The Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse Kansas City Missouri

The Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse Kansas City, Missouri - 1981

Overview • The Hyatt Regency Hotel was built in Kansas City, Missouri in 1978. A state of the art facility, this hotel boasted a 40 story hotel tower and conference facilities. These two components were connected by an open concept atrium. Within this atrium, three suspended walkways connected the hotel and conference facilities on the second, third and fourth levels. Due to their suspension, these walkways were referred to as 'floating walkways' or 'skyways'. The atrium boasted 17 000 square ft (1584 m 2) and was 50 ft (15 m) high.

The Setting • It was July 17, 1981 when the guests at the brand new Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City witnessed a catastrophe. Approximately 2000 people were gathered to watch a dance contest in the hotel's state of the art lobby. While the majority of the guests were on the ground level, some were dancing on the floating walkways on the second, third and fourth levels. At about 7: 05 pm a loud crack was heard as the second and fourth level walkways collapsed onto the ground level. This disaster took the lives of 114 people and left over 200 injured

Original Design

Substituted Design

Close Up of One Beam

Close Up of the Failure

So the question is what went wrong? Just think a bit… Hint: Think carefully about the substituted design and the consequences of that. The engineer who approved the change made a huge mistake.