Faulty Tower, Building Codes & New Fronts in Climate Fight
This is Shutdown Corners, a newsletter about how coronavirus is reshaping urbanism
Construction in Surfside, Florida (CC Images)
The horrendous collapse of the Champlain Towers South on Thursday in Surfside, Florida, has been likened to “lightning strike” by the town’s mayor, Charles Burkett, in an article published Sunday in the New York Times. It’s an almost unspeakably tragedy, given the nature of what happened and reports that an engineer warned of “major structural damage” in 2018, with a multimillion dollar repair plan inspired by that report about to commence.
It’s also a horrible event that happened at an incredibly pivotal moment, as our country reckons with a agenda-setting infrastructure bill, climate change policy, and a housing shortage. To be clear, numerous teams of local, state, and federal experts still need time to pore over all the available data to reach a conclusion about what caused this rare tower collapse. But the mere specter of this incident and its possible causes — the 2018 report noted corrosion of concrete and rebar, likely from the salt air, preliminary examinations pointed to the collapse potentially starting from the bottom of the building — has gotten nearby residents in similar buildings very worried about what the “ever-worsening barrage of hurricane winds, storm surge and sea salt” may have done to their homes.
I bring up the infrastructure debate in D.C. because a key sticking point is how much climate and infrastructure will be intertwined. They certainly should be; “between 2015 and 2020, the United States has seen an average of 14 disasters per year that cost at least $1 billion, compared with 6.5 such events annually between 1980 and 2019.” Even a hint that the Surfside tragedy was connected to, or exacerbated by, climate change, during a week when Portland and the Pacific Northwest are roasting and Detroit and other midwestern cities are seeing incredible floods straining pumping systems and stranding cars on flash-flooded highways, would be incredibly significant. One representative for a company who analyzes and studies storm surge and flooding in South Florida said “it could be a canary-in-the-coal-mine-type event.”
Random ‘80s industrial music connection
We’re facing new realities on the ground, a multiplicity of them simultaneously, and yet still need to proceed with the business of building new homes and businesses and upgrading older ones. According to recent congressional testimony, just over two-thirds of U.S. cities and towns have adopted modern building codes to account for climate risk, and many states with high hurricane risk have substandard building codes. In Miami, many coastal structures built on sand and porous limestone already employ sump pumps to keep groundwater out of parking garages, suggesting foundations are spending more time soaking in water as sea levels rise.
We’re long past the point of business as usual, in terms of sustainability and cutting energy usage. There are a number of local legislation and building code updates, names New York City’s emission-cutting Local Law 97 and the dozens or so municipalities banning gas appliances, beginning to adapt to the reality of how our buildings need to fit into a new climate calculus. But it’s tough going; recent efforts in Europe to upgrade building codes to cuts emissions and boost energy efficiency have faltered due to misinterpretations, and the gas industry’s crusade against induction cooking suggest entrenched power and a knee-jerk preference for “freedom” may make significant switches difficult to undertake.
This week, like so many weeks where the nation has been hit by simultaneous natural disasters, underscores how fragile our buildings and cities can be. If Build Back Better is to become a philosophy and not a slogan, I’d imagine there’s an argument to be made that it needs to be backed up by more and more stringent, resilient building codes and inspection regimes. Regulation for the sake of regulation is never good, and environmental regulation (no matter how well-intentioned) can also delay much-needed housing production.
But if we’re entering a new reality of more and stronger natural disasters, the longevity of our construction and infrastructure investments, and ultimately the safety our our buildings and our lives, may depend on continuously updating how we build and maintain. If the infrastructure package does contain historic investment in climate resiliency and needed infrastructure, I’d hope the way its built, and the way so much of this money is spent, reflects the new risks we’re facing.
Again, the ultimate cause of the Surfside collapse may not be known for some time. But it did unmistakably lead many to think about these connections between climate and construction; residents of not just the sister tower, Champlain Tower North, who had considered temporarily relocating, but others dotting the beachfront are nervous, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava directed city staffers to examine all buildings five stories or higher that are 40 years and older within the next 30 days, per the Wall Street Journal.
Reading List
The U.S. Doubled Down on its Housing Problems During the Pandemic: My latest for Bloomberg CityLab; I’d written up the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies a few times in the past, but this year’s edition, which focused on the inequality caused by the pandemic, was especially timely.
How New York City’s Billion-Dollar Life Sciences Bet Can Pay Off: I’ve been covering the life sciences real estate world for Bisnow for the last few months, and its been pretty fascinating seeing this former niche become a driving force in development as offices and retail falter. This examination of New York City’s life science market underscores just how fast things are moving in this space.
Thanks for checking out Shutdown Corners, a newsletter written by me, Patrick Sisson, a freelance writer in Los Angeles covering the trends, tech, and policy shaping our cities. Please consider referring to a friend, and if you were sent this, please subscribe yourself. Send any tips, feedback, suggestions, or questions to patsisson@gmail.com.