The Building That Didn't Fall Down

Michael Greenburg’s new book The Great Miscalculation is exactly the kind of book I enjoy. I’m a big fan of books on history or science. Combine the two — books about the history of science — and I’m in my book reading happy place. As a civil engineering graduate, I can’t help but think that Greenburg’s book is something even better — what you might call a “history of engineering”. The book takes a look back in history and examines the case of a structural engineering miscalculation that could have led to a serious building collapse, narrowly avoided by one engineer’s professional ethics.

This is a story at the intersection of American capitalism, engineering, and professional responsibility. In Greenburg’s hands the story unfolds carefully, methodically, and compellingly.

By the start of the 1970s New York’s First National City Bank (Citicorp) was one of nation’s largest and most successful financial corporations. Their headquarters building at 399 Park Avenue, on land once owned by John Jacob Aster, had become timeworn. The company needed a new headquarters, one that would project an image consistent with their international success yet reflecting their New York roots.

At the time the city of New York was struggling. Crime was rampant, and the city itself was struggling financially, inexorably progressing right up to the brink of bankruptcy. Many corporations were fleeing the city for greener suburban locales. But Citicorp, and its CEO Walter Wriston, were determined to build in Manhattan, to demonstrate their faith that the city would overcome its troubles, and to help it do so.

Real estate agents quietly working on behalf of Citicorp focused their efforts on one block in midtown Manhattan, close to the existing headquarters. There, on the corner of the block, the century old St. Peter’s congregation meet weekly in their likewise timeworn church. The church’s pastor, Ralph Peterson, had no intention of moving, feeling a need to serve the community the church had grown up in. He too wanted to demonstrate his faith that the city would overcome its difficulties, and wanted to help it do so.

So, an agreement was struck - Citicorp would raise its structure around and above St. Peters and provide the congregation with funding to replace their timeworn structure with a brand new one, right on the corner where the old church sat. That agreement posed an engineering challenge - how to build the skyscraper Citicorp wanted when it had to float above one corner of the site on which it would stand.

To meet that challenge Citicorp turned to architect Hugh Stubbins Jr., who in turn engaged associate architects Emery Roth & Sons, and structural engineer William LeMessurier. The design they implemented and built was completed in 1977. The building won several awards while creating a striking 59 story skyscraper rising 915 feet in the air. The building floats above the site on columns located in the middle of each side of the building, rather than at its corners. With its angled roofline it is a familiar sight on the New York skyline.

As William LeMessurier recalled, in 1978, a year after the completion of the Citicorp Center, a call came into his office from a college student in New Jersey. The student said that the professor of his structural engineering class had raised concerns about the design of the Citicorp building. Surprised by the criticism of this new and lauded building the student was spurred to call the engineer. While it was an affable call, LeMessurier found he couldn’t get the student’s questions out of his head. This, he recalled, was the impetus for his review of the building’s design, and his growing concerns that it had a structural flaw.

The reason for the flaw was wind. To LeMessurier’s horror he discovered that the building was under-designed to handle the load put on it by quartering winds — those coming at the building from a 45-degree angle. Further, a change during construction that substituted bolted attachments for the building’s structural bracing rather than the originally designed welds. That further compromised the structure. LeMessurier now saw that, under the right quartering wind conditions, the building had a 1 in 16 chance of failure.

After some soul searching LeMessurier brought the issue to Stubbins and Citicorp. What followed was a mad (and successful) dash by the engineer, the architects, and Citicorp to fix the issue as a hurricane threatened to hit New York City. All the while lawyers worked to limit the reputational damage to all involved. A newspaper strike in the middle of repairs to the building helped limit public awareness of the serious public safety issue in midtown.

That mad dash was fascinating to read about and reveals how much our world has changed since 1978. Issues of professional integrity, transparency and the public’s right to know, and legal wrangling between the parties rushing to save the building, are all explored. One has to wonder how much differently the story would have unfolded if the call to LeMessurier that triggered this set of events happened today instead of over 40 years ago.

RATING: Five Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

RATING COMMENTS: At the intersection of American capitalism, engineering and professional responsibility, this is the story of a structural engineering miscalculation that threatened New York’s brand-new Citicorp Center with collapse. In Greenburg’s hands the story unfolds carefully, methodically, and compellingly.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I read an advanced reviewer’s copy provided through NetGalley by the publisher NYU Press. The book will be publicly available in hard cover, and ebook on Tuesday, June 3rd.