More than ten years before the Miami Surfside condominium had been built, its architect was suspended for six months after a structured that he designed collapsed during a hurricane.
William Friedman died in 2018 at the age of 88, but when he was a young architect in his 30s he had designed commercial sign pylons that were part of the rooftop of a building in downtown Miami.
The pylons toppled following a storm in 1965 as Hurricane Betsy struck south Florida.
The Surfside condominium complex was built in 1981 but the architect had been suspended just 13 years earlier
William Friedman was suspended following the collapse of sign pylons at two Miami buildings
Betsy caused $1.42 billion worth of damage in the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana, earning the storm the nickname 'Billion Dollar Betsy' in September 1965
One week after Betsy had blasted through the area, a sign pylon which had been attached to the building collapsed and fell down the side.
Another single story building in a different part of town also had a similar pylon structural failure.
The pylons were being used to hold promotional signs perched atop the building's roof.
The collapse was serious enough for at least one prominent Miami architect to alert the Florida State Board of Architecture who then suspended him for 'gross incompetency, in that he negligently, improperly, and carelessly' designed the 20-foot tall pylons.
There is no direct link between the pylons collapse and Champlain Towers South
The pylons designed by Friendman who would go onto design Champlain Towers South came down after Hurricane Betsy stormed through in 1965 (file photo of Hurricane Betsy in 1965)
Windows of the Carillion Hotel on Miami Beach were knocked in by Hurricane Betsy (file photo)
The pylons were 'insufficient and grossly inadequate' to withstand the wind pressure of the hurricane force winds, and were not in accordance with building code for the location or 'to accepted standards of architectural practice,' the Florida Board of Architecture wrote in its suspension order in 1966.
Friedman was then suspended for six months between June and December, 1967 some 12 years after he received his licence in 1955.
The documents have only recently come to light following a public records request filed by The Real Deal.
Fort Lauderdale architect Kaizer Talib said the suspension was serious.
Residents of Champlain Towers East had revealed photos of cracks that have appeared in their building after collapse of Towers South.
William Friedman died in 2018 at the age of 88, but when he was a young architect in his 30s he had designed commercial sign pylons that were part of a building in downtown Miami. His office is pictured
'Most of the time you end up getting a letter of warning from the state department or something,' he told The Real Deal. 'If you had done something small wrong, in the process of permitting, then you might get a warning letter. But a suspension is a bigger thing because it's decided by a committee. It's not decided by an individual.
'Some people know about [the suspension], but the general public doesn't know,' Talib said. An architect 'just keeps quiet and he is not going to tell anyone except his wife.'
There is no evidence to suggest that as the original architect for the Champlain Towers South, Friedman's design, completed in 1980, had anything to do with its collapse.
However, the background information could provide a useful element for investigators still attempting to discover what led to the fall of the tower block that killed 97 people.
So far, that has been one indicator of a 'major error' that was discovered in the original plans for the building which were prepared by Friedman and the project engineer.
