more than one retrofit of a light industrial/office building to manufacturing/lab space, the difficulties are not to be underestimated. Sometimes the cost of retrofit makes the project not particularly worthwhile - and will likely require yet another repurposing for the next tenant.
McAllen Texas has a re-purposed Wal-Mart that was purchased by the city and converted to a public library. A very large single story library - multi-purpose center. One of the challenges was cutting openings into the outside walls for natural light transmission.
DeleteI wonder if the New York building had the same issues
Cutting holes in what are probably post-tensioned slabs in a tilt-up building? Oh Joy. How the bleep do you secure the tendons to keep the bottom of the wall in compression after you open the hole????
DeleteBetter to put in skylights.
The wall openings were cut in the panels, using substantial steel 'C' channels bolted through on both interior - exterior sides of the concrete wall for the header. Aluminum composite material (ACM) covered these reinforcements on the exterior side, framing the openings. Interior side were furred out, using steel channel. It appears to belong - attractive building.
DeleteMcAllen Public Library - there is a Wiki page about it.
Hell no. That buckled beam isn’t carrying the load it was meant to carry. That tells me the loads on the structure were much higher than designed. You can’t just put a support in that takes up that beam’s load and assume all is good. You need to evacuate that building, take the loads off it to stabilize it, and the reanalyze the loads (including an analysis of whether any existing structural components are no longer up to spec due to damage).
ReplyDeleteWherever quick easy money is to be made standards and safety will be sacrificed. Anyone paying attention has seen this happen countless times. New York has always been especially vulnerable to this fact.
ReplyDeleteThe possibility of this project ever being profitable just disappeared. There will be no money, quick or otherwise.
DeleteIf any parties already signed leases, they called their lawyers and are scanning the agreements for ways to cancel. Nobody is going to pay a premium to live in a building that appears to be cursed.
The cash-flow models will have AT LEAST a six-month air-bubble in the revenue while cash-outflows accelerate. That is assuming the issues can be resolved, the appropriate equipment leased and permitting is allowed.
The net present worth of the project is deeply into the red and it happened overnight.
One more thought: That event will probably a poison-pill for future venture capital investments in Office-->to-->Residential conversions in NYC for a long time.
DeleteMy bet is this is just the 'tip' of the iceberg on this building...
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing there will be PLENTY of money to be made, though the question of repair/fixing the problem remains. NYC ain’t really known for honesty. Check the Goethels and Brooklyn bridge for reference - has been paid for for 50 years yet LOOK at those bridges; those tolls are paying for something/someone else.
ReplyDeleteSmh... somewhere, an engineer is mumbling under his breath "I tried to tell those bleeping bean counters but nobody listens to the guy that knows the math! "
ReplyDeleteThey had a study of that building on the Smithsonian Channel yesterday. The original design was sound. The building was L shaped when looking at it from the top. The city decided to fill in the dead space with new apartments to increase revenue . The addition was built on a floor that was never designed to carry a load above it.
ReplyDeleteNot a huge surprise. One of my engineering mentors told me years ago the most dangerous statements in engineering start with "All you have to do is.....". He said anyone saying it didn't understand the problem or possible solutions.
DeleteLooks like the Architect and GC decided to ignore the Structural Engineer... I hope both lose their licenses.