Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: America&#;s most devastating engineering disaster
The collapse of two walkways in the Hyatt Regency Hotel has been called the worst accidental structural collapse in US history. We explore how it happened.
Image Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo | Above: The wreckage of two catwalks scattered through the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel on Sunday 19th July , after a collapse two days earlier
Structural disasters are shocking not only because of their death toll, but also because they often occur in places that feel very safe. We anticipate a certain level of risk while performing a dangerous job or even driving on a steep, winding road, but structural disasters usually come when we least expect them.
That was exactly the case for the disaster at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. One of the worst structural disasters in US history, this tragedy occurred in the middle of a tea dance at the hotel.
Read on as we explore how the Hyatt Regency walkway disaster came to be, what happened, and what the world learned from it.
The disaster
Image Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo | Ab
The Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse
Tragedy, Hauntings, and Lessons Learned
On a warm Friday evening in July , Kansas CIty’s Hyatt Regency Hotel was the epicenter of elegance and entertainment. The hotel’s popular tea dance had drawn a crowd of around 1, people, all enjoying live music, dancing, and the glamour of the s-inspired event. Guests filled the hotel’s stunning multi-story atrium, with many gathering on its suspended walkways for a better view of the festivities below. Tragically, the evening ended in disaster with the skywalk collapse.
At PM, the unthinkable happened. Two of the atrium’s walkways, suspended above the crowded lobby, gave way. The collapse sent 65 tons of steel, concrete, and glass crashing onto the people below. In a matter of seconds lives were lost, and over others were injured in what remains the deadliest structural failure in U.S. history.
But the Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse is more than just a tragedy defined by numbers. It’s a story of lives forever changed, of haunting echoes that linger in the building’s walls, and of lessons learned in the face of devastating loss.
A Crown Jewel With a Fatal Flaw
When it opened in , the Hyat
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
structural collapse in Kansas City, Missouri
On July 17, , two overhead walkways in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed, killing people and injuring Loaded with partygoers, the concrete and glass platforms crashed onto a tea dance in the lobby. The collapse resulted in billions of dollars of insurance claims, legal investigations, and city government reforms.
The hotel had been built just a few years before, during a nationwide pattern of fast-tracked large construction with reduced oversight and major failures. Its roof had partially collapsed during construction, and the ill-conceived skywalk design progressively degraded due to a miscommunication loop of corporate neglect and irresponsibility. An investigation concluded that it would have failed even under one-third of the weight it held that night. Convicted of gross negligence, misconduct and unprofessional conduct, the engineering company lost its national affiliation and all engineering licenses in four states, but was acquitted of criminal charges. Company owner and engineer of record Jack D. Gillum eventually claimed full responsibility for the collapse and it
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