Structures, Safety and Society: Learning When Things Go Wrong

There will be a reception starting at 3:30pm.

ABSTRACT

Structural engineering has long recognized its obligation to learn from failure in the service of public safety. That obligation has become increasingly consequential as society demands structures that are more resilient, materially efficient, and adaptable to an uncertain future.

This lecture examines the recurring technical and procedural causes of structural failures, drawing on the lecturer’s 45-year investigative career, which has spanned from the 1981 walkways collapse at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, to the 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. The focus is on failures of single structures, mostly buildings, occurring under conditions not involving natural hazards.

Over the last twenty-five years, the introduction of the National Construction Safety Team Act (NCST Act) and the formation of Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS) have served to address some of the challenges of translating lessons learned into safer structures.

Ultimately, assuring structural safety extends well beyond the technical domain of engineers and builders. It is inherently multidisciplinary, encompassing societal expectations, economic pressures, government, and regulation.

BIO

Glenn Bell, PE, SE, NAE, NAC, Dist.M.ASCE, F.SEI, FICE, FIStructE, is a Research Civil Engineer at NIST, where he serves as Associate Lead of the 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.

From 1975 to 2020, Glenn was employed at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), where he worked in structural design, structural rehabilitation, and failure investigation. He investigated the 1981 walkways collapse at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City, the 2002 scaffold collapse at the John Hancock Center, Chicago, and served on SGH’s team that conducted analyses for NIST of the collapses of WTC Towers 1 and 2 during 9/11. His structural design projects include SpaceShip Earth at Walt Disney World Epcot Center and the Aga Khan Medical Complex in Karachi, Pakistan. Glenn was SGH’s CEO from 1995 through 2016.

Glenn’s professional passion is structural safety, especially in investigating failures and applying lessons learned to improve practice and avert future disasters. He co-founded the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering. He was the principal driver in establishing Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures – US, where he currently serves as Director.

Glenn is a Distinguished Member of ASCE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the 2025 Institution of Structural Engineers Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to structural engineering.