Assigned Reading
- The Hyatt hotel project was started in 1976 with Gillum-Colaco International Inc. (G.C.E Inc.) as the consulting structural engineering firm. G.C.E. was contracted in 1978 to provide input for the various plans being made by the architect and the owner pertaining to a 750-room hotel project.
- Havens Steel Company was contracted to make the steel for the atrium project.
- During construction in October 1979, a 2700sq ft section of the atrium’s roof collapsed and an inspection team was brought out to investigate. The inspection team only inspected the cause of the roof collapse. G.C.E requested the owner get on-site project representation during the construction phase. Though G.C.E said they repeatedly asked, the owner (Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation) would not bring in representation because of additional costs.
- The roof collapse was found to be due to the failure of a roof connection at the north end of the atrium.
- G.C.E created the structural drawings for the project, which included the walkways that would cross the atrium.
- G.C.E’s proposed walkway structure was as follows:
- Wide flange beams would be on either side of the walkway welded to the top of a box beam, which would
be bolted to the flange beams.
- A clip angle on top of the box beam would connect to the flange beams with bolts.
- One end of the walkway would be welded to a fixed plate and a sliding bearing would support the opposite
side.
- Each box beam would be supported by a washer and nut that would be threaded onto the supporting rod.
- The bolt connection and the fixed ends of the walkways would be made as hinges. The other ends of the
walkways would be made as rollers.
- G.C.E and Havens had a dispute and the design changed from a single hanger rod box beam connection to a double.
- Havens did not want to have to thread the whole rod so they could install the nut and the washer. Their revisions to the design was:
- The top ends of each of the support rods were attached to the room’s cross beams on the ceiling.
- The other ends went through the box beams and washers and nuts were threaded on.
- Another rod was attached to the same box beam 4” from the first rod.
- Similarly, more rods were made to suspend the second level.
- This alteration created a load twice as strong on the fourth floor box beams as was original planned.
- On July 17, 1981, some people danced on the “floating walkways” and at approx. 7:05pm a cracking sound was heard. This noise was the second and fourth floor walkways collapsing. The third walkway was left intact, being that it was offset from the other two.
- 114 people were killed in this accident, and over 200 people were left injured. Destruction was in the millions of dollars and thousands of lives were adversely affected.
- Haven claimed to have called G.C.E for change approval, but G.C.E denied ever receiving the telephone call.
- Haven misinterpreted G.C.E’s preliminary sketches as finalized drawings. These preliminary sketches were used by Haven to create the metal pieces of the structure.
- G.C.E. did not look over the final design.
- On February 3, 1984 the Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors filed a complaint against G.C.E for gross neglect, incompetence, misconduct, and unprofessional conduct.
- Gillum’s seal of approval was on the revised drawings.