Eric Lach writes about the troubles surrounding the construction of 1 Seaport, a luxury Manhattan skyscraper that began leaning during construction. Something like this happening might come as a surprise in the modern times we live in, but Lach’s reporting reveals the combination of cost-cutting, a lack of due diligence, poor communication and unsafe work practices behind it.
Rather than pausing to fix what had already been done, an attempt was made to straighten the thing out in midair. To compensate for the lean, higher floors were intentionally poured out of alignment, in the opposite direction. This compounded the problem. “What happened was, as the building went up, the parties tried to pull it back and it kind of counterweighted,” a lawyer representing Pizzarotti later explained to a judge. “Your Honor,” the lawyer said, “it’s shaped like a banana right now.”