A Tale of Two Sites: Settliing for Less

摘要

Developers in urban areas have a duty to undertake responsible approaches in evaluation, assessment, design, and construction procedures that minimize risk of damage to adjacent structures. This risk often falls on the various project participants, including owners, designers, contractors, and consultants. Opportunities to minimize such risk can occur at various stages during the design and construction of a project. This paper evaluates the various forensic opinions of damage to a two-story, one hundred-year-old office building that experienced significant foundation movement and structure damages during construction of an adjacent multi-story hotel project. It also chronicles numerous missed opportunities to either evaluate or recognize damage potential by various project parties and itemizes steps to aid those involved in similar future projects.