The Citicorp Building and the perils of engineering design
My brother Mike is a retired mechanical engineer. He emailed me this morning and reminded me of a New Yorker article we had both read years ago and pointed me to a fascinating youtube video that retells the story.
In a nutshell, the Citicorp building in Manhattan was a triumph of architectural innovation in its time. But after it was opened, the engineer responsible for the design received a phone call from an undergrad student who asked him how the design dealt with quartering winds. It turned out, that consideration was omitted and subsequent modeling and calculations revealed that there was a virtual certainty that it would be blown down by the end of the century, taking thousands of lives and other nearby buildings with it.
The story is about innovation, engineering ethics and the perils of creativity. I’ve always been in awe of the kind of chutzpah behind designing billion dollar structures (buildings, bridges) knowing the catastrophic consequences of being wrong. Check out the video at the link!
Fixing the Citicorp Building
In a nutshell, the Citicorp building in Manhattan was a triumph of architectural innovation in its time. But after it was opened, the engineer responsible for the design received a phone call from an undergrad student who asked him how the design dealt with quartering winds. It turned out, that consideration was omitted and subsequent modeling and calculations revealed that there was a virtual certainty that it would be blown down by the end of the century, taking thousands of lives and other nearby buildings with it.
The story is about innovation, engineering ethics and the perils of creativity. I’ve always been in awe of the kind of chutzpah behind designing billion dollar structures (buildings, bridges) knowing the catastrophic consequences of being wrong. Check out the video at the link!
Fixing the Citicorp Building
I read that years ago. It’s a great story. What impressed me most was the quiet work done of reinforcing the structure.
This kind of design error is less likely to happen nowadays when there are all sorts of finite element analysis systems available for architects and structural designers. Snafu will have to come up with something new.