Architect who designed the collapsed Surfside condo was previously suspended after toppling of other structures
More than a decade before William Friedman designed the collapsed Surfside condominium, Florida’s board of architecture suspended him for six months for designing structures that toppled during Hurricane Betsy.
Sign pylons that were “an integral part of the structure” of a Miami commercial building failed during the 1965 storm, according to documents from the Florida State Board of Architecture...
The pylons were “insufficient and grossly inadequate” to withstand the wind pressure of the hurricane force winds, and were not in accordance with building code for the location or “to accepted standards of architectural practice,” the Florida Board of Architecture wrote in its order suspending Friedman.
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The collapsed pylons came after Friedman had practiced architecture for about a decade, documents show.
On Sept. 16, 1965, a week after Hurricane Betsy tore through the area, the director of Miami’s building department reported the pylon issue to the board of architecture.
Robert Ferencik’s letter to the board noted that a building under construction at 2625 Southwest 22nd Street included a sign pylon about 20 feet above the roof line. The sign pylon had failed at the roof line and “collapsed along side of the building.” The director also found that a single-story commercial building, recently constructed at 7001 Southwest 88th Street, also had a sign pylon failure.
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A 20-foot pylon is not a simple design, added [Kaiser] Talib, owner of Kaizer Design Group. “It means that where the roof is, this pylon was going up and broke down from the slab, so the connection may have been poorly” done, he said.
The collapse was also serious enough for at least one prominent Miami architect to alert the Florida State Board of Architecture.
Edward Grafton, a principal at Pancoast, Ferendino, Grafton, Skeels and Burnham, asked the board to “give serious consideration” to the structural failures caused by Friedman’s design.
“This matter has, and will, receive the consideration of one of the newspapers and various citizens,” Grafton wrote in his letter dated Sept. 21, 1965.
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In 1966, the five-member architecture board found Friedman in violation of Florida law and guilty of “gross incompetency, in that he negligently, improperly, and carelessly” designed the pylons. Friedman’s suspension started on June 1, 1967 and ended on December 1, 1967.
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The board found Friedman guilty of two charges in May 1966, with concurrent sentences of six months. Friedman appealed to the Florida District Courts of Appeal, which overturned the second charge. He then appealed the remaining charge to the Florida Supreme Court, but was unsuccessful.
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Records reveal that the pylon issue was not the first time Friedman faced questions from the state’s architecture board. It also received “certain information concerning alleged plan stamping” by Friedman, according to records provided to TRD. But they do not indicate how this claim unfolded, nor do they provide specifics on the allegation.
Talib said plan stamping is an illegal practice in which a licensed architect stamps plans and drawings created by someone else, often someone who does not have a license or is not an architect. This is “very unethical and very illegal,” Talib said. “That is the worst an architect could do.”
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None of these allegations seemed to have impacted Friedman’s career. His obituary described him as a “very unique architect” who designed many “unusual properties” in Miami including a hospital, shopping center, apartments, townhouses and residences.
Among those properties was Champlain Towers South, developed by Nathan Reiber.
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So far, there is no evidence that any of the original development team, including the developer, the architect or the engineer, played a role in the collapse.
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At least one indicator of a “major error” has so far been discovered in the original project plan prepared by Friedman and the project engineer, according to a 2018 engineer’s report on the 12-story condo. [That is the Morabito report] The inspection found that a concrete slab at a part of the building was not sloped for water to drain.
