One of the latest specific sites of terror warnings was structurally flawed when it was built. What with all the new (and rather specific) terror alerts in the last 24-48 hours, my memory was jogged. The Citigroup center, which stands about 4 blocks north of me, was a subject of some conversation back around 1998 or so. It seems that back when they built it in the 70's, there was a flaw that went unnoticed during design, permit and construction phases. The building was completed in 1977, and in 1978, the chief designer (William LeMessurier), discovered that the "skyscraper's bolted joints were too weak to withstand 70-mph wind gusts." Hmmmm...

Anyway, they worked fast and undercover, and fixed it before hurricane season '78, "permanantly correcting the flaw." There was a 30-page document outlining the structural flaws, entitled "Project SERENE" (which stands for "Special Engineering Review of Events Nobody Envisioned). I can't find this document online. The secret of this discovered flaw and subsequent fast work to fix it was kept for around 20 years, thus the watercooler conversations in office buildings near the building circa 1998. There's a little mention of the story here and another here if you're interested. Here's to hoping they got it right the second time and that nothing happens to test whether the flaw was corrected.