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More than one hundred schools and education settings in the United Kingdom have been closed due to concerns over the integrity of concrete roof panels. So far, 147 schools are known to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), with approximately one hundred fully or partially closed... View full entry
Federal investigators have released their preliminary findings into the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida. As reported by The New York Times, the building’s pool deck contained a “severe structural deficiency,” with construction in some areas failing... View full entry
A city official in San Francisco is calling for extensive reports into the integrity of facades in the city’s downtown after a recent storm caused windows from multiple high-rises to be damaged. According to the San Francisco Department of Buildings and Inspections, four buildings in downtown... View full entry
Reactions are pouring in following the devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria early Monday morning. There are no estimates available yet as to the number of structures either collapsed or damaged across the region, but a minimum of 3,400 lives have been... View full entry
The Miami Herald is partnering with 101 Studios and Grain Media on a documentary that will investigate the deadly 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.
Surviving Surfside will interrogate the failure of the 12-story building in the early morning of June 24, 2021 that left 98 people dead and is still under official investigation, the companies announced on Tuesday.
— The Hollywood Reporter
The Herald's in-depth breaking news coverage of the disastrous Champlain Towers South collapse one year ago recently won the paper a Pulitzer Prize and will be a primary source of information for the upcoming Surviving Surfside documentary. Related feature article on Archinect: A House of Cards... View full entry
DAMAC Properties, a Dubai-based luxury real estate developer, has agreed to pay $120 million for the site where 98 people died in June when the Champlain Towers South residential tower collapsed in Surfside, Florida. — Construction Dive
DAMAC, owned by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, reportedly known as the “Donald Trump of Dubai,” set the minimum price of $120 million for the 2-acre property in 2021. No competing bids were submitted by last Friday’s deadline, resulting in the cancelation of an auction scheduled for... View full entry
Ten people were injured Friday morning when a bridge that carries Forbes Avenue over Frick Park in Pittsburgh collapsed, officials said, with six vehicles including a Port Authority bus left stranded in the twisted mess of a bridge that had been listed in poor condition for the past decade. — The Pittburgh Post-Gazette
President Biden is visiting the city today in a pre-planned visit to Carnegie Mellon University’s Mill 19 research hub, where, ironically, he is expected to deliver a speech on the dire need for infrastructure investment in Pittsburgh and the rest of the country. The Biden Administration... View full entry
A 48-unit condominium building in Waukesha, Wis., that was in imminent threat of collapse due to a rusted structural frame and columns has had its residents evacuated. The City of Waukesha, on Dec. 2, deemed that the Horizon West Condominium building at 315 N. West Ave. is unsafe for occupancy. — Engineering News-Record
65 residents were ordered to immediately evacuate the building, which was originally constructed in 1966. McGuire Contractors, Inc. was called in to temporarily stabilize the structure with new steel bracing, however, the building is still not safe to be in. The company’s president, Steve... View full entry
A new lawsuit filed on behalf of victims and family members of the Champlain Towers South collapse alleges that the incident was caused by construction work on an adjacent property. 98 people were killed when the condominium tower in Surfside, Florida collapsed suddenly in the early morning of... View full entry
At least 16 people have been confirmed dead after the collapse of a 21-story apartment tower which was under construction in Lagos, Nigeria. The collapse occurred on Monday, November 1st in the city’s Ikoyi district, on a construction site for luxury apartments. As of Tuesday, November 2nd, nine... View full entry
But, it was a challenge, Ms. Singhvi said, to understand the architectural drawings without interviewing the original designers. So she and Mr. Baker spoke with experts including structural engineers, architects, geotechnical specialists, professors, lawyers and contractors, who answered questions about what the journalists were discovering and helped confirm they were reading the plans accurately. — The New York Times
The Times' 3D reconstruction of the collapse was very popular online as journalists and investigators dig over records of the original 1981 building by the now infamous William Friedman, who died in 2018. "Being able to read the design drawings helps enormously,” graphics editor Mika... View full entry
Video shot Monday morning shows New Orleans’ historic Karnofsky Shop was destroyed by Hurricane Ida Sunday. [...]
The site, located on South Rampart Street, is where Louis Armstrong played jazz music and briefly worked. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
— WGNO New Orleans
The two-story brick building in New Orleans’ Central Business District has stood vacant for decades and was considered a hallmark of both Jazz history and Jewish culture within the Crescent City. The Karnofsky family, which purportedly loaned Louis Armstrong the money to buy his first cornet... View full entry
The Champlain Towers South design violated building codes at the time of original construction. On the northern side, under the portion of the tower that collapsed, the columns were too narrow to accommodate all of the vertical and horizontal rebar called for in the plans while maintaining clearance required by the code. The pool deck had narrow columns and inadequate load bearing capacity, engineers consulted by the Herald found. Only columns beneath the surviving structure were fully compliant — Miami Herald
A team consisting of Sarah Blaskey, Aaron Leibowitz and Ben Conarck worked with four engineers and a general contractor to analyze the "Anatomy of Collapse" and explain the failure of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, FL. One key factor in the collapse appears to have been "punching shear"... View full entry
More than a decade before William Friedman designed the collapsed Surfside condominium, Florida’s board of architecture suspended him for six months for designing structures that toppled during Hurricane Betsy. Sign pylons that were “an integral part of the structure” of a Miami commercial building failed during the 1965 storm, according to documents from the Florida State Board of Architecture, obtained by The Real Deal. — The Real Deal
In its order suspending Friedman, the Florida Board of Architecture wrote that the pylons were “insufficient and grossly inadequate” and were not in accordance “to accepted standards of architectural practice.” In 1966, the board found Friedman guilty of “gross incompetency, in that he... View full entry
Almost one week after a Miami apartment complex partially collapsed, a 2018 report has resurfaced which warned of “major structural damage” to the base of the building. As reported by The Guardian and The New York Times, the 2018 survey identified a failing concrete slab on the pool deck and... View full entry
