Florida Construction News staff writer

A memorial ceremony on June 24 marked the two-year anniversary of the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium in Surfside.

“Two years after we lost 98 precious lives in the tragic collapse of Champlain Towers, grieving families, the local community, and the entire state continue to mourn,” Governor Ron DeSantis said at the memorial. “The memory of those 98 Floridians will never be forgotten, and we will keep their families in our prayers. We also remain thankful for the hundreds of first responders who immediately rushed in to look for survivors and remained on the pile, working around-the-clock for days following the tragic collapse.”

Surfside held events to remember the victims, beginning at 1:22 a.m. on June 24, the exact time the disaster began to unfold. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Raied “Ray” Jadallah lit a torch directly across from the site to start the day of mourning.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has made available new video interviews of National Construction Safety Team (NCST) members and footage from recent sample concrete coring, as well as videos of presentations made at the June 15, 2023, NCST Advisory Committee meeting.

Videos feature remote sensing and data visualization project co-leader Georgette Hlepas and project team member Vincent Lee explaining their work. Hlepas discusses the work that the project has been conducting on integrating all of the data from the investigation into an easy-to-use visualization tool to help the teams, while Lee discusses the process of scanning the evidence specimens in 3D in order to provide a digital record of each specimen that can be used by the investigation.

In 2021, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman approved the sale of the Surfside oceanfront property to Dubai-based DAMAC International in order to compensate victims’ families and the people who survived.

A redevelopment plan, designed by London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, includes 57 units, ranging in size from 4,000 to 9,000 sq. ft. along with a business center, event space and two pools.