MNSEA Monthly Meeting: Champlain Towers South Collapse Analysis (3/11/2025)

Description

Presentation Champlain Towers South Collapse Analysis
 
Description: Early on the morning of June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, suffered a partial collapsed that caused the deaths of 98 people. This presentation will provide an overview of WJE’s investigation of the collapse and will focus largely on structural analysis efforts to evaluate multiple collapse theories, including discussion of code, design, and construction deficiencies that likely contributed.
 
               
Presenters: Jeff Rautenberg & Tanner Swenson, WJE

Over the course of Jeff Rautenberg's 14-year tenure with WJE, his projects have ranged from collapse investigations of high-rise buildings, to fire-damage assessments in single-family homes, to seismic retrofits of century-old brick and stone cathedrals. He received his BS, MS, and PhD in structural engineering from Purdue University and is licensed in multiple states. He is active in the professional engineering community, serving on the ACI 318 building code committee, as chair of the ACI 445B subcommittee on seismic shear, and on ACI 374 for performance-based seismic design of concrete buildings.
 
Tanner Swenson is a Senior Associate structural engineer with 10 years of experience at WJE. His wide-ranging experience includes investigation of structural failures, repair/rehabilitation of concrete structures, and bridge engineering. Tanner received his BS in civil engineering and MS in structural engineering from the University of Minnesota, and he is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states.