Post #1157037

Perhaps my Google-fu is weak, but I am trying yet so far have failed to confirm the claim made in this video, "Boston's tallest building almost fell over" (https://youtube.com/shorts/lrjiIMbz2BE), that the John Hancock Tower in #Boston, like the CitiCorp Tower in NY, was belatedly found to be structurally unsound in high winds and at risk of toppling. This is not about the windows famously falling out, this is about the building falling over. The video claims that the Hancock was secretly repaired with internal steel reinforcement; and further the records of this were sealed by a court for 25 years. This is the first I'm hearing about this. Wikipedia concurs about the structural deficiency discovery, but doesn't say anything about it being concealed from the public. OTOH, I AM a member of the relevant public and heard nothing about it. Furthermore, I took a civil engineering class in building construction engineering during the relevant time frame (Spring 1991) during which we had classroom discussions of construction in the Back Bay in general, including of the Hancock building in specific, and this did not come up. The construction engineering professor in question was far more dubious about things that had to do with the foundation than with wind loading. Given how he felt about the building, I kind of don't think he would have failed to mention this additional problem if he had known about it, which suggests he didn't, either. Also, maybe I misremember, but I watched the video of that talk LeMessurier gave at MIT (1995). Mostly it was about the CitiCorp fiasco, but the other part was about tuned mass dampers. He is listed on the Wikipedia page as the engineer of the TMD retrofitted into the Hancock, and I don't recall him mentioning the Hancock at all, either its TMD or more substantive structural problems. All this suggests the public didn't know. But now the public knows? Anybody know any more about this? When did this information become public? Was it concealed?