re: Former Pfizer Global Headquarters About to Collapse in Manhattan - UPDATE

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That is going to be on the GC for overloading the existing support columns.

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Unless the structural engineer fricked it up. These renovations weren’t being done without a stamped set of prints.

Structural steel is not galvanized.

Edit... is normally not galvanized. I've built a lot of buildings and factories in my 40 year career. Very view places did I ever see galvanized still used for structural members. The only building I can recall is in UPW buildings on trenches and grating at floor grade or below. The structural support steel in these buildings were still not galvanized.

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I just don’t have any faith that some steamfitter was gonna pencil out the stress analysis on his lunch pail.

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Probably not considering that's not what his crew was there to do. They were there doing something about fire protection when they spotted the failures.

This a commercial high rise, not an industrial building in corrosive environments.stay focused.

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Edit... is normally not galvanized. I've built a lot of buildings and factories in my 40 year career. Very view places did I ever see galvanized still used for structural members. The only building I can recall is in UPW buildings on trenches and grating at floor grade or below. The structural support steel in these buildings were still not galvanized.

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My 30+ year structural design career has been spent working in most petrochem. Which, of course, requires more protection from corrosion. I was speaking of structural steel in more general terms.

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Check for tunnels under the building.

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The 7 that goes out to Queens is right beneath the building.

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Chump change compared to what the phalanx of lawyers who handle the litigation generated by this will earn. In the end, several more bankruptcy lawyers will pick over the bones.

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And if any of those bankruptcies result in a divorce and one of the parties needs a discount lawyer then SFP could get some work.

So there are two separate entities responsible for the construction of this project. One is a shell corporation set up specifically for this project called 235 GC LLC. This company has already established a track record for safety violations. Between 7 and 13 building code violations in a single year.

The other is Metro Loft Management (the parent entity). This company has has been sued for 376 million in the past on a similar project. The suit alleged widespread negligence, structural/code violations and construction defects impacting the roof, parapets, and exterior and interior walls. They've also been sued over not paying contractors, tenant class-action suits for improper administrative fee structures and rental classification issues. They have multiple foreclosures and financial defaults.

How can companies like this still be awarded contracts? That's crazy. It sounds likely to me that this is going to fall on the developers.

It sounds to me like this is unlikely to be any sort of terrorist plot. This sounds like typical greed. Cutting corners, working too quickly, etc. I would imagine that they were moving too quickly and put too much weight on the upper floors before getting the lower floors reinforced properly. This company has a clear history of stupid shite like this.

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Insurance scam playing out in front of our eyes?

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Mamdami stated he has plans to use unoccupied building space to house "homeless" at the expense of the building owners, so I wouldn't necessarily jump to the conclusion that this was insurance fraud.