Engineerings essay

The Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse

In the 1970s, it became popular to design upscale hotels with large atriums, some extending the entire height of the hotel. This feature helped create very dramatic architectural spaces in the hotel lobbies and is still often seen in hotel design today. Many of these designs also included walkways suspended over the atrium. One hotel using this design is the Hyatt Regency Kansas City. Development of this hotel began in 1976, and construction was completed in the summer of 1980. One year later, in July of 1981, during a dance party in the atrium lobby, some of the walkways on which people were dancing collapsed onto the crowded atrium floor, leaving 114 people dead and 185 people injured. The development of the Hyatt Regency Kansas City was initiated in 1976 by Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, which hired Gillum-Colaco, Inc. of Texas as the consulting structural engineers. Gillum-Colaco worked closely with Crown Center Redevelopment and the project architects to develop the plans and create the structural drawings and specifications. Construction on the hotel began in 1978. Gillum-Colaco didn’t actually perform the structural engineering for this project, but rather subcontracted this work to its subsidiary Jack D. Gillum and Associates, Ltd. The general contractor for the project was Eldridge Construction Company, which hired Havens Steel Company as the subcontractor for fabrication and erection of the atrium steel. The original design called for the walkways to be hung from rods connected to the atrium ceiling. There would be two walkways connected to each rod by separate nuts, as shown in Figure 1.

Implementation of this design required that the rods be threaded for most of their length, which would greatly increase the cost of the rods. Havens suggested a change in the design that would avoid the requirement for threading long pieces of rod. It is not uncommon for a subcontractor to suggest changes in a structure, especially if the changes can lead to cost savings or easier fabrication. The changed design, Shown in Figure 2, required that only a shorter section near the ends of the rods be threaded. In the original design, each of the nuts only supported the weight of one floor of the walkway. Unfortunately, in the revised design, some of the nuts supported the weight of both walkways, effectively doubling the load on the nuts. Gillum and Associates later claimed never to have seen any documents related to this change. Nor they claimed did anyone from Havens or Eldridge contact them about this change. However, drawings, indicating these changes were stamped with Gillum's seal in February of 1979. In October of 1979, during construction, part of the roof of the atrium collapsed. There were investigations of this by Gillum and Associates and by an independent engineering firm, hired by the Owner. Reports were sent to the owners and architects assuring them that the atrium design was safe. In July of 1980, the hotel opened for business. In July of 1981, during a dance party people were dancing on the second- and fourth-floor walkways. The load caused by the large number of people on the walkways and by the slight swaying that might have resulted from the dancing helped cause the failure of the connections that held up the walkways, resulting in the deaths and injuries. In the wake of the accident, an investigation was conducted by the Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, This investigation resulted in charges of negligence, incompetence, and misconduct on the part of Gillum and Associates and its parent company. The report indicated that the original design was only marginally acceptable and didn't conform to the

Kansas City Building Code. As originally designed, the walkways would have had approximately 60% cf the capacity required by the code. The changes initialed by Havens and approved by Gillum made this situation even worse. Gillum and Associates was also found to be negligent in its investigation of the atrium collapse during construction and was found to have placed too much reliance on Havens. As a result of the accident, Jack Gillum lost his license to practice engineering, and Gillum and Associates lost its license as an engineering firm. American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) adopts report that states structural engineers have full responsibility for design projects. Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of the second- and fourth-floor walkway supports as originally designed. The nuts beneath the fourth-floor walkway only support that walkway.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 2 is a schematic drawing of the second- and fourth-floor walkway supports as built. The nuts beneath the fourth floor now support the weight of both the fourth and second-floor washdays - twice the load of the original design.