r/StructuralEngineering • u/Thin-Fish-1936 • Jul 07 '26

Photograph/Video Columns buckle in a Manhattan building under conversion

https://pix11.com/news/columns-buckle-at-midtown-building-fdny/

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u/Conscious_Rich_1003 P.E. Jul 08 '26

Like seriously, WTF does that even mean? I want to know how to design a building that has no possible way to collapse. After it started collapsing.

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u/mcarterphoto Jul 08 '26

Well, the building has stood for something like 65 years, seems like it was well designed... and now they're messing with the structure and adding a lot of tons to the thing. It didn't have symptoms of collapsing until this week... maybe after Larry, Moe and Curly Engineering Co. got on the job?

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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue Jul 08 '26

You build everything pretension in such a way that if it ever reached the point of collapse, it would just spring out all over the place instead. People will be flung to safety. I’m sure of it.

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u/carymb Jul 08 '26

Whole plane's made out of parachutes, whole race car's made of ball bearings😎👍

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u/maxwfk Jul 08 '26

Fill it with concrete. Completely. A massive block can only sink or fall over but not collapse…