The Cascading Failures Behind One of the Worst Building Collapses in U.S. History

Engineers are still investigating the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside Florida, but early findings shed light on a risk facing poorly constructed residential and office buildings,

- By Sophia Chen

IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS on June 24, 2021, a section of Champlain Towers South, a 12-story apartment complex in Surfside, Florida, crumpled to the ground.Eyewitness accounts and video footage revealed the progression of the condo's collapse. Around 1:15 a.m., a loud crash came from the parking garage beneath the L-shaped structure, as the garage's ceiling, which extended outward to become the building's pool deck, began to disintegrate. Minutes later, Champlain Towers South's eastern wing gave way in two stages with its midsection falling first, followed by the rest of the wing, seconds later. Dust and debris engulfed the building's west wing, still standing amid a pile of rubble.

Ninety-eight people died in the collapse, and hundreds more lost their homes and possessions. It was one of the deadliest structural building failures in U.S. history, and the emergency response to it was the largest ever in Florida, other than for hurricanes. Before rescue workers even finished identifying the victims, multiple teams of investigators began to dig into the aftermath to determine what led to the building's collapse.

Matthew Fadden, a structural engineer based 20 minutes north of Surfside, learned of the incident later that day. Seeing photos of the wreckage, he noted that the building suffered a "progressive collapse," where an initial structural failure leads to more failures, spreading through the building like cascading dominoes. By September, the court-appointed receiver and insurers for the condo association would hire Fadden's firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., to do its own investigation. Given the scale of destruction, and the fact that Champlain Towers South had been built using common methods, the possibility remained that the deficiency responsible for the building's collapse may also exist at other structures. Investigators felt an urgency to find answers.