I probably did some of both.

At this point, it's ALL conjecture. You should see the comments on al.com, good grief! One thing is certain...the insurance company(s) gonna hire the best forensic company they can find to get to the bottom of it. Hopefully, it'll be clear, but sometimes in building steel structures, shucks happens, trust me, I know! Early in my career, I had designed a tank structure with several huge tanks. Everything was cool until the tanks got loaded up. The daggone flanges of the W section I used for the columns started separating from the webs, you could see daylight for several feet where the web meets the flange. We went to the steel supplier, who said it wasn't their steel, it was my design. Oh, boy! Long story short, my calculations got checked and rechecked by a team of structural engineers, study of the beams under a microscope and tests by a testing lab proved the beams were flawed, the manufacturer had to foot the bill for replacing the columns. But, as a freshly minted engineer, I was sweating bullets!!

Here's the highest resolution image I can find... I find it unusual that there is not one rod tension brace. Every "Butler" style building I have ever been associated with has diagonal rod tension braces.

Dude, I hear ya...looks like those pick-up sticks game I played with as a child...just looks like a pile of steel and metal, I can't tell what's what. I just don't know at this point.

I'll know more in the next few days when all the reports are in. I hate it for the University and the football program because I know how much they were / are looking forward to this facility. But like I said earlier it could have been much worse. It will be completed but it's obvious not for a while now.

Two weeks before it fell....

Bingo. Surprised it didn't fall sooner. Zero diagonal bracing.

Here's what I bet:

It was designed for the lagging (siding) to provide the lateral bracing of the structure (acting as a diaphragm) so until the lagging gets installed it is vulnerable to any kind of wind load.

If that is the case then they should have use guy wires anchored into the ground on either end of the structure to resist wind loading.

It's a shame.

Looks like they installed lateral temporary bracing on the roof but NO bracing where the walls would be. Also, as Irish said, no diagonal bracing. I used to design light gauge steel roof truss systems and we always provided a temporary bracing layout and if the customer wanted an engineered sealed bracing layout we would provide that as well. There will be a lot of finger pointing but I bet it won't be hard to place the blame. I've been on the hot seat in those meetings and it is NOT fun.

You can bet the farm that this project had complete, stamped drawings and somebody skipped a page when they put her up.

Who was the CM?

No doubt; have dealt with GMC and they are a first rate engineering construction firm. Somebody did not follow the plan

Lucky no one was hurt

Check out the rendering on their website. It is a very unique structure. There were very few location options for vertical bracing, and as previously stated, none appeared to have been in place at the time of failure.
http://usajaguars.com/news/2016/12/2/usa...e-facility.aspx

Lots of questions to be answered still:

Who designed the metal structure? Architect/Engineering firm (GMC) or metal building manufacturer?

What was called for regarding temporary bracing? How much was in? In correctly? Defects, omissions, etc..

Which sub was doing the metal structure?

Which structural engineering and materials testing firms were inspecting progress?

What issues, if any, were known before it fell? And by whom? The GC, subs, and design/engineering professionals all have a role in the process. How big a role and responsibility will be determined one of two ways: easy or litigious.

All the parties involved already know the answers. Builders Risk coverage has already been notified. Forensic engineering firm representing the carrier has already been on site or will be by tomorrow morning. I can guarantee you that every party is doing the same thing. Once that report is released, clean up, repairs, and more steel will commence.

Quite a big setback on completion date. Hate to see it.

Wrong. It's uat; we never capitalize it.

A shame about the building, and it's interesting how the engineers on here figured out what happened almost immediately.

And just by looking at pictures plus without ever visiting the site or knowing anything about the project. Now I know how Matt and Jeremy feels. lol