OT: NYC Skyscraper facing imminent collapse

[DJ Spanky]

Just heard about this, skyscraper at E42nd & 2nd Avenue has structural support beams which are buckling up on the 21st and 22nd floors.

Midtown Manhattan buildings evacuated after beams found buckling at high-rise construction site

Used to be Pfizer HQ but is being converted to residential housing.

 

[mdk02]

I was in that building a number of times 30 years ago when it was Pfizer's HQ. Everyone involved in the conversion better have their insurance paid up.

 

[24Babybull]

Who cut the wrong Beam?

Seriously every heard on One Seaport Tower?

One Seaport Tower, located at 161 Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan, is an unfinished, abandoned 60-story luxury condominium skyscraper widely known as the "Leaning Tower of New York". Intended to yield 80 high-end waterfront residences, construction permanently halted in 2020 after critical foundation errors caused the 670-foot building to tilt 3 inches to the north.

The tower is completely stalled, locked in a web of more than two dozen lawsuits, foreclosure proceedings, and bankruptcies between the developer (Fortis Property Group) and contractors. While structural engineers state that the shell is not at risk of an imminent collapse, it has been deemed commercially and legally unfixable. Remediation estimates run between $80 million and $150 million. Lenders have entirely frozen construction funds, buyers have long since rescinded their contracts, and no broker can market a leaning tower at luxury prices.

 

[RC1991]

Damn, I used to work in that building!

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I worked around the corner for a few years and the building was part of my territory. Def was inside multiple times!

 

[RUnTeX]

Would anticipate a wave of cancellations among pre-leased units.

 

[RUnTeX]

Just heard about this, skyscraper at E42nd & 2nd Avenue has structural support beams which are buckling up on the 21st and 22nd floors.

Midtown Manhattan buildings evacuated after beams found buckling at high-rise construction site

Used to be Pfizer HQ but is being converted to residential housing.

Retrofitting of failed load-bearing columns was potentially not in the scope of the building renovation/conversion (unless something in the structural due diligence review or property condition assessment during acquisition raised this as a concern). Inevitable budget overrun forthcoming and/or a substantial drawdown or exhausting of the project contingency.

 

[patk89]

Retrofitting of failed load-bearing columns was potentially not in the scope of the building renovation/conversion (unless something in the structural due diligence review or property condition assessment during acquisition raised this as a concern). Inevitable budget overrun forthcoming and/or a substantial drawdown or exhausting of the project contingency.

Have to imagine massive delays, several years, before this gets the go ahead. Time is money so cost overruns will make this a loser for the investors.

 

[29PAS]

The developer said this is “a typical construction mishap”. Really???

 

[mdk02]

The developer said this is “a typical construction mishap”. Really???

"Remain calm, all is well."

 

[IMARUFAN]

Nothing a little duct tape can't fix.

 

[Knight Shift]

Random musings on X:









Internet sleuths pondering the calculations without having taken an Engineering Statics course:

 

[DJ Spanky]

The latest:

NYC building at risk of collapse is 'stable,' more evacuations lifted

Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, told reporters late July 7 that jacks were in place to stabilize the weak points and new steel was being installed to create additional stability. He said that officials had not seen any movement after hours of monitoring inside and outside the building.

“I can say right now the building is stable. It has not moved since we started monitoring it earlier today,” Tigani said. “And we feel confident in the emergency plan we have now.”

 

[iReC89]

The developer said this is “a typical construction mishap”. Really???

understatement award candidate right there, along with the risk being stated as only for a local collapse, not entire building collapse. The problem is the "local collapse" is about 21 stories up, with another 11+ floors above it sagging.

There are a bunch of people working on site that are not getting paid enough.

 

[24Babybull]

Stole this from the NY Times
The Gold portion is the newly added section & little black box is where the columns buckled.

 

[MADHAT1]

All this means : if any of you are thinking about moving to the City, I know a place that you'll find a great deal
on a luxury apartment.
If you act quickly

 

[Bueller]

A comment from NY Post made general sense


sense

 

[RUnTeX]

A comment from NY Post made general sense


View attachment 1357274 sense

Missed any reference to union labor/trades...doubt the bldg addition project was able to avoid having any union participation or arrangements

 

[mdk02]

Missed any reference to union labor/trades...doubt the bldg addition project was able to avoid having any union participation or arrangements

In Manhattan I'd say that's a very safe bet.

 

[24Babybull]

6 Phases of a Project:

• Enthusiasm
• Disillusionment
• Panic
• Search for the guilty
• Punishment of the innocent
• Praise and honors for the non-participants

 

[MADHAT1]

Missed any reference to union labor/trades...doubt the bldg addition project was able to avoid having any union participation or arrangements

Also missing was The private inspection firm hired to inspect that 37-story Midtown Manhattan skyscraper renovation was Domani Inspection Services which a google search found it had faced NYC Department of Buildings fines, including a $12,500 penalty in 2019 after a concrete wall collapsed from a 25th-floor Upper East Side project they were hired to monitor.
The New York Times reported on the firm's history of past citations. [1]
“A firm that inspected alterations at a Midtown Manhattan office tower where columns buckled on Tuesday was cited for missing warning signs at other projects, according to a New York Times review of city records.
google search found theses items of interest
Domani Inspection Services operates as a non-union private firm
Perspectives on Non-Union Labor at the Pfizer Building

A recent major development project at the old Pfizer building—where Domani served as the inspection agency—drew protests from union workers.
“The steamfitters union blames the sagging floors and bending columns on the job being mostly non-union workers, and Unionized construction workers slamming the building's developers for using non-union labor.

 

[Anon1751565407]

Hard to believe that addition they put on top of the old building got approved in the first place.

 

[MADHAT1]

Hard to believe that addition they put on top of the old building got approved in the first place.

Looks like all didn't go according to plan ( from a google search)
>The NYC Department of Buildings did approve the original permits for the vertical expansion, but preliminary investigations and developer statements indicate the structural failure occurred because the developer's execution did not match the approved plan

According to the developer, Nathan Berman of MetroLoft, the existing columns that failed either were not properly reinforced or the necessary reinforcement was missed entirely during construction. The added weight of the new floors simply proved to be more load than those un-reinforced columns could bear.

The NYC Department of Investigation (DOI) has launched an inquiry into the structural failure. The DOB is also reviewing the roles of the developer (MetroLoft) and their privately hired inspection agency (Domani Inspection Services) to determine who is at fault for the missing reinforcement.<

Could be a case of taking an unapproved shortcut , leaving something out to cut costs, to earn a bigger profit that proved unsafe and caused the addition to collapse

 

[Anon1751565407]

Looks like all didn't go according to plan ( from a google search)
>The NYC Department of Buildings did approve the original permits for the vertical expansion, but preliminary investigations and developer statements indicate the structural failure occurred because the developer's execution did not match the approved plan

According to the developer, Nathan Berman of MetroLoft, the existing columns that failed either were not properly reinforced or the necessary reinforcement was missed entirely during construction. The added weight of the new floors simply proved to be more load than those un-reinforced columns could bear.

The NYC Department of Investigation (DOI) has launched an inquiry into the structural failure. The DOB is also reviewing the roles of the developer (MetroLoft) and their privately hired inspection agency (Domani Inspection Services) to determine who is at fault for the missing reinforcement.<

Could be a case of taking an unapproved shortcut , leaving something out to cut costs, to earn a bigger profit that proved unsafe and caused the addition to collapse

Plus, converting office space to residential adds weight to each floor and it is my understanding that residential space actually has different standards to meet compared to commercial for this reason.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Plus, converting office space to residential adds weight to each floor and it is my understanding that residential space actually has different standards to meet compared to commercial for this reason.

I think you are right with respect to these conversions and added weight, specs, regs. good call

 

[Bueller]

Missed any reference to union labor/trades...doubt the bldg addition project was able to avoid having any union participation or arrangements

Oh of course a project like that has to be a prevailing wage (union) project. Wages will be higher, more paperwork, more gov agencies and inspectors tangled-up in each other. Projects like this one will have a lot of chiefs and smoke signals for the Indians. They all want to give orders until there is a problem or question and then they duck and cover. Anyone with initiative can get stuck holding the bag of scat. Dispersal of responsibility becomes a huge problem because everyone thinks everyone else is problem solving when often nobody is. That's been true for a long time but add in the DEI/patronage hires and its worse. A lot of people are not good at what they do.

I remember the "Big Dig" project in Boston where 4000 lb slabs were falling from tunnel roofs and onto cars (killing people). Turned out the epoxies and bolts were used wrong because workers were bad at English. Inexcusable stuff like that happens because some places skirt laws like its a virtue and NYC has become one of them.

"City officials have not determined what caused the columns to buckle. But both Schafer and Emily Guglielmo, a San Francisco-based structural engineer, believe the failure likely resulted from the added load...Guglielmo thinks that either the original design assumptions were misunderstood, something went wrong during the design or construction process, or construction crews overloaded or weakened the structure."

That^^ implies top to bottom issues

New York construction scare highlights the challenges of converting offices into housing

Experts believe the failure in New York was likely tied to this specific project rather than a broader engineering problem.

abc7ny.com

 

[MADHAT1]

Prevailing wage scale to the workers on the project is probably a fact since the developers used The NYC 421-g tax program to get a break on the cost of converting from commercial to residential.
Non union companies must pay their workers prevailing wage when that tax program is used to build or renovate.
What happened is probably like that Frisco outfit said and if a shortcut(s) were part of ( or all) the problem
I would guess original blueprint design being misunderstood would be the excuse given for why everything wasn't done according to plan

 

[Caliknight]

Metaphor for what all of NYC will look like soon. Last company to leave turn the lights out.