See that good looking dude on the left? He's got FAR BETTER THINGS to do than conduct Freepathons! Come on, let's get this thing over with.
Posted on 07/11/2003 2:51:10 PM PDT by JustPiper
The Daley administration released the most detailed photos yet of the Lincoln Park porch collapse Thursday, showing cracked beams and dangling floor boards--proof, they say, that the porch was structurally unstable and had to be removed immediately.
"These photos clearly demonstrate the remaining structure posed an imminent danger to the public," said Corporation Counsel Mara Georges. "There is no way that the city will be found to have destroyed any evidence."
Georges said the city had no choice but to hire a demolition crew to remove the remaining porch because debris was falling on neighboring yards and buildings and was in danger of landing on utility lines.
The city is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it spoiled evidence by removing the debris.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyer Robert Clifford on behalf of David Dermejian--who attended the party and was hurt when the porch gave way on June 29, killing 13 people.
Clifford says the city should have first allowed the victims' experts to inspect and catalog the porch and its pieces before tearing it down and carting them off. But city officials countered that their own experts were able to come up with a cause--unsound construction--based on photos, videotapes and reconstruction.
"The pictures don't tell the whole story," Clifford complained. "It's tantamount to junk science. The photos don't show all the stress points and every structural loading detail."
A professor at Illinois Institute of Technology agrees.
"It's very difficult, if not impossible, to tell what happened from photographs alone. You can't just look at the photographs and say, 'It's an unstable structure,' " said Sidney Guralnick, a professor of structural engineering who studied the 27 photographs the city released Thursday.
Instead, Guralnick says structural engineers would have to examine the photographs along with the collected debris and architectural drawings and calculate how many people were on the porch in order to reconstruct what happened. Missing from the photographs, Guralnick said, is any kind of scale--such as a folding ruler--that would give the debris perspective.
The joists--support beams that city experts have blamed for not being thick enough--seemed to be correctly connected in the photos, Guralnick said. But without a scale, their size is unknowable.
Also, Guralnick said the collapse could have been caused by something not featured in the photos, like the foundation. A faulty or slipped connection under the posts could have caused the accident as well.
Studying the debris before it was removed would have helped structural engineers figure out what happened, but they still would have had to reconstruct the scene using plans, Guralnick said.
"Even if they had been given access to the site, it's not a simple process of eyeballing it and saying this is what happened," he said. "No matter what condition the debris was left in, there would still have to be reconstruction. What was the weakest link? It's a detective story."
The city paid McDonagh Demolition Inc. $8,500 to "wreck and remove" the porch hours after the collapse.
Representatives of Philip Pappas, the building's owner, urged the city to let their structural engineers help in the teardown but were denied, Clifford said. City attorneys explained that city codes only allow bonded, licensed and pre-approved demolition crews to tear down structures.
The victims' attorneys also got some support Thursday from Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), chairman of the Buildings Committee. "There was no numbering of the pieces, which I would have done. The intent was to reconstruct the porch. But how can you do that if you don't know where you're taking pieces away from?"
Along with the photos, the city released building permits for 713 W. Wrightwood dating back to 1986. The most recent permits concern the building's heating and air conditioning system but mention no plans for a new porch.
Michael Moraris, the architect for the project, said he has worked with Pappas on other renovation projects where permits have been issued for new porches.
One of those projects was for a six-flat at 3709 N. Fremont. Pappas had applied for a permit to convert a wooden porch to a metal porch on May 7 and it was approved on June 16, records show.
"He is a stickler for details," Moraris said of Pappas.
Meanwhile, the city said it has inspected Pappas' other properties and found violations on several, including a few involving porches that were built without permits. It released no details.
Contributing: Frank Main, Fran Spielman and Gary Wisby
2 posted on 3/6/02 7:30 AM Pacific by grammymoon:
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As I understand it this porch was overflowing with party goers who were dancing? Did they all get with the beat and cause the collapse. Hey, suppose it was a cacaphonus rap song. Should we sue M&M?, (Eminem) Remember when old shaky fell down because the aerodynamics of the bridge and the winds that blew through that gorge were not taken into consideration?
See that good looking dude on the left? He's got FAR BETTER THINGS to do than conduct Freepathons! Come on, let's get this thing over with.
If he wanted to bash Chicago, he'd talk about the Bears.
But if I'd been the plaintiffs' attys I would have filed a motion for preservation of evidence the moment I was hired.
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