Hyatt Regency Walkway Construction and Collapse
The collapse of the Hyatt Regency Walkway is one of the mostnoteworthy failures of modern hotel engineering, as well as a tragicallyspectacular sight, when viewed in still photography or moving film. Thewalkway was attached to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, a major hotel with a forty-story tower with extensive residence and conference facilities. Thewalkway was build to enable Kansas City, Missouri's numerous tourists andbusiness travelers to take advantage of the hotel's luxurious rooms andconference facilities, without having to leave the enclosure of the hotel. Architecturally, the hotel was split into two components. Thesecomponents were connected by an "open concept atrium." Within this atrium,three suspended walkways connected the hotel and conference facilities onthe second, third and fourth levels. "Due to their suspension, thesewalkways were referred to as floating walkways or skyways." The atriumcomponent of the hotel, while it was still standing, was said to have
(Hyatt BridgeCollapse, 2004) Thus, the customer's, namely the hotel owner's stated need for thewalkway was to connect the different components of the hotel's residenceand conference facilities in an attractive fashion to facilitate themovement of occupants in a quick and efficacious fashion. (Rabins,1992) "It seemed unbelievable that such an architectural masterpiece couldbe the involved in the United States' most devastating structural failurein terms of loss of life and injuries. " While the majority of theguests were on the ground level, some were dancing on the floating walkwayson the second, third and fourth levels. " ((Hyatt Bridge Collapse, 2004) Miscommunication between the designers and the contractors caused thisproposed preliminary design to undertaken as final by those constructingthe hotel walkway. Also, in October 1979, ironically, a small partof the atrium roof had collapsed. However, the hinge design that was eventually enacted was"similar to a second person hanging from the first person's legs," and farless stable. "The first person's grip is comparable to the fourth levelhanger rod connection. Instead, itwas thought that the enclosed nature of the structure would encourageindividuals to take advantage of the entertainment as well as the businessfacilities of the hotel. The second and fourth levelwalkways collapsed onto the ground level, taking the lives of 114 peopleand leaving over 200 guests injured, simply because they were dancing orstanding on the ground in the wrong place at the wrong time. The failure of this 'grip' caused the walkwaycollapse. The design failure of the structured walkway that caused the finalcalamity was attributed to the addition of a rod to the suspension bridgedesign. Rushed design andproduction, as well as a lack of clarity and vision all cohered to create ahastily designed, if pleasing to the eye walkway that ultimately had tragicconsequences.
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