25. A Basic Design Flaw That Led to Tragedy
As investigators discovered, the Hotel New World’s collapse was unsurprising: it was built with incompetent architectural designs. The building’s design and structural plans had been drawn up by unqualified draftsmen named Shum Cheong Heng and Leong Shui Lung. In their calculations for an adequate foundation, the duo failed to account for the dead load – the weight of the actual building. Leong then took his incompetent plans, along with a recommendation for an architect, Ee Hoong Khoon, to Lian Yak Realty, which built the hotel.
Khoon failed to spot – or ignored – the idiot draftsmen’s basic design flaw. A flaw that was exacerbated by the addition on the roof of a water tank, two storage water heaters, a cooling tower, and four commercial air conditioning condenser units. Lian Yak Realty’s managing director, Ng Khoon Lim, personally managed the construction. He was among the dozens killed in the collapse. In the aftermath, Singapore tightened up building inspections and required building owners to more rigorously review building plans, test structural materials, and supervise structural works.
