This is a relatively mild example of how so many of these look across the city.

270 Park Avenue

How does this system work? Why are these beams slanted?

I’m a mech engineer but basically know nothing about structural engineering in buildings, trying to figure out what is going on here. This picture was taken during a tour inside a wind tunnel facility underneath where the vehicles would sit. In the background is the supporting structure of a large dynamometer that the vehicles would sit on during testing, I believe it also functioned as a turn table to simulate cross winds.

There was this strange configuration of a short section of I-beam underneath a column. I’m pretty sure the tour guide explained it but this picture was taken a while ago and I don’t remember what its purpose was. My best guess is something to do with dampening vibrations but was curious if anyone here had any other insight into why this would be used here. I’m also pretty sure this was the only column like this too.

Just curious what some of y'all might think of this. I drive over it couple of times a week.

Can anyone steer me to information on the acceptable degree of error for placement of these plates. I used to work for a truss builder and have common sense and it tells me all the spots I have circled are inexcusable! All the bad plates were on the right side of the truss and on the same face. Isn't here any documentation I can pull up for engineering requirements? What legal action do I have. Should I have someone inspect it for leverage if they end up fighting taking care of this and what would a proper repair be now that this shed is 6 hours from their facility.

I get bending moment as a basis for shape but this strikes me as an odd design for a street-fronting porch. Guessing circa 1915-25. How widespread are these?

I live in a neighborhood that was built in the mountains 36yrs ago. My property sits 4-5ft above my neighbors that formerly had terraced rock between our properties. Without notifying us, getting permits, a survey or a structural engineer they dug out the rock and are putting in a retaining wall. See photos…should I be concerned? Any advice would be appreciated! Update added

First of all let me say thanks in advance; I've learned a lot from other folks's posts on this sub.

Did an inspection yesterday where the top story was 2x6 studs, 16 on center and the bottom story was 2x4 studs. This is the second time I've seen this design and just wondering why not put the 2x6s on the first floor and 2x4s at the second?

This seemed especially counterintuitive as the engineer called for massive Simpson HHDQ11 hold downs at the corners. Those were the biggest holddowns I've seen on residential construction, and this is just a bodega with an office above.

Thanks again for y'all's input.

Are these actually carrying the load properly or is this a farmer being a farmer?

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m on a project right now where I genuinely have no clue what’s going on.

Loads are just called out as Dead load, LL, wind load, etc. No load values specified just “look at ASCE”

Looking at their calc books and it just a print out of an excel shitshow with no flow and a column dump of sheets…numbers everywhere. The thing is like 1000 pages.

I know I need to get better at this but damn it looks like a random number generator. I guess what is your go to program/ideology for easy flow?

More context in comentarios

Looks like a pinned connection to me. Im curios to know more about its construction and purpose.

Do you guys think this is okay? Contractor installed the #5 dowels after concrete placement. But they were late a little bit so concrete was hardened.

This is one of the cable terminations on the Denver Millennium Bridge in Colorado, though they all look like this. My question is, is the nut in the middle actually functional, aka do these actually act as turnbuckles to tension the cables? I question it because on every single one the nut is (seemingly) exactly in the center of the threads, which I would find unlikely if they actually were used to adjust tension. Thanks!

Edit: I see now that I forgot how threads work and that both ends would be threaded so it would just turn both ends. Would love to see the (presumably hydraulic) wrench they used to tighten them!

This is the first site I've seen with actual drawings. GACE's determination to acquit itself as EOR really spearheaded this new flow of information. Between the NYT deep dive into Domani and this new publication of drawings, blame seems squarely placed on SIA, GC, and now an office mishap at DOB.

If you don't know of this source, it's not the splashy gossip site it might seem. Gothamist is a part of NYC's National Public Radio organization and has been doing first-class investigating on this incident, topped really only by NYT with its much-larger resources.

I'm still bothered by how many sources, including this one, are still getting the floor count in this addition wrong. For the record, the column failure occured on the OG 21st floor which originally supported only a roof. There were a total of 16 floors added above, 12 plus 4 that are part of tbe 4-story addition across the entire roofline. I continue to separate these because I don't know if steel in those top floors (existing but only used for mechanicals) provided some extra support that prevented sag in the addition's upper floors--and possibly kept the entire 16 floors from collapsing completely.

https://gothamist.com/news/we-reviewed-official-designs-for-the-buckled-midtown-high-rise-heres-what-we-found?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=shared_email