Elliot Lake mall’s rooftop parking lot questioned by original architect, Maclean’s investigation finds
Posted February 27, 2013 11:24 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. The engineer who oversaw the structural design of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont. botched so many later projects he was fined and stripped of his licence, an exclusive investigation by Maclean’s Magazine has found.
That’s one of several revelations in an investigative report into the mall collapse last summer that killed two women by Maclean’s senior writer Michael Friscolanti.
“They not only revoked his licence and fined him $25,000,” said Friscolanti.
“The decision also included a directive for the registrar to go and warn previous clients about his work and double-check his work for safety.”
Friscolanti also discovered the original architect was worried about the safety of building a rooftop parking lot, but was ignored by the developer.
“He just wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of having a rooftop parking lot. We now know that it was a disaster — this rooftop parking lot for 30 years.”
Maclean’s also discovered the engineering firm that declared the mall safe just 10 weeks before the collapse was going out of business and was disciplined by regulators.
An excerpt of the investigative report will appear in Maclean’s Magazine on newsstands Thursday.
The entire investigation is available in a 60-page e-book.
