ENGINEEREDFLAWS
ARCHIVE INDEX / TOPIC
TOPIC: Disaster Postmortems
Forensic dissections of structural collapses, industrial catastrophes, and mechanical breakdowns.
02 / MATCHING CASE FILESINDEXED ANALYSIS
Disaster PostmortemsNOV 02, 2024
The Citigroup Center Crisis: The 59-Story Skyscraper That Almost Fell on Manhattan
In 1978, chief structural engineer William LeMessurier realized his celebrated 59-story Manhattan skyscraper had a fatal flaw: a contractor had replaced welded joints with bolts, leaving the tower vulnerable to collapse in a 16-year storm. What followed was one of the most daring, covert engineering rescues in history.
Disaster PostmortemsNOV 12, 2024
The Sampoong Department Store Collapse: When Greed Sliced Through Flat-Slab Concrete
On June 29, 1995, the prestigious Sampoong Department Store in Seoul Pancaked into its basement within twenty seconds. Behind the luxury facade was a staggering succession of structural violations: halved columns, omitted shear reinforcement, and 30-ton air conditioning units dragged over brittle flat-slab concrete.