While most structural failures are noticed in time, the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, wasn't so fortunate. On July 17, 1981,when the fourth-floor elevated walkway collapsed, falling onto another walkway two floors down, and eventually into the lounge below.
When the hotel opened in 1980, it boasted a sleek and elegant design, which included a multi-story atrium with three suspended walkways running through it. The walkways were anchored by 1.5-inch steel rods, but the real issue lay in the change from a single set of hanger rods threaded through the upper walkways to a double-rod system that was anchored to the upper walkways themselves, adding immense and undue stress. The design, but had gone unnoticed in the building process.
The collapse occurred during a Friday night"tea dance" in the lobby. Local police chief Norman A. Caron saidAll 10,344 window panes of the John Hancock Tower needed to be replaced because of poor glass integrity. Boston's John Hancock Tower needed thousands of window panes replaced because of poor glass integrity.