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Distinguished Favorite, 2025 NYC Big Book Award: Nonfiction
How an engineering crisis threatened a career, a building, and the lives of countless New Yorkers
The Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story skyscraper built in 1977, immediately became one of the most recognizable features on the New York City skyline with its distinctive inclined roof and oddly placed support columns. Designed by one of the top structural engineers in the field, William LeMessurier, the tower would become the crown jewel of his professional career; In essence, he created a skyscraper on stilts. The building was a modern marvel – until it was revealed that it had a 1 in 16 chance of collapse.
The Great Miscalculation tells the riveting story of LeMessurier’s discovery of a fatal flaw in his building’s design and his decision to blow the whistle on himself, putting his reputation on the line in a race to save this iconic skyscraper. With hurricane season rapidly approaching, the structural design flaws of the Citicorp Tower posed a menacing danger. Meanwhile, the economic hardships and political turmoil of 1970s New York only compounded the obstacles to a massively expensive, never-before-seen structural redesign in the heart of downtown Manhattan.
A fascinating piece of overlooked New York City history, The Great Miscalculation tells the gripping narrative of a catastrophe averted in the nick of time.
— Wall Street Journal
What a story it is, girded by hubris and hope... I was held in suspense.
— Harper's Magazine
Greenburg weaves a compelling, thriller-like narrative.
— New York Post
Propulsive... a thrilling saga of a disaster averted by dedicated professionals.
— Publishers Weekly
A compelling tale of professional and business responsibility amid the uncertainties of technological innovation.
— Kirkus Reviews
Greenburg captures the high-stakes drama of a near disaster narrowly avoided in the busiest metropolitan city in the United States.
— Library Journal
Comprehensive... The Great Miscalculation delves into the human stories behind the events of 1978.
— CNN Style
With Greenburg's book, the truths and ironies of LeMessurier's famous confession can be seen, and taught, more completely.
— Engineering News Record
A gripping and fresh account of the would-be crisis... Greenburg is an astute chronicler who vividly evokes the backdrop against which the CitigroupCenter near-catastrophe takes place.
— Architectural Record
The Great Miscalculation masterfully blends discussion of complex structural engineering concepts, the risks and realities of significant construction projects, and the ethical standards to which engineers must hold themselves.
— ASCE's Civil Engineering Source
Brings the full, gripping story of the Citicorp Center to life with a compelling blend of technical insight and drama. Greenburg's writing powerfully conveys the courage and humility required to right a wrong.
— Grady Hillhouse, author of Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment
This masterly account reveals the full scope of a sequence of events that could have ended in catastrophe. It’s a work of scholarship that gives the story its ultimate form, a soaring drama built on a foundation of scrupulously reported facts, and that solves an intriguing mystery in the process.
— Joe Morgenstern, former film critic for the Wall Street Journal
This riveting whodunit set in the chaos of 1970s Manhattan is also an astonishing meditation on the ethical obligations of those who build our cities….The narrative deftly navigates the crisis, secretive repairs, and subsequent litigation, heroic efforts that were largely concealed from the public. When the story does emerge, fifteen years later, we struggle along with LeMessurier as he decides whether to do the right thing or protect his career and reputation. It’s a compelling story, masterfully told.
— Judith Dupré, New York Times bestselling author of Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings
A page turner... Mr. Greenburg’s book is compelling because stories about doing the right thing touch us all in a deep and intimate place, often capable of flooding us with tears of unexplained wellbeing.
— Wall Street Journal