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Description
The Hyatt Regency Hotel was a 40 story Hotel built in Kansas City, Missouri (don't ask me why there's a Kansas City in Missouri, I don't know). The construction began in May 1978 and would be officially opened on July 1, 1980, however not before a 2,700 square foot, or 250 square meter section of the roof collapsed. The collapsed section was repaired and the hotel was opened. However this should have been an early warning sign as to what would happen to the hotel a little over a year after opening, on July 17, 1981. The hotel was built during a period of rapid growth for the city, and this, sadly, lead to buildings being rushed and major collapses happening, of which there were several others beforehand. This hotel however, was considered impressive. Its main feature was the giant atrium in the middle of the hotel that featured three futuristic suspensed walkways on the second, third and fourth stories respectively. We will mostly be focusing on the second and fourth ones. Another construction complication, as there were many asides from the roof collapsing during construction, came with these walkways. As can be very difficulty seen in this photo (I will upload a better one from before the collapse as well), they were suspended in the air using thin metal rods. As can also be seen, while the third one was off to the side, the second one was right under the fourth one. When it was first designed, there was going to be one long pole going between the second and fourth ones (I will upload a photo of this as well), however this provided a complication with the fact that it was difficult to get such long rods into the hotel. To remedy this, they decided to change the design so that now, the rods were shorter and while the fourth walkway still hung from the roof, the second one now hung down from the fourth walkway, so that the fourth walkway's poles had to hold the weight of the fourth walkway as well as the second walkway's weight. This would prove fatal on July 17, 1981. On the evening of July 17, approximately 1,600 people gathered in the atrium for a tea dance. There were approximately 40 people on the second walkway at this time as well as more on the third and 16-20 on the fourth. The collapse was fairly sudden, as guests heard a few loud popping noises and a loud crack, and then moments later the walkways gave way. The rescue effort took a whole 14 hours, and was fairly complicated. First off, it was difficult to get cranes and other heavy duty equipment into the hotel. Even worse, the sprinkler system in the hotel ruptured, which created the danger of flooding, which could've drowned survivors of the initial collapse. However this didn't happen, but in spite of this, 114 people died and 216 people were injured, 29 of the dead were pulled from the rubble but later died of their injuries. This remains the deadliest non deliberate structural failure in American history, and the second deadliest structural failure in American history, only being behind the collapse of the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001. The investigation found that the change in design involving the rods, which by the way were 1.25 inches or 32 millimeters in diameter, was responsible. This became apparent when the box beams on the walkways that held the rods as well at the nuts used, were found ripped right through the middle. It was later stated that this flaw was considered incredibly obvious, but it had gone unchecked due to the period of rapid growth. Conditions that would lead to another major structural collapse in Seoul, South Korea several years later. Following this, the hotel would reopen three months later, and in 1983 following the change in design, it was regarded as "possibly the safest building in the country". The walkway remained a feature, but it was given a major redesign, switching out the hanging rod design by instead having it being supported by several much thicker columns that now stem up from the ground. It was also renamed twice, being renamed the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in 1987, and then renamed to the Sheraton Kansas City at Crown Center in 2011, which it's still called to this day.

Hyatt Regency walkway collapse - Wikipedia

Description
The Hyatt Regency Hotel was a 40 story Hotel built in Kansas City, Missouri (don't ask me why there's a Kansas City in Missouri, I don't know). The construction began in May 1978 and would be officially opened on July 1, 1980, however not before a 2,700 square foot, or 250 square meter section of the roof collapsed. The collapsed section was repaired and the hotel was opened. However this should have been an early warning sign as to what would happen to the hotel a little over a year after opening, on July 17, 1981. The hotel was built during a period of rapid growth for the city, and this, sadly, lead to buildings being rushed and major collapses happening, of which there were several others beforehand. This hotel however, was considered impressive. Its main feature was the giant atrium in the middle of the hotel that featured three futuristic suspensed walkways on the second, third and fourth stories respectively. We will mostly be focusing on the second and fourth ones. Another construction complication, as there were many asides from the roof collapsing during construction, came with these walkways. As can be very difficulty seen in this photo (I will upload a better one from before the collapse as well), they were suspended in the air using thin metal rods. As can also be seen, while the third one was off to the side, the second one was right under the fourth one. When it was first designed, there was going to be one long pole going between the second and fourth ones (I will upload a photo of this as well), however this provided a complication with the fact that it was difficult to get such long rods into the hotel. To remedy this, they decided to change the design so that now, the rods were shorter and while the fourth walkway still hung from the roof, the second one now hung down from the fourth walkway, so that the fourth walkway's poles had to hold the weight of the fourth walkway as well as the second walkway's weight. This would prove fatal on July 17, 1981. On the evening of July 17, approximately 1,600 people gathered in the atrium for a tea dance. There were approximately 40 people on the second walkway at this time as well as more on the third and 16-20 on the fourth. The collapse was fairly sudden, as guests heard a few loud popping noises and a loud crack, and then moments later the walkways gave way. The rescue effort took a whole 14 hours, and was fairly complicated. First off, it was difficult to get cranes and other heavy duty equipment into the hotel. Even worse, the sprinkler system in the hotel ruptured, which created the danger of flooding, which could've drowned survivors of the initial collapse. However this didn't happen, but in spite of this, 114 people died and 216 people were injured, 29 of the dead were pulled from the rubble but later died of their injuries. This remains the deadliest non deliberate structural failure in American history, and the second deadliest structural failure in American history, only being behind the collapse of the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001. The investigation found that the change in design involving the rods, which by the way were 1.25 inches or 32 millimeters in diameter, was responsible. This became apparent when the box beams on the walkways that held the rods as well at the nuts used, were found ripped right through the middle. It was later stated that this flaw was considered incredibly obvious, but it had gone unchecked due to the period of rapid growth. Conditions that would lead to another major structural collapse in Seoul, South Korea several years later. Following this, the hotel would reopen three months later, and in 1983 following the change in design, it was regarded as "possibly the safest building in the country". The walkway remained a feature, but it was given a major redesign, switching out the hanging rod design by instead having it being supported by several much thicker columns that now stem up from the ground. It was also renamed twice, being renamed the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in 1987, and then renamed to the Sheraton Kansas City at Crown Center in 2011, which it's still called to this day.

Hyatt Regency walkway collapse - Wikipedia