Danbrook One engineer’s licence revoked, ordered to pay $57K; second engineer cited for ‘incompetence’

This story was originally published in The Westshore newsletter, June 7, 2022.

The structural engineer on a Langford high-rise that was later deemed potentially life-threatening has been fined $25K and had his accreditation as a professional engineer removed.

The engineer, Brian McClure, was also ordered to pay $32K in legal and investigative expenses incurred by the Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (EGBC). Days later, his business partner, Ted Sorenson, was notified he would be investigated for his role in the designs.

McClure was an experienced structural engineer at Sorenson Trilogy Engineering, but his career had mostly focused on wood-frame residential buildings that were not more than 5 storeys. This building, 11 storeys and made of concrete and steel, was outside of his scope of expertise, the reviewing engineers said in their interim order last fall.

McClure is banned from re-applying to the EGBC for two years. If he applies after that, extra audit steps will be required on his work. Since October 2021, when the inquiry board took an unusual step of issuing an interim order, McClure’s work has been under mandatory review by a third-party engineer. Normally structural engineers have their work reviewed by another engineer, but in this case EGBC ordered that someone from outside McClure’s firm do the review.

By the time concerns about the building’s structural safety became public, tenants had already moved into the building. When EGBC notified the City of Langford that they were investigating potentially life-threatening defects in the building, Langford revoked the occupancy permit in December 2019 and all tenants had to find new homes.

A lawsuit followed, initiated by the new owner of the building, Centurion Property Associates. They allege that the builder, Design Build Services, withheld information about the building’s structural safety during the sale negotiation, and did not honour the building’s warranty after these defects came to light. That lawsuit is scheduled to be heard in October, and also involves Sorenson Trilogy Engineering and the City of Langford.

Centurion has meanwhile completed remediation work on the building, and re-listed its rentals in March. Some units are now occupied. An architect, Tomasz Anielski of AVRP Architecture, signed off on the seismic remedial work on April 29.

The core issue with McClure’s drawings for the building—originally named Danbrook One, but since renamed RidgeView Place at 2770 Claude Rd.—is that the building would not hold up during an earthquake.

The drawings contained “incorrect and incomplete information regarding the seismic force resisting system,” according to the engineers who reviewed the case for EGBC. They said the building’s design was not flexible enough to absorb an earthquake, and that the load-bearing walls could have collapsed. They said its core footings were “under-designed” and that the foundation was “inadequate to resist seismic forces.” An independent review commissioned by Langford, and obtained by The Westshore under a Freedom of Information request, shares more information on the specific failures in the building.

In a Consent Order on May 9, McClure admitted to unprofessional behaviour in several other ways, on top of the basic inadequacy of the design: he copied parts of the design from a different building; he did not maintain a record of changes ordered during site visits; he didn’t do enough site visits; he signed letters of assurance confirming that the design met BC building code; he lied about having a third-party review; and, when another engineering firm raised concerns about the design in 2017, long before the building was complete, McClure didn’t take adequate steps to address the issues. McClure’s registration with EGBC was cancelled as of May 9.

Principal engineer now being looked at for unprofessional consult

On May 31, McClure’s business partner, Ted Sorenson, the principal engineer at Sorenson Trilogy Engineering, was also accused of unprofessional conduct and incompetence for his responsibility as the principal engineer.

“The existence of the defects … demonstrates incompetence on your part,” EGBC wrote in a citation to Sorenson. The professional body says Sorenson failed to take the time to properly review the structural design, which was not properly integrated with the building’s architectural design, and that Sorenson failed to complete the required regular checks on the firm’s own engineering work on the designs.

EGBC also says Sorenson should have known “McClure lacked the training and ability required to competently complete the structural design” for a building of this kind.

A date for Sorenson’s hearing is to be determined, and the EGBC has put no interim restrictions on his work. At the time of publishing, Sorenson had not responded to requests for comment.