The Hotel Is 642 Feet Tall. Its 'Architect' Says He Never Saw the Plans.

[Nevilledog]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/nyregion/architect-license-high-rise-manhattan.html?smid=tw-share

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https://archive.ph/Musyh

Amid the glittering geometric towers that dot the Manhattan skyline, the hotel on 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards was designed to stand out. At 642 feet tall, the building soars above the Hudson River, featuring jagged sets of floor-to-ceiling windows that shimmer in the sun.

To all outward appearances, Warren L. Schiffman, who is in his mid-80s and retired, was the architect of record on the project. His professional seal and signature were stamped on its design and those of two other large-scale projects in New York City, a hotel near La Guardia Airport and dual high-rise residences in Queens. All share the same developer, Marx Development Group.

But Mr. Schiffman said he had no active role in those projects, a statement that raises questions about whether the buildings were approved for construction without the oversight and involvement of a registered architect — a requirement in New York State to ensure that buildings are properly designed and do not pose a safety risk.

A document obtained by The New York Times shows Mr. Schiffman’s credentials were used to fake his approval of building designs that he did not review.

The document, a four-page contract addressed to Mr. Schiffman on company letterhead, shows that when Mr. Schiffman retired in 2016 from Marx Development Group, he signed an eight-point agreement with its chief executive, David Marx, detailing how the company’s design firm, DSM Design Group, could continue to use his seal of approval even though he no longer worked there.

*snip*

[Hekate]

1. That's bad. Very bad.

[PJMcK]

2. NYC construction

Typical.

Live safe.

[Wounded Bear]

4. That's where trump made his bones, so to speak...nt

[brush]

3. Oh, boy. I see some lawsuits in that company's future...

now that this has come out.

[Thunderbeast]

5. I see many bitcoin transfers in this mess.

(Where once cash in brown paper bags moved bribes)

[Amishman]

10. Probably Montero, zcash, Tezos, or another that supports private transactions

Many orders of magnitude harder to track for some protocols, essentially impossible for others.

[Demovictory9]

6. oh boy!

[Takket]

7. yeah... that's all kinds of illegal

everyone involved better get some lawyers.

[ecstatic]

8. So he was OK with his name and reputation being on the line

for projects that he never even looked at? And this is another massive failure of NYC to properly vet these criminal enterprises operating all over the city. A 642 foot building deserves a second, third, and fourth look at EVERYONE involved in the project.

[genxlib]

9. Holy shit

As someone in the design industry with a professional seal of my own, that is truly shocking.

It would be bad for your average one story office park building. For a skyscraper, it is almost unthinkable.

My guess is that there still had to be some architects involved. That is just too complex a project to do without that expertise.

I just hope they had a real structural engineer involved.

[William Seger]

13. I'm not familiar with Manhattan

... but I worked for several years as a structural draftsman in the D.C. area, and there, the structural design would be a separate thing signed by a licensed structural engineer, and I never knew any architects who were qualified for that. I suspect that's true in Manhattan, too, so the safety issue may be a little over-hyped.

[bhikkhu]

14. Though if the architect was phony, I wouldn't bet on the engineer being legit

...one would hope, but it's not a good sign.

[genxlib]

15. No doubt

There is definitely supposed to be a structural engineer involved. I was just hoping they don’t have a ghost signing that one.

All 50 states require an engineering Certified person to do strutural. In most states that can be a civil engineer PE (Professional Engineer) but some states require an SE which is a specific licensing in structural that is harder to get.

[PoliticAverse]

11. How long until the first lawsuit? n/t

[Aussie105]

12. I just hope this building

has a good foundation and a strong skeleton.

'We will just add another 20 floors and make more money. No one needs to know!' - never works out well in real life.

Lots of practical concerns with tall buildings - day/night thermal expansion/contraction on all that glass, movement in higher floors due to strong winds causing seasickness, rapid escape routes from the upper floors, plus the weight of water and electricity supplies all the way up, etc.

If the lower floors start to show cracks, run!
642 feet of building can fall a long way and take others with it.

[LudwigPastorius]

16. "Oh, my, goodness gracious, that's...

a new one,” said Steven Zirinsky, the co-chairman of the Building Codes Committee at the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

I think a NYT editor fixed the original statement, which was more like, "Holy Fucking Christ!! Are you shitting me! That place is going to be a fucking deathtrap!!"