Building Collapse in Miami Beach

[Holeshot]

Great in-depth WSJ article on the whole shebang. Really well done and answers a lot of questions posed here and other places. In short. Developer, engineers, city, and HOA responsible. HOA is the only ones left among the living...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind...0lej1k47mdv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Almost everyone who was involved in the shoddy construction is no longer living:

Many of the key principals are dead, including the architect, the lead structural engineer and the contractor. Records show the development team included Canadians Nathan Reiber and Nathan Goldlist, both deceased. Surviving members of their families either couldn’t be reached or declined to comment.

In a brief interview with the Journal, Manuel Jurado, one of the project’s structural engineers, now 92 years old, defended the integrity of Champlain Towers South but said he didn’t recall specifics. It wasn’t clear why the people behind the project made the design and construction choices they did; maximizing profits is one of several potential reasons. Nor is it clear who made many of these decisions.

The risks of some of the choices made four decades ago were well known at the time, but building codes generally gave developers wide leeway. The 1979 South Florida Building Code, for example, didn’t mandate waterproofing on open-air concrete roofs next to the ocean.

In 2018, Frank Morabito, president of Morabito Consultants, wrote that failed waterproofing “is causing major structural damage” and that the damage would “expand exponentially” unless fixed.

While owners of the sister tower, Champlain Towers North, replaced the pool-deck waterproofing in 2020, the owners of the south tower had dragged their feet on making structural repairs and other fixes, as the total cost had swelled to more than $16 million, documents show. It was to be paid by residents in a contentious special assessment.

“We have discussed, debated, and argued for years now,” Ms. Wodnicki, the condo-board president, said in an April letter to residents. Roof work began weeks before the collapse, but repairs to the steel-reinforced concrete hadn’t yet started.

The day before the building collapsed, the condo owners received a report based on the building’s 2020 finances. It said they had saved nowhere near enough for repairs.

Owners were due to pay their respective shares, ranging from about $80,000 to $336,000 each, the week after the building collapsed.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind...0lej1k47mdv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

[Abacinator]

 

[auntiebling]

1 year anniversary of this and the short in total story is that everything hypothesized that could contribute did contribute. corruption, apathy, ignorance, incompetence... and on top of that the condo building next door that took 5 years to complete, caused damage and introduced new failure opportunities that wouldn't have been present had they not annexed the street separating the 2 buildings.

while this is a brief memorial and synopsis video, the channel has extensive in depth videos that are Very Well presented and researched about all of this. the'yre typically ~30 minute chunks and they go by quick, a testament to how well some pretty technical and boring subjects are presented.

anyway, if i were an owner in a floriday highrise built prior to ~2015 i'd be selling ASAP
[YOUTUBE]QNYqV7ySDrY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Johndicezx9]

I think you need to fix your link...

 

[auntiebling]

I think you need to fix your link...

NO YOU fix'd

 

[byke]

Literally the reply was hoping for.

 

[Johndicezx9]

Good video... explains a lot.