A 10-story office building in the Baltimore area was evacuated after an underground parking structure was compromised during construction.
According to local news reports, firefighters in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, evacuated the approximately 100 occupants of the 50-year-old Empire Towers in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on July 9 after construction workers reported problems with bars and shifting on the lowest floor of the 42,770-square-foot, two-level garage. The county’s chief building inspector later determined the building was unsafe, not allowing public entry.
The building was evacuated two days later cconstruction crews working on one of New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversions evacuated a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper and neighboring blocks on July 7 after discovering two buckled load-bearing structural columns and collapsed floors on the 21st floor.
In Maryland, the contractor involved and the scope of the construction work have not been identified. No injuries were reported during the evacuation. Although the building is not in imminent danger of collapsing, as initially feared, traffic is being diverted around the area pending further investigations.
Responsibility for repairing the building rests with the group that owns the property and the management company, according to a county statement. The process requires hiring a licensed structural engineering firm to assess the damage and develop a repair plan.
“Once a contractor is hired to begin repair, county inspectors will conduct routine inspections during the construction phase to ensure that permitted repair work complies with the approved plan and applicable building codes,” the statement added.
Originally built in 1975, the 188,810-square-foot building underwent a complete interior and exterior renovation in 2017, according to Anne Arundel County records.
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