If you have been to New York City at some point in the past twenty years, you almost certainly know all about the Citibank Tower. The building can't be missed - it is the only skyscraper with a triangular roof - one that seems to be made in honour of Mr. Pythagoras (of the right triangle fame) himself. What few people seem to know, however, is that this gigantic structure came very close to falling down on the people of Manhattan island. And, if it weren't for the keen observations of a New Jersey college student, thousands of lives may have been lost in one single catastrophe. So, let's start with a little background on this superstructure: Instead, let's go back in the early 1970’s. The mighty city of New York was on the verge of bankruptcy and crime was riding high. No one saw much future in this place. Citibank Corporation had begun to undertake the planning for a ne

One bright spot in 1977 was the opening of the Citicorp Tower. This 59 story behemoth was an engineering marvel that seemed to offer a glimmer of hope to a quickly fading city. Built for a mere $175 million, this building was extremely light for its size and included many new engineering innovations. Although the skyscraper's roof line is its most prominent feature when viewed from the distance, it is really the base of the building that is most unique. It seems that the tower's designers were faced with a unique challenge - St. Peter's Lutheran Church was located at one corner of the building site. The church agreed to allow Citibank the rights to build in the air above the church, but not the ground that it stood on. In exchange for these "air rights", Citibank agreed to build a new church on that corner to replace their old dilapidated building. What to do?

Overall, all parties involved in this incident acted in accordance with the highest ethical and moral standards possible. These facts lead to the aversion of a major disaster that could have harmed thousands of people.

On Tuesday, August 8th, Citibank posted notices stating that the wind bracing system was going to be reinforced and that the engineers on the project had assured them that there was no danger. Construction began. As soon as the office staff left each night, the crews ripped of the fireproofing gypsum off the wall so that the welders could install the 2 inch thick plates. By 4 A.M. the welders stopped and the clean-up crews came in. By the time the office staff came back in the next day, one could hardly tell that any work had been done - everything was practically back to normal. But one strange effect could be seen across the city skyline. One could easily see the glow of the welders diagonally up and down the chevrons. This strange sparkling glow was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal on August 9th, but no follow-up was done. Everything was still a secret. That was until The New York Times called LeMessurier's office inquiring into what was going on. LeMessurier realized that the cat was about to be out of the bag. However, he lucked out. When LeMessurier went to return the phone call at 6 o'clock, he heard a message that said that The New York Times had gone on strike just at that moment. The secret remained. Weather predictions were filed four times a day from the National Weather Service at the RCA building. On September 1st, they heard that Hurricane Ella was moving up the East Coast and was headed for New York. Could this be the storm that blew over the building? Should they evacuate the city? Luckily, before a final decision was made, the hurricane moved out to sea and the alarm was called off. Work continued until mid-October, without a storm with high magnitude winds ever occurring. In fact, in all the years since, no storm of high magnitude has touched Manhattan. Clearly, the building survived, and the evacuation plan that what was actually known as Plan #828 was never used. To think that it took a phone call from a college student to save the lives of thousands of people...

Some topics in this essay:
Le Messurier, Citicorp Tower, Red Cross, Citibank Tower, York City, Lutheran Church, East Coast, Bethdehem Steel, Western Ontario, Winston LeMessurier, construction company, red cross, increase stress, welded joints, lemessurier building, citicorp tower, citibank tower, college student, 40% increase stress, national weather, national weather service, 40% increase, red cross volunteers, call college student,