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When New York's Citicorp tower was completed in
1977, it was the seventh tallest building in the world. Many structural engineers hailed
the tower for its technical elegance and singular grace. The tower was notable for its
sleek aluminum sides and provocative slash-topped design. The structural engineer who
designed the steel superstructure was William J. LeMessurier, who not long after the
building was completed was elected into the National Academy of Engineering, which is the
highest honor his profession bestows.
But according to Joe Morgenstern in New Yorker
magazine, one year after the building opened, LeMessurier came to a frightening
realization. The Citicorp tower was flawed. Without LeMessurier's approval, during
construction the joints in the steel superstructure had been bolted, which is a common and
acceptable practice but does not make for as strong a joint as welding does. What made
that a critical problem, though, was that in LeMessurier's calculations he had not taken
into account the extra force of a nonperpendicular wind.
He now calculated that the joint most vulnerable to
such winds was on the thirteenth floor. If that joint gave way, the whole building would
come tumbling down. He talked with meteorologists and found that a wind strong enough to
buckle that crucial joint came every sixteen years in New York.
LeMessurier weighed his options. If he blew the
whistle on himself, he faced law suits, probable bankruptcy, and professional disgrace. He
gave a fleeting thought to suicide but dismissed that as the coward's way out. He could
keep silent and hope for the best. But lives were at stake.
So he did what he had to do. He informed all
concerned. City and corporate leaders faced the problem in a professional manner, and
plans were drawn to strengthen the joints by welding steel plates to them. Contingency
plans were made to ensure people's safety during the work, and the welding began in August
of 1978.
After the work was completed three months later,
the building was strong enough to withstand a storm of the severity that hits New York
only once every seven hundred years. In fact it was now one of the safest structures ever
built.
The repairs cost millions of dollars. Nevertheless
LeMessurier's career and reputation were not destroyed but enhanced. One engineer
commended LeMessurier for being a man who had the courage to say, "I got a problem; I
made the problem; let's fix the problem."
You may come to a point where you realize your life
is like that flawed building. Although by all appearances you are strong and successful
and together, you know you have points of weakness that make you vulnerable to collapse.
What do you do?
You come clean, get help, and get fixed.
Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers,
& Writers
Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 278-279.
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