Examining the Center City Balcony Collapse | DENENA | POINTS

Examining the Center City Balcony Collapse

Pictures show a balcony platform still jutting from the fourth floor exterior, and a tangled heap of metal that looks like a guardrail assemblage tangled on the ground below. The balcony collapse attorneys at Denena Points, PC note that the third floor balcony platform and guardrail appear to still be in place, though seriously dented. Perhaps by the heavy impact of the fourth floor guardrail.

Joseph R. Loferski, PhD and Frank E. Woeste. PE, PhD, recently released a report examining the dangers of deck and deck rail collapses. (Structural Safety of Wood Decks and Deck Guards) Although their report focuses most closely on the safe construction of wooden decks and rails, the primary hardware connection issues apply as well to metal and concrete decks and balconies.

The two engineers maintain that the primary reasons for guardrail failure involve:

  • Connection of the guard post to the deck (or balcony);
  • Connection of the rails to the post; or
  • Connection of the pickets to the rails.

And because the structures are outside, they suffer more weathering and corrosion than indoor structures.

In the pictures from the Rittenhouse Square Center City, Philadelphia collapse, it appears that the guardrail failed, sending one young man to his death, and two young women to severe and perhaps incapacitating injuries involving broken backs.

The reasons for these catastrophic injuries need to be examined.

  • Was the guardrail not adequately attached to the balcony platform?
  • Was the guardrail not attached to the main apartment structure by secure through bolts?

In the meantime, reports state that residents apparently are not allowed to use their balconies, and in the event of emergency are limited to their front doors, a very dangerous condition. (6abc.com WPVI-TV Philadelphia) Reports say that the building’s owner, the Khorram Group, has no history of violations for the site. And that the city only inspects if there is a complaint.

Our balcony collapse attorneys note that the city of Philadelphia and its Department of Licenses and Inspections are under fire for lax practices since the Center City building collapse this past summer that killed 6 people and injured 14 in a Salvation Army store adjacent to a building undergoing demolition. Read more about the Center City building collapse controversy that involved the Salvation Army store.