KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s been 43 years since one of Kansas City’s worst tragedies: the Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse.
On July 17, 1981, a structural error caused two catwalks — or skywalks — to collapse on a crowd of people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
114 people died, and dozens more were injured.
Lynn Driggers was on her way to grab dinner with her husband when her manager at St. Mary’s Hospital called about the Hyatt collapse.
“I was like, "The Hyatt collapsed?' And she said, 'we need you down here right now,'" Driggers said.
Driggers, who was training to be a nurse at the time, was assigned to do triage.
“It was one of those where you don't have time to really think about it, you just act and react and just do what you need to do,” Driggers said.
She said her husband even got an assignment.
“He’s kind of standing around like, ‘What do I do,’ well they had him go find gurneys,” Driggers said.
Over time, she’s held onto small artifacts like newspaper clippings or letters of appreciation. She read one for us aloud.
Those words, etched in her mind, keep her memories of that day alive.
The 114 names etched onto the Skywalk Memorial on Gilliam do the same.
“I’m just amazed people don’t know the story of what happened here,” said Bill Quatman, an architect who helped with rebuilding efforts after the collapse. “Even Kansas Citians don’t know. Drive by this hotel, walk through the lobby and don’t know what happened here.”
Quatman also serves on the committee formed to conceptualize, build and fund a memorial, something he says took 10 years.
“We had some resistance,” Quatman said. “Frankly there were some people in Kansas City that knew about this and didn’t want a memorial built. Who said, ‘this is the darkest day in Kansas City history, who wants to bring that up again?’”
Quatman says on the contrary, the families who’d lost loved ones were on board and wanted a way to honor the victims.
The memorial, built in 2015, pays homage to each victim. Quatman says each element of the design was intentional.
“If you drop a pebble in a pond, ripples flow out from the pond, and so the memorial has concentric circles that flow out from the memorial,” Quatman said.
Quatman has given over 200 lectures on the collapse since it happened. It’s his way of making sure the ripple is felt nationwide.
“It’s important to tell the story so the mistake’s not repeated so people understand the importance of what happened here, the lives lost innocently and the importance of attention to detail in designing and building large buildings, even small buildings,” Quatman said.
He says the collapse set a precedent for both future construction and responders.
“I’ve seen the impact of this event in modern-day construction,” Quatman said. “Third party inspections, for example, every state in the country’s adopted third party inspections, and it happened here, it started here. It’s really a textbook of how first responders act when something like this happens, and the case is used for medical and construction professionals nationwide.”
Quatman says from an architectural and emblematic perspective, such a big mistake was caused by a very small part.
“Of a 40-story hotel, it was a detail about 8 inches,” Quatman said. “So the little things matter.”
KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers issues in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. You can email her story ideas at rachel.henderson@kshb.com.