In 2019, the Hard Rock Hotel under construction in New Orleans partially collapsed, killing three and injuring dozens more. Norma Jean Mattei said the event happened practically in her backyard.
At the time, she said the local media grew to know her well, and for good reason. Mattei served as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2017. Today, she is professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans.
In both the Hard Rock collapse and the case of East 42nd Street’s failing columns in Manhattan, haunting video from inside the jobsites showed the beginnings of structural concerns. The New York City office-to-apartment conversion project was evacuated with no injuries or deaths…