>...LeMessurier calculated that a storm powerful enough to take out the building hits New York every 16 years. In other words, for every year Citicorp Center was standing, there was about a 1-in-16 chance that it would collapse.[0]
[0] http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/04/17/the_citicorp_t...
I wasn't afraid for myself, though by the large, low-frequency motion I could tell it was a very large earthquake whose epicenter was a good distance away. I hoped it hadn't just taken out San Diego.
Though I'll admit, to go back to sleep and then be wakened by a second large quake (Big Bear hit about 3 hours later; it is considered a separate quake rather than an aftershock) was starting to get a bit freaky.
My daughter was born the day a 4.0 quake hit Piedmont, CA. I was in the fourth floor of a hospital in SF. The hospital beds were rolling around and I could feel the building moving. Very humbling for a guy from Minnesota who had only experienced minor quakes that didn't do much more than make it feel like a semi-truck was passing by outside. I don't know how I looked, but the mother of my child looked over at me and was like, "that was nothing."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuned_mass_damper [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohKqE_mwMmo
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-damper-baby-and-tuned-mass-...
Why? Maybe it's settling into a new spot and the leaning will taper off. I think we need to wait and see what the experts say on this.
We'll measure its angle regularly and bill your insurance monthly until something or nothing happens.
Fixing it will probably require cutting holes and driving down to bedrock, then pouring new concrete. It will have to be carefully done to avoid weakening the foundation and to make sure the new Piles don't poke through the concrete like a bed of nails.
The developer cheaped out... using reinforced concrete is less expensive than steel but it makes the building a lot heavier. Why the city let them skip out on anchoring to bedrock for such a tall building in an earthquake zone I have no idea. I do find it hilarious that all the other big towers going up are happily advertising their bedrock pillar work.
Silly question, but does this mean "built on reclaimed land" in the US? Where I'm from it would mean "built on top of literal garbage."
Working in the city these tall buildings going up kinda worry me with the area being prone to earthquakes. I'm not a structural engineer so maybe my worries are misguided but they're there.