On August 30, 1978, the designers of the Citibank headquarters building in the United States were watching uncomfortably as a superhurricane approached New York, because the tall building had serious design flaws and was likely to collapse.
The Citibank Headquarters Building, the seventh tallest building in the world at 279 meters, was located in the economic center of Manhattan, New York, USA, surrounded by a dense array of cafes, retail shops and restaurants. Why would such an important edifice have design flaws that one hurricane would be enough to keep its life hanging by a thread?
It all started with the building's designer, Willem Lemesserl. William graduated from Harvard University in the United States, studied architecture at Harvard Design School and MIT, and the genius designer was responsible for the structural engineering of many famous buildings.
At this time, Citibank spent $40 million to buy a piece of land in Manhattan, and the owner asked for a modern church in the corner of the building. This can create a big problem for designers, because the four columns of the building are generally on the four corners, and now that one corner is occupied by the church, isn't this building missing a column?
Citibank approached William, hoping the genius would come up with a perfect solution. One day, while eating at a nearby restaurant, William had a whim and sketched the design on a napkin. He decided to move away from traditional construction methods and moved four columns from the corners to the sides, resulting in what is now the Citibank Building. The tower is entirely supported by four columns, and the ground floor is hollow, like a castle in the sky.
However, in June 1978, just after the building was completed, Diane Hartley, an undergraduate student at Princeton University, was studying the engineering design of the Citibank Building and discovered a huge flaw inside. Diane found that because the four columns were not in the corners, the building's resistance to oblique winds was significantly insufficient. If a super wind blows from the 45° angle of the building, the building is likely to be destroyed.
Hearing that someone questioned his architectural design, William, who was preparing to open a structural engineering class at Harvard, was unimpressed and decided to use Diane's "miscalculation" as a negative teaching material. In class, however, William became more and more alarmed, because if an oblique hurricane did blow, it would increase the structural load on the building by 40% and the load on the connectors by 160%.
William vaguely felt as if the edifice was crumbling in the wind, and if not dealt with in time, he would become a sinner throughout New York and Manhattan. Therefore, William immediately invited a number of experts to conduct a rigorous and accurate assessment of the safety of the building. The results showed that if the hurricane's wind speed exceeded 133 km/h, the bolts of the building would break, causing the building to collapse and cause a chain reaction in the surrounding buildings.
Later, William said in an interview: "I had three choices, first silence, second suicide, and third salvation! William chose to redeem himself, he informed the leadership of Citibank, and people immediately sent an engineering team to reinforce and repair the bolts, which is expected to be completed in 3 months.
However, just 20 days after repairs, on August 30, Hurricane Ella suddenly formed off the coast of the United States, with winds reaching a staggering 220 km/h, far beyond the building's ability to withstand the winds. William was desperate, and for the next two days he watched the hurricane change with little food or drink. Fortunately, just as the hurricane was approaching New York, it suddenly turned northeast at sea, and the building was safe.
It wasn't until 17 years later that a reporter interviewed William, and instead of blaming William, people thought he was responsible, calling him "the one who blew his own whistle", but few people knew that the real "whistleblower" of the crisis was actually the unknown undergraduate Diane.
Although William did not hide the fact that Diane first discovered that there was a problem with the building, she did not learn that she was right until 20 years after the incident, by which time she had long since switched to civil engineering, and she said that if William had contacted her at that time, she might have become a firm architect. #Citibank ##High-rise##头条创作挑战赛 #
