The Controversial Plan for Miami's Deadly Condo Site

My high school friend lived in this apartment with his college girlfriend when it collapsed. He was a very cheerful person, kind, warm-hearted - he was the president of the student body government, then went on to go to UChicago with a bright future awaiting him... I'm two years younger and slept on the very exact dorm room/bed that he slept in in high school and I couldn't believe this when it happened. We miss him dearly every day.

Back in the 1970's general contractors would bribe the city building inspectors to look the other way. It was very common.

I knew someone who had a condo on the 4th floor facing west. She sold it just over a year before the collapse. I spent many a weekend's there and parked in the underground lot. I can tell you that it was a mess. Lots of rust staining on columns and the roof of the lot. Evidence of several patching works was visible everywhere and puddles would form after rainstorms. I'm not an architect, but you didn't have to be one to realize that there was something very wrong with the building.

Difficult video to make. Hats off to the B1M team.

120m purchase price for the land alone and only 57 apartments. These are definitely not going to be cheap!

This report is very accurate from all public reportings. Being a South Florida resident myself, many of us follow this tragedy closely even to today. May the victims rest in peace.

I still persist that a big part of the problem was having the pool deck connected to the rest of the building. This was just like a critical failure bridge where one damaged part causes the whole thing to collapse.

From what I had read about the tragedy, the building's board which is made up of elected tenants, repeatedly refused to deal with the structural repairs needed. Even in the final days, the board prioritized the roof over the overdue structural repairs.

Saw the short an hour ago, such an eye-opening video. Great work B1M, I'm a recent sub and have enjoyed the content very much.

For anyone who has sat on a condo board knows what happens. Owners don’t want to pay for repairs and will push back vigorously. Finally the ground was sold to help owners/victims with their financial loses. You can’t pull that back

The creepy thing is that there is an almost exact copy of the collapsed tower just a few blocks north. If they still don't have an idea why that tower collapsed, I would not feel safe in the twin building. As you mentioned, the collapsed tower got a new 40 year certification not too long before the collapse. So would you want to live in the twin building?

What is not being addressed by this video, nor in any of the comments I've read so far, is the increasingly suspect model of condominium management itself: Residents who are unpaid, amateur volunteers; and who often have a personal agenda when they join the board in the first place. All too often, as was evidenced in the meeting minutes of Surfside, basic maintenance is perpetually put off in the service of keeping Condo dues as low as possible. Governments (notably Florida's) respond by layering in more and more regulations, which in turn feeds a cottage industry of engineers, consultants, and attorneys who advise the boards on what is to be required of them. It's not sustainable.

The people in the building right next door must have difficulty sleeping. Knowing what’s possible with a daily reminder staring right at them.

"Building Integrity" has been a good channel to follow for analysis of this and other troubled building projects.

While this story is a tragedy and I feel for the victims. It's time to rebuild. A memorial is definitely appropriate, but not on the entire site.

One of the more interesting theories about a contributing cause of the collapse was the renovation of several units, which added huge amounts of additional weight that the building was not designed to carry. These included large amounts of marble and stone on floors, walls, counters, and balconies. In addition, bathroom remodelings used extremely heavy bathtubs and large amount of incredible heavy thick glass walls for large shower enclosures. I even saw some videos that showed these additions to the units. The end result were condos that were incredibly gorgeous with high resell values. But it was extremely obvious that the amount of additional weight that the floors had to support was enormous.

If they want a memorial, they should try to negotiate with the current owner/developer to have a memorial garden, etc placed on the property. Basically, pitch it as a feature that provides value to future residents, instead of merely being something that provides value solely to those focused on a tragedy from the past.

It's a interesting video, Hats off to the B1M team

The public has so much unconscious trust in apartments since they're so globally ubiquitous, but this tragedy has been so difficult with me to wrestle with. I'm a huge advocate for cities as the future, but I have to admit that the idea of ONE building holding the lives of dozens of families isn't so appealing anymore....

The problem most likely was, when salt water gets into concrete structures, it can turn acidic and actually eat the columns from the inside and disolve the rebarb. Its why ensure the casing of the concreet is so important. The concreet used in a lot of Miami and south Florida buildings is substandard by todays requirments for dealing with salt water. It wasnt even the best back in the 50s when many of these buildings were constructed, but was allowed. The problem was, if the casing was cracked all the way though they were supposed to do a sonar study (I forget the exact term) to analyze the beam to ensure the rebard was still intact. This was not only never done, but was pushed off as it would be expensive. There were other test of course but that was the easy one. This is why the building most likely collapsed. Now these test were ordered for practically every building in south Florida and the HOAs need to have the money to cover repairs. Next to none have it. As for the new building, I hate it when something that was affordable gives way for more housing for the rich, but I've priced a Florida condo recently, the HOA fee was more than the mortgage and was expected to increase within a few years. I suppose the rich are now the only ones that can afford to live on the beach.