Structural Integrity

When it was built in 1977, the 59-story CitiCorp Center had a fatal flaw that could have caused the building to collapse, and take out the entire mid-town Manhattan skyline with it.

Best Documentary: Bronze2015 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition

2015 / Joel Werner / Sam Greenspan / 99% Invisible, USA

When it was built in 1977, the 59-story CitiCorp Center had a fatal flaw that could have caused the building to collapse, and take out the entire mid-town Manhattan skyline with it.

This flaw - and the plan to fix it - was so secret that even its discoverer almost never knew about it. Structural Integrity was produced by Joel Werner and Sam Greenspan with editor Roman Mars for 99% Invisible .

This story won the Best Documentary: Bronze Award in the 2015 TC/RHDF Competition.


Photo of the winners snapped by Bill Healy.

See more images and architectural drawings at the 99% Invisible website.


produced by

Sam Greenspan

Sam Greenspan (@samlistens) is the creator and host of BELLWETHER, a podcast of speculative journalism. At the 2019 Third Coast Conference, Sam will be part of a Panel Discussion all about new methods of intertwining documentary, fiction & story for - dare we say it - even truer stories.


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