One Year Later

The search for John Galt continues, and now the DA's office wants to press homicide charges.

Meanwhile, there's increased activity inside the building, with crews visible in the windows until midnight six days a week. But it's still just as tall today as it was a year ago.

The long, continuing story here.

John Galt Speaks from the Shadows

Today, the New York Times published this new article, providing more information and expanding upon yesterday's article. Apparently, John Galt has released a statement in response to the fines.

Galt, in a statement, rejected the accusations and vowed to defend itself. The company contended that the government agencies overseeing the site often issued conflicting directives that resulted in massive slowdowns and cost overruns.

"Every detail of the work was scrutinized, criticized and finally approved before it could be done," the statement said. "It is inconceivable that these agencies, including OSHA, whose trained inspectors were present at the site on a daily basis, could not detect, or were oblivious to the alleged 'serious and willful' violations that supposedly existed prior to the fire."

The statement said that if government regulators, including OSHA, failed to discover the alleged violations before the fire, they should be the ones charged with failing to do their duty.

But unlike Bovis, who is one of the largest contractors around the city, Galt has no named spokesperson, and no contact person for the press. From where did this statement originate? Who wrote it? Who will take responsibility?

On a more positive note, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved the new plan for demolishing the rest of the building, and so work can resume. There's still no sign of anything moving out my window--and no sign of the new subcontractor on the work site--but everyone is still happily repeating the expectation of finishing the job by the end of the year.

The Search For John Galt

Still wondering just who is John Galt?

So are federal regulators from the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Today OSHA announced that it has cited the general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, and the mysterious subcontractor John Galt for numerous health and safety violations relating to the dismantling of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street. The citations mainly dealt with violations that led to deaths of two firefighters in the August fire.

Among the citations are:

• Failing to inspect and maintain firefighting equipment to ensure that the standpipe system was operational, and that sufficient water supply and water pressure were available for firefighting.
• Obstructed emergency exit access (including sealed emergency stairwells, emergency stairwells blocked by construction and unlighted stairwells).
• Inadequate emergency escape procedures.
• Unmarked exits.
• Lack of fire extinguishers, emergency alarm procedures and fire cutoffs.
• Failing to develop and follow a fire protection program.
• Smoking permitted in work areas.
• Temporary structures inside the building made of combustible materials.
• Scaffolds erected too close to power lines.
• Unprotected sides and edges of work areas, unprotected floor openings, missing or broken guardrails and missing stair rails.
• Exposed live electrical parts, electric panel boards in wet locations and other electrical hazards.

The New York Times article had some interesting information on the fines:

OSHA cited the two contractors for a total of $464,500 in proposed fines. They issued three willful and 22 serious citations to Galt, carrying fines of $271,500 and 2 willful and 17 serious citations to Bovis, with $193,000 in fines.

The agency defines a willful violation as one committed "with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health." A serious citation, according to the agency, is one in which "death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known."

The article mentions one anonymous executive from the equally-anonymous John Galt company who is upset over the fines. He claims that some of the citations are for things that regulators ordered the company to do (like sealing off the stairwells which had asbestos in the walls). But there is a very ominous, yet familiar, line: "A spokesman for the Galt company, which is no longer operating, could not be reached for comment..." No longer operating. I wonder just who was served with these citations, and who will be paying them.

Meanwhile, Bovis and their new subcontractor LVI Environmental Services still claim that 130 Liberty will be completely dismantled by the end of this year. There are still 26 floors remaining.

Is life imitating art, John Galt? Are you exposing our absurdly bureaucratic procedures and government regulations to rebuild humanity—or destroy it? Are our skyscrapers today's substitute for Rand's steel mills and copper mines? I haven't finished the book yet, so I've yet to learn the answer.

Tear That Building Down

On a tentatively upbeat note, it seems that the view out my windows might be improving a bit this year. Yesterday, this article ran in the New York Times. (Alternative link on wtc.com here.) It states that the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building (130 Liberty St.) is set to resume now that the mysterious sub-contractor John Galt has been replaced by LVI Services Inc., a demolition and remediation firm.

There has been no visible progress on the deconstruction since the fire last August. Although, there are still workers going in and out of the site every day—and lining up outside on Sundays for their paychecks.

I have to admit, I still have my skepticism. In the article are a few quotes like this:

A press release issued by the agency did not give any details about the arrangement with LVI, including the cost of the contract, the date on which LVI would start work or how long the job would take.

...and this:

As part of the new arrangement, the development corporation, Bovis and LVI have altered the deconstruction plan. As workers removed asbestos from each floor, crews demolished the clean floors. Under a new two-stage process, LVI will first remove the asbestos throughout the building and then take down the tower. Work could take another year, construction executives say.

Later on, it talks about the deal with JP Morgan Chase, who has plans to build a new 42-story tower on the site. The Port Authority is supposed to hand over the land to JP Morgan Chase in September 2008, though we all know how good the Port Authority is at finishing it's projects on time. And of course, the Port Authority has it's bases covered:

Anthony Shorris, executive director of the Port Authority, said that the authority still planned to deliver the site in September, although, he added, the agreement with Chase included a six-month extension.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. From the looks of it, nothing will change on the outside until the asbestos is all removed. I hope that doesn't take long. I'm still looking forward to having the great view of downtown I was promised when the building was supposed to be finished last fall.

(PS: I'm reading Atlas Shrugged now, and laughing everytime someone says, "Who is John Galt?" It hasn't gotten old yet.)

"Who is John Galt?"

This is a phrase I'm hearing a lot these days--and not because I've ever read Ayn Rand's book. (Though it is on my list.) I've walked by the name John Galt every day on my way to and from work. Perhaps if I had read the novel it would have caught my eye, but instead I, like most everyone else, walked right by it without a second, third, or forty-sixth glance.

The name John Galt appears on a sign outside the building next door to mine. The building that is not currently being taken down, as there is a stop-work order pending the investigation of the fire last Saturday. John Galt appears just below and to the right of the name Bovis. Now that name I do recognize. It is, after all, nearly twice the size of John Galt's name on the sign. When the building was scheduled to be taken down, the contract was finally awarded to Bovis Lend Lease, who then sub-contracted John Galt to do the actual demolition.

But who is John Galt?

We'd like to believe he's a visionary engineer and inventor, as in Rand's novel. The savior of mankind. Rather, it turns out that the deeper meaning of the question in the context of the everyman's helplessness in Rand's book is more correct--"Don't ask important questions, because we don't have answers."

There aren’t a whole lot of records, public or private, that explain who John Galt is. There is no record of employees, no record of clients, no record of past projects, or even current projects. In fact, it seems that the only reason to believe that John Galt is even a real firm is that it appears, just below Bovis, on the sign outside of 130 Liberty St.

As the investigations into what went wrong with the fire on Saturday continue, more and more damning details are emerging. The standpipe that failed to bring water up to the floors that were burning? Disconnected in the basement. The fire-resistant plywood (wood?) that was supposed to seal off the floors from each other? Burned quickly and efficiently, spreading the fire to nearly ten floors. John Galt, the firm doing the work?

Not exactly.

In reality, the workers doing the work, the experts, and the managers are all from the Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company, which even shares its address with John Galt. The Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company has never demolished a skyscraper before, as their name might suggest. The executives running the show are from the Safeway Environmental Corporation, which was already removed from a 130 Liberty St. contract because of questions about its integrity. John Galt is a facade, behind which these less qualified and less honest companies hide. And just in case you were wondering, Safeway lost its earlier contract on the building because it was hiding information that one of its owners was a convicted Gambino family associate. Oops.

But, with a 41-story skyscraper, years vacant since it was damaged beyond repair and filled with toxic chemicals, dust, and mold, no one else wanted the job of taking it down. There were a few contractors bidding for it, but all but one were eliminated for various reasons. When it came down to it, it was Bovis with the contract, and only the mysterious John Galt actually asking to do the work.

Now as the city wades through the mire of under the table agreements, failed inspections, and hidden information, the building is once again sitting and waiting for its end.

Read more here.