Venuworks announced today that the front entrance to the Ford Center has been temporarily closed due to some safety issues involving the glass curtain that faces Main Street. Citing the fact that one of the large glass panels broke for no apparent reason and had to be removed VenuWorks is redirecting event traffic to Gate Four on MLK Blvd.
It was further stated that failure analysis indicates that the slope of the glass wall may exceed building code requirements.
Link to Press Release:
Oh boy, this will get the arena naysayers riled up. The parking complaining turned out to be a non issue so this could be their godsend.
Della, is that you?
Della must be on vacation, hasn’t even posted on that GREAY Earthcare deal. I’m waiting for the positive twist on that. In her view , I bet getting the 16,000 back is a plus, can’t wait.
I believe Della is a dude.
Who is della? I heard he/she got “outed” on the C&P awhile back, but all the posts are pulled…
Supposedly Della is Audra Levy. Former JW PR person.
You would think if it is a violation of code, someone should have caught this a long time ago.
Your right Lon…..but the same could be said about Kunkel Square, and The Main Gate, one has to scratch their head asking who in the city does the building inspections and what does it cost to get them to look the other way?
JMHO
Is this a design flaw?
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No, this is what is known as the tip of the iceberg of cut corners in the construction of this fiasco. From this point forward we can count on one revelation after another for years to come. Wienie-Zapple did his best to hide the kickbacks he got from the contractors, but contractors bit back with shoddy materials and workmanship. In less than two years Wienie-Boy will lose his cushy job at the law firm and will be ridiculed out of town.
The first two things I’d check for, considering the weather and geologic events of the past couple of months, is the effects of heat driven expansion of support and connection materials, and the possibility that minor earth tremors vibrated the glass panes away from whatever connecting and restraint system is used for the glass facade. But I’m not an architect, and am just going on working knowledge of bridge deck design elements relative to heat/cold expansion/contraction and earth tremors.
Does anyone know whether the Arena was built to withstand low-level seismic activity of the sort we tend to get around here (the New Madrid fault zone)?
Well Old Kish used the earthquake in Haiti as inspiration to tear down the Executive Inn so I hope Ford Center was designed to be quake proof.
I have heard that the Arena was not built to withstand even minor seismic activity.
Hope we have a good insurance policy on it, though with the Keystone Kops running our city, it is doubtful.
All of the things that you mention are valid points but should be compensated for by good design and building codes. Earthquakes below 5.5 and temperature swings are a way of life in SW Indiana. The biggest concern here is the statement in the official press release that the slope of the glass curtain may exceed building code limits. That will be a real failure if it turns out to be true. Hopefully this turns out to be a bad caulking job or just on panel installed wrong. The story about a rock or a BB seemed stupid. Surely a glass that can withstand either of those at that height was specified. It will be interesting to hear the conclusion.
I was not trying to make any particular point, only saying what I’d look for first if a large glass wall fell out of a building I owned.
But with regard to the angle of the dangle and “good design,” surely the large and extremely heavy glass units are held back by some sort of securing system besides “caulking.” I’m thinking some sort of stays or stops that secure the edges of the glass to the metal framework. Heat causes expansion, and if the expansion were not even from one end of the system to the other, I can envision one edge of the glass unit escaping the securing system the same way a bridge deck could expand or contract sufficiently to breach the mudwall or peir cap (if the design were insufficient).
Anyway, nothing of what I am saying is pertinent if it was “a BB or a rock!” LOL! I had not heard that one. I heard the glass “fell out,” and just thought maybe it was due to unequal or uneven expansion of the metal framework compared with the glass units, or something to do with the recent low level tremors, or both.
Just something to look into.
Did someone say the glass was broken by a BB and/rock?
Sounds like a remark that Building Authority Director, Dave Rector would make.
I asked Kish at a early design meeting if they were using earthquake proof standards…. he said no. Most of downtown is sand 40 feet deep. Very difficult to creat a stable foundation …. could glass compromise reflect settling? If so , more issues will follow.
I only know there is quicksand under the Civic Center across the street from The Ford.
I believe The Ford sets on friction pilings which essentially are corrugated metal pipes driven into sand and gravel substrata until the accumulated degree of friction resistance to the corrugated outside surface of the piling equals “point bearing” as would occur if you drove H-beam pilings to bedrock. Then iron re-rod (reinforcement)cages are lowered the corrugated pipe pilings to provide tension, and the pilings are poured full of concrete for mass stability.
If the piling pods were designed sufficiently, and all the pilings driven to “friction point,” there should be no settling.
I should add: Earth tremors negate everything about friction piles if the tremors are strong enough and last long enough because sufficient vibration “liquifies” sand substrata and removes the friction that holds the corrugated pilings stable.
In fact, that is exactly how misplaced or defective friction piles are removed from the ground even after they have been poured full of concrete. A massive vibrating device is attached to the pile, and a crane lifts the pile from the ground while the vibrator shakes it sufficiently to negate the friction that holds the corrugated surface against the sand substrata. Earth tremors have the same effect, except the pile can sink rather than rise.
I would guess your description is what Kish meant by no …. I believe the 5th/3rd Building was built on a piling device that involved sinking piles at calculated angles and then attaching them together in clusters so the foundation “floats” on the unstable base. I expect that was a much more expensive footer but you know what can happen if you build your house on the sand……. the windows might fall out……
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