Construction of the Empire State Building

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Course Project Troy Paine tmpcalguy@hotmail.com PM595, Professor: Dr. Jayaram Madireddy 07/25/2012 Course Project Part 1 Construction of the Empire State Building Introduction When thinking of the sheer magnitude of a project like building the Empire State Building one could only imagine the amount of vision and determination it took to even take on such a difficult task. To build something so tall and not have it turn to rubble in an instance would take the best ingenuity of today. The Empire State Building spans 1,250 feet into the air and is currently the 7th tallest building in the World. It was built during America’s Great Depression in 1930 and 1931 with a cost of more than $41 million dollars. With 16 design changes, 3000 workers, 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel it is amazing that H.G. Balcom was able to complete this project in 1 year and 45 days. With so many risks to consider when beginning a project of this magnitude it is easy to see right away how the cost and safety of this project were priority one. From the very beginning when this project was just a thought in the minds of mankind, initial concerns were that the overall height and weight of this project would eventually lead to its demise. So as I we look into the possible risks of collapse of this great building we will start by creating a Event Tree that looks at the Design Frame Structure and the possible ways that it can fail. We will now look at the catastrophic failure risks and intermediate risks that will cause issues during construction. Collapse of the Empire State Building Collapse of the Empire State Building Event Tree #1 Design Frame Structure Design Frame Structure Shear Wall Design Shear Wall Design Steel Frame Steel Frame Concrete

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