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A parking garage under construction in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, collapsed in the early morning hours of Dec. 6, 2007, killing one worker and injuring more than 20 others as a crew poured concrete on the top level.

The structure was the six-story garage for Berkman Plaza II, a riverfront condominium tower going up at 500 East Bay Street along the St. Johns River. Investigators said the crew was casting fresh concrete on the sixth level when the floors gave way. A worker who saw it told reporters the garage came down in sections, like dominos, and a plume of dust and debris rose over the river.

Killed was Willie Edwards III, 26, a father of two who had picked up the overnight shift from a co-worker to earn extra money before Christmas, according to news accounts. Search crews combed the rubble for roughly 60 hours before recovering his body on Dec. 8.

The collapse generated several 911 calls in the minutes afterward.

Federal investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration later described a cascade of failures. The agency reported that reshoring had been removed below the third level, with only a few supports left under the perimeter beams while the sixth floor was being poured. OSHA cited the general contractor, Choate Construction, for a willful violation and proposed a fine of $49,500. Choate responded that two outside forensic engineering firms had traced the collapse to design deficiencies by the project's structural engineer.

The dispute went to arbitration. On Feb. 8, 2011, a three-member panel ruled that the collapse was the "direct result of design errors" for which the developer, Berkman, was legally responsible. The panel dismissed Berkman's claims against Choate and ordered the developer to pay the contractor a multimillion-dollar award tied to its wrongful termination after the collapse.

Berkman Plaza II was never finished. The condemned tower stood empty over downtown Jacksonville for more than a decade before the city paid to bring it down. It was imploded on March 6, 2022.