People are killed in New York City by falling facades all the time (usually a couple per year). It is an extremely challenging work climate because all these buildings are 100 years old, and in any area but the top 5-10% of neighborhoods the buildings are pretty consistently falling apart. The...
IR/oldest - yes I've mentioned in the thread a few times I/we are not escalating this right now as their solution may not have been what we wanted but is appropriate for the current time. It is definitely speculation but the re-opening is a few weeks away and I/we need to prepare a way to handle...
I mentioned earlier I deal almost exclusively in distressed and at-risk buildings and these situations are not as black-and-white as they appear in textbooks.
If engineers were at risk any time a client didn't listen to them, no engineer would touch these buildings with a thousand foot pole...
Josh - yes you are correct on your understanding of where things stand at the site. I agree with your general perspective. I do a lot of litigation support and that is exactly how I would phrase it. Would a cabal of engineers on the other side agree you had no other choice if you were going to...
Yes. The facility is closed and has extremely limited pedestrian access under the area, and has been fenced off. Reasonable for now.
But in a couple months when the facility reopens to the public, they will need pedestrians to get around this complex of buildings somehow so I think they will...
Thanks retired. I do not think our firm has run out of options yet and the situation is handled for the moment. Hopefully no one has to escalate it in 2 months and the municipality does the right thing.
Boy lots of replies since I started typing this morning:
- Craig: Thanks. I've already been reviewing the NSPE stuff for the US and am reviewing the laws of professional ethics for the state. I still need more time with them.
- rb this thought occurred to me, like, "I wonder if a 12 gauge with...
There's a few things that should probably have been in the first post but I'll take a moment to clarify.
- I am a mid-level practicing engineer and this is a project with several other licensed professionals involved, both within our firm and with the prime consultant.
- I work for a mid-size...
Josh - agreed. Typically this is handled by passing it off to the AHJ for a determination (which can be done anonymously). I'm optimistic I can find a similar avenue to escalate this.
oldest - I hear what you are saying but given that the AHJ has done nothing in the last 10 months, I'm not optimistic anything will happen in the next 2. Hell, 10 months ago I wasn't sure I had an ethical obligation to report this. But at this point it's basically crumbling and obviously I'm...
I'm in New York State. I am a bit concerned about the professional (and possible ethical) implications of signing my name to something that deliberately acts against the interests of my client. Where I'm located, we can typically report to the AHJ anonymously which is certainly the way I would...
Throwaway account because my main has parts of my name.
I'm acting as a subconsultant on a historic facade restoration project for a municipal client. The unreinforced stucco on a part of the structure is in bad shape. One exposure has probably 10' by 10' sections which have de-laminated from...
