When a condo building
suddenly collapsed in the Miami Beach area earlier this
summer, killing 98, it shocked the nation.
Rescuers worked for days at the Champlain Towers South in
Surfside to try to find survivors in the rubble. But hope
faded after all surviving victims were rescued and the
mission shifted to recovery.
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People hug as they look at a memorial that has pictures of some of the victims of the collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on July 08, 2021, in Surfside. |
"In 1973, a building moratorium was
imposed partially due to a decaying Miami and concerns about
the sewage system," Ciraldo said. To rectify this, the
condominium developers fronted at least half of a $400,000
bill to fix the sewage issue and resume construction,
according to a Miami Herald report from 1979.
Here is what we know:
'Independent spirit'
The Champlain Condominium Towers North and South were built
in 1981 in Surfside, Fla. a neighborhood that sits just
north of Miami.
"Surfside always had an independent spirit. The Surf Club
was really the center of Surfside and it was built in 1930.
The owners and the members of that club. wanted to have
their own neighborhood and didn't want to be part of Miami
Beach," Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami
Design Preservation League, told ABC News.
During the 70's and 80's, Miami city leaders were looking to
transition into a higher-end market, according to the New
York Times at the time.
But at that time, a quarter of South Beach Miami was made up
of mostly retired residents, many of whom protested the idea
of rebuilding the city as many feared displacement.
"In 1973, a building moratorium was imposed partially due to
a decaying Miami and concerns about the sewage system,"
Ciraldo said. To rectify this, the condominium developers
fronted at least half of a $400,000 bill to fix the sewage
issue and resume construction, according to a Miami Herald
report from 1979.
The Champlain Towers were the first condominiums built once
the moratorium was lifted.
Early signs of damage
Signs of structural damage to the Champlain Towers South's
pool deck and garage ceiling were reported as early as 1996.
Western Water Co., a local contractor, noted in a report the
pool deck of the Champlain condo building and the ceiling of
the underground parking garage beneath needed "concrete
structural repair."
The work was later completed and certified to the city in
November 1997, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
"The most common problems are weather intrusions. The way
you combat that is with good quality solid weatherproofing
and paint; and those repairs need to be identified when they
happen and repaired in order to maintain the strength and
integrity of the building," Peter Dyga, the president and
CEO of Associated Builders & Contractors, Florida East Coast
Chapter (a national construction industry trade
association), told ABC News.
40-year recertification underway
After a Miami-area building collapse in 1974, county
lawmakers enacted a mandatory inspection for commercial and
residential buildings 40 years after they're constructed.
The Champlain towers were in the process of recertification
when part of the building came crashing down.
Morabito Consultants, a structural engineering firm, was
hired by the condo association in 2018 to conduct the
inspection and reported, among other things, concrete
structural damage to concrete structural slabs on the pool
deck due to failed waterproofing. They estimated repairs
would cost more than $9 million, but those repairs were
never completed.
Frank Morabito, a consultant and engineer from Morabito
Consultants, declined to comment to ABC News.
'Very good shape'
Despite the structural engineering report and the detailed
construction plan from Morabito, Rosendo "Ross" Prieto, the
former Surfside building inspector, told residents at
Champlain Tower South at a board meeting in November 2018
that their building was "in very good shape," according to
records released by the city of Surfside.
"When things happen related to building construction,
builders are generally the scapegoats and it may be the
quality of the building," Dyga told ABC News. "On the other
end of the problem is with a building. One that is most
common that we see is failing to maintain. One of the most
important things about building maintenance is
weatherproofing," Dyga added.
In April, two months prior to the collapse, Champlain condo
owners received an itemized bill from the board, a two-page
letter obtained by ABC News shows.
The estimated repair costs was nearly $15 million, $6
million more than what Morabito assessed three years before.
The owners were expected to begin making payments beginning
July 1.
Following the collapse, Prieto, who was no longer Surfside's
building inspector, was placed on a "leave of absence,"
according to a statement from the city of Doral, where he
had been listed as interim building inspector but has since
been removed.
He has not responded to ABC News' repeated requests for
comment.
'The future'
In the wake of the collapse, Miami-Dade County inspected
more than 500 buildings that were approaching the 40-year
recertification deadline to identify any obvious structural
concerns.
Buildings in Surfside that are more than 30 years and more
than three stories high were notified to begin
recertification. Surfside operates as its own city and has
its own building department.
"The future is what is the capacity of a small town when
we're talking about really large development projects?,"
Ciraldo said. "And the corollary of what is the ability of a
volunteer condo association to be the permanent stewards of
these properties," he continued.
In late July, a Florida judge ordered the families who
suffered losses from the collapse to be compensated $150
million -- $50 million in insurance and nearly $100 million
in proceeds upon the property sale.
At the conclusion of the federal agency National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigation, which
could take several years according to NIST experts,
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has
pledged to bring the matter to a grand jury, which will
gather evidence and hear testimony and could recommend
criminal charges or needed reforms.