Monday marks the third anniversary of the catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside, where 98 people were killed when the south tower suddenly pancaked in the early morning darkness of June 24, 2021.
Since then, victims’ families — and residents of similar, aging condo buildings here in South Florida — have awaited more definitive answers about what caused the implosion of the 40-year-old Surfside structure. And how to prevent it from happening again.
The latest investigative report issued only a few weeks ago points to a defectively designed flat slab supporting the Champlain Tower South’s pool deck just above the underground garage. It gave way thanks to a structural failure phenomenon known as punching shear, according to the Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, or WJE, a Chicago-based firm that authored the report.
READ MORE: A somber day of remembrance in Surfside two years after condo collapse tragedy
But even before the 2021 disaster, a local engineer — Greg Batista, whose firm is based in Sunny Isles Beach — warned the Champlain condo association about signs of their building’s structural weaknesses. He appeared on WLRN’s South Florida Roundup with host Tim Padgett on Friday to talk about what he told the association prior to the collapse.
“When I was hired by the Champlain Towers, they were actually not complaining about anything having to do with structural,” Batista told WLRN. “They were basically saying, look, there's a planter on the pool deck that is leaking water. So when one of my engineers went out there, he saw that the planter was leaking water and, but he saw spalling (cracking of concrete).”
“So that's when I sounded the alarm,” added Batista. “I told them you can hire me to do this evaluation or you don't do it.
“They never came back with a response. They said, you know, 'We'll call you, don't call us.' And I ended up doing what I was hired to do, which is the planter waterproofing. But of course, with the caveat saying, 'You've got a much bigger problem.'”
For Pablo Langesfeld, the father of 26-year-old Nicole Langesfeld, who died in the Surfside collapse along with her husband Luis Sadovnic, the ongoing investigations make the tragedy that more painful for him and his family.
“We want to know what happened,” he told WLRN on Friday’s South Florida Roundup. “Who is going to be held responsible for that collapse and why is it taking so long”
“We need concrete answers. We need a clear understanding on what's going on,” Langesfeld said. “This is not acceptable by now … we need to find out who's going to be accountable for that tragedy.”
A federal probe of the cause — looking at two dozen different scenarios — may not be completed until 2025.
As he waits for investigators to finish their work, Pablo Langesfeld and his son Martin Langesfeld have been pushing for a memorial to be built at the site of the collapse. The developer who purchased the 1.8 acre site is planning a 12-story luxury condo building, but plans call for a memorial on 88th street.
Pablo Langesfeld said he and his son had a meeting with Surfside commissioners and he felt confident a memorial will become a reality. “It's moving forward, slowly, but it's moving forward,” he told WLRN.
You can listen to the full conversation above or wherever you get your podcasts by searching: The South Florida Roundup.
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