I’d go so far as to say that this building couldn’t exist without state-provided guard labour for its residents. I can see a time when those rubber bullets and tear gas are deployed against crowds of protesters right outside its front door.
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Hopefully the technical solutions to this building’s problems will be publicly shared, as this engineer will be very interested to hear about them. Ultra-wealthy issues aside, pushing the envelope with these types of buildings is what many engineers aspire to do in their careers.
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These people didn’t perform due diligence on something costing them several million dollars. I spent weeks checking out the townhome I bought for a tiny fraction of that. Yeah, I don’t care about their problems.
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I think usually the court proceedings are public.
It’s crazy to me how often it can come down to, for instance, a small crew of workers who just apply exterior caulking to the curtain windows. One time it was that they dipped their fingers in window cleaner then smoothed the caulk, just because that was their habit to make it look nice and neat. But that completely voided the warranty on the caulk and the chemical reaction made the caulk fail after not too long.
The design end is one thing, but getting the thousands of workers to just do the work as written is, seemingly, nearly impossible.
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The one ten doors up is even better (recovering clarinettist here).
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as a diver I’ve always sort of wondered how water pressure works in tall buildings considering fresh water ads 0.432 psi per foot to the hydrostatic pressure and one atmosphere is 14.7 psi so 1000 ft of water is 432 psi or 29.3 atmospheres.
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The architect who designed this building is notorious for creating buildings with major design flaws.
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I would love to hear those stories.
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The elevators are another big question mark for me. There’s a lot going on with those.
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Meanwhile that shiny phallic gleaming Millenium Tower in San Francisco continues its slide.
Construction quality certainly has been sliding with it.
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Is it that a-hole who made multiple concave glass buildings (one in Vegas, one in London) which then form parabolic mirrors and roast things on the ground around them?
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Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.
Cancelled the free breakfast!? What, they expect the zottas to live like animals? What’s the domestic wildlife situation like in there anyway?
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That’s the one…
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I thought people were supposed to be able to learn from mistakes…
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How’s that de-luxe apartment in the sky-aye-aye?
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If he hasn’t yet, this dude will eventually make the “glass floor” concept literal in tribute to his on-going ability to get jobs. When he does I have no doubt it will be curved.
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Rafael Vinoly. Yep.
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So, not exactly the same thing, but a friend recently published this novel weaving building science into a murder mystery that you might enjoy:
I haven’t read it yet, but from his description, someone dies in a guest house and the mystery is to figure out whether it was something the building contractors did that made the house deadly (I’m thinking CO, but not sure) or if it was more hands-on murder.
I’ll see if I can find any concise write ups of some of the real life forensic stuff. I always hear them at this one great symposium, mostly after hours, which was cancelled this year 
If you’re a total nerd like me, there’s also a building science boogie band that performs every night. They are a hoot, and have a YouTube channel.
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