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.