Cities Trust, But Don’t Always Verify, Safety of High-Rises

A Newsy investigation finds cities rarely monitor the interior structures of towers as they age. That may soon change.

In the years before a section of their high-rise suddenly pancaked to the ground, residents of Champlain Towers South were working to address defects identified in a periodic structural safety review, an unusual local requirement for all tall buildings that reach 40 years old. “It’s very strict,” said Kit Miyamoto, CEO of Miyamoto International, a global structural engineering firm “This is the first thing I’ve seen like that.”   The Newsy investigative team reviewed building codes in seven major U.S. cities and found the more common approach is to require checking structural integrity only when a tower is new.