Presentation: Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse – A Case Study
Abstract: On July 17, 1981, two suspended walkways collapsed in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City. It was the deadliest structural collapse at the time in the history of the United States. Approximately 2,000 people had gathered in the atrium to participate in and watch a dance contest. Dozens stood on the walkways. One hundred fourteen people were killed. It was an accident that could have been prevented if a better coordinated engineering review had taken place in the shop drawing process.
The hotel’s design called for walkways to span the atrium at the second and fourth floors. The original design specified continuous hanger rods run from the ceiling through the fourth-floor beams and on through to the second-floor beams.
During the course of construction, shop drawings prepared by the steel fabricator suggested that a set of two hanger rods replace the single hanger rod between the second and fourth-floor walkways. This change doubled the load. The shop drawings were stamped by the architect, structural engineer, and contractor indicating their review.
This building failure illustrates the importance of good communication among the project participants, since any engineer or architect who took the time to review the impact of this change could have seen the possibility of a structural problem. Unfortunately, it appears that each reviewer stamped the submittal but assumed that someone else would complete the review.
The judge held the structural engineering consultants liable for the accident.
What went wrong?
Biography: Mr. Schulman is a seasoned manager and executive with over 40 year’s experience. His activities have included extensive field operations and project management experience on numerous major commercial, institutional, healthcare, educational, hospitality, mixed-use, residential, office/corporate, public assembly, sports, transportation, and government construction projects in the Mid-Atlantic area since 1975, and prior to that in New York City. The general contracting, construction management, design/build, and real estate development projects typically ranged in size from $5 million to over $100 million. He has diverse project experience and background with contractors, developers, owners, architects, engineers, and consultants in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Schulman has a track record of satisfying clients and delivering project results on schedule and within budget.
Since joining the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland in 1994 as an adjunct professor, Mr. Schulman has participated and taught several classes in the Civil Engineering graduate program in project management. He currently teaches Cost Engineering & Control, Sustainability Fundamentals for Project Managers, and Project Administration.
Mr. Schulman has been a full time construction manager, project manager, project executive, and vice president at several construction firms, development organizations, the government, and is currently a senior project manager at the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) in Bethesda, MD.
