Why the hell did that building collapse in miami?

The building had structural damage that more than likely required the residents to be relocated. Since whoever owns the place would lose money fixing things and having the place emptied, they decided to take a risk and keep it running. So, perhaps greed is the answer.

Gravity.

Just a guess but the foundation was probably eroded by salt water and someone got paid off to ignore the 2018 report.

In 2018 they had the building inspected and it had major structural damage. It was supposedly just about to start being fixed next month

Because you touch yourself at night.

Cheaply constructed building, sold at high prices

People are tryin' to implicate "TERRORISM!" As if they'd have any reason to screw around with a bunch of Floridian apartment trash. Yeah, okay.

At this time we don't know why it collapsed; and I am sure they will figure it out - although that may take many months up to a year.

There are several possibilities - and as of yet there is no clear evidence of any of them being bad enough in and of itself to cause the collapse.

Lets list them:

Sinkhole: At this time there is no evidence of a sinkhole affecting the foundations of the building. Normally sinkholes tend to be large enough that it would be visible. The height of the debris pile is consistent with the height of the floors and typical crushing of furniture and belongings. If there was a sinkhole the top of the debris pile would likely be at ground level or lower, or at least a section of the debris pile.

There is the possibility that a "micro" sinkhole allowed a single column support to collapse into the ground. However, design standards in effect when the building was built assume that any 1 support column gets cut/removed and the building should safely stand.

Improper construction: Did the contractors cut corners such that the structure was not as strong as it should have been (didn't install all the rebar, used cheaper lessor strength concrete, etc.) such that what appeared to be non-crises structural issues were in fact far more serious than should have been. I assure you that they will be testing the strength of the concrete in those support columns an looking to see if the appropriate amount of rebar was installed.

There may be other construction issues where the initial design was changed by sub-contractors to make it cheaper to build. Both the 1981 Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse and the 1978 near collapse of the 59 story Citycorp Center in downtown Manhattan were caused because the contractors did not build the joints that the original architect specified. They found cheaper and quicker ways to build the buildings that appeared to their untrained eyes as equivalent in strength - when they were not. The Citycorp center was saved by a college student who questioned the design they saw built and the original architect had not known of the changes made by the subcontractors. It cost many many $millions to reinforce the connections (and they did it without panicking the city).

Uneven subsidence of the building. This building was built on fill and used a form of floating foundation (no pilings to bedrock). It is known to have been slowly sinking. That in itself is not a problem if the sinking is uniform (we have many thousands of building in the USA on floating foundations that are slowly sinking uniformly).

IF the building is not sinking uniformly - then that adds a lot of stress to the structure - and stress it was not designed for. While it is unlikely this by itself would trigger the collapse. It is known that at least some of the support columns were weakened at least somewhat by degradation. Should there have been a "micro" sinkhole with an uneven sinking of the building... that could also combine to create a collapse. Of course, substandard building materials and methods would also come into play in the case of uneven subsidence of the building.

There was known structural degradation of some of the support columns in the garage area. I have not seen any data on where in the garage area. Could the inspection engineers missed how bad that actually was. Possible, but likely of lessor possibility than a combination of other factors.

Video of the building collapse indicates that the center of that end of the building collapsed 1st. That was where the elevator shafts and stairways came up from the garage area. The swimming pool was a long ways from there, so this could not have been related to the swimming pool deck issues.

There is no evidence so far to indicate any kind of explosion affecting a structure. That may turn up as they slowly take the debris pile away.

They are screening the debris and sending all structural parts to a warehouse for future investigation.

It will likely be many months before we know why the building collapsed.

My condolences to all the families affected by this.

This thread makes more sense than BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service combined. Where do y'alls get your info?

John McAfee.

I'm sure the reason will become clear eventually, but it's all speculation at this point.

My understanding is that what's under most of Florida is limestone, and it's pretty much like a stone version of Swiss cheese down there due to the water dissolving the limestone and forming a huge network of interconnected caverns. This is why sinkholes appear all the time in Florida. It's possible one of those under just a part of the structure put so much strain on the rest that it pancaked.

WeirdGuy mentions how an inspection in 2018 found things that needed work, but my understanding is that those were considered just the sort of non-urgent issues that regularly occur when a steel-reinforced concrete structure is exposed to the corrosive atmosphere of a coastal location.

But who knows? Maybe corners were cut during construction. Maybe the building wasn't correctly inspected. Maybe there's something very wrong with construction, inspection and maintenance standards.

Hold on?! Isn't there a prophecy about building collapse in miami that signifies the start of the end of the world? Maybe just coincidence hmm.

Murphy's law.

I guess we'll never know the answer.

the builders were tuned up on cocaine