Structural Integrity Blog

Citicorp couldn’t build the columns and stilts on the corners of the buildings because there was a church below. The church was already built and they couldn’t tear it down or move it so they had to become more innovative. The architects realized that they had permission to build around the church so to maximize space they chose to build “up” and built over the church making the building almost as if it was floating above it.

The major flaw is that the buildings structure meant that it would be able move with the wind when it blows. It would sway whatever way it was being pushed without the stability on its corners. In most building the majority of stability comes from it being centered and having sturdy structure on its corners. So with a big enough gust of wind, problems could arise, they had provisions to steady it for gusts of winds coming from the sides/faces of the building. The problem was a gust of wind potentially hitting the structure on one of its corners “quartering winds”. They didn't have provisions set for this so it could potentially topple or pose major problems that the builders didn’t even take into consideration, sending the skyscraper line of New Your down like massive dominoes.

A students from New Jersey who was assigned this buildings construction for a class project is the one who discovered this flaw and brought it to construction companies attention. At first she didn't even know her calculations were correct, but her word made it up the grapevine of the company back to Lameasure himself who later told his own rendition of the encounter. It was then they took action in ethics to make steps towards fixing this problem.