5 Shocking Architectural Failures

[ForeverChiefs58]

Was surprised Kemper made it and the Hyatt Regency callapse didn't make the list

5 Shocking Architectural Failures




People make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes happen on the job. Usually, the incident is corrected and the whole thing is forgotten within minutes. However, the workplace mistake is harder to ignore when the person who makes it is an architect.

After all, when the teenager working the drive-thru window gives you a Quarter Pounder instead of a Big Mac, it causes a lot less trauma than when a 3,000-foot-long suspension bridge collapses into the Puget Sound.

In "The Yale Book of Quotations," the legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright is quoted as saying, “The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines.” While this statement from 1954 is still true today, it doesn’t take into account the architectural, design, and engineering errors that became possible in the decades after his death. Those mistakes have been bigger, costlier, and more spectacular than Wright could have imagined, and there are not enough vines in the world to hide them.

What are some of the more notable architectural failures in modern history? Here are five that impressed us:

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Tacoma, WA


Amazingly, the whole collapse was captured on video.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a suspension bridge that connected the port city of Tacoma, WA, with the Kitsap Peninsula. It was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened to the public on July 1, 1940, but it closed four months later after a spectacular collapse.

The cause of the collapse was inadequate girders that were used to keep construction costs low. They failed to keep the bridge deck in place, allowing it to sway violently whenever a strong enough wind blew.

This situation was already noticeable to construction workers, who nicknamed it “Galloping Gertie.” The name stuck when the general public crossed the bridge and noticed its similarity to a bucking bronco. It finally collapsed on Nov. 7, 1940, under the stress of a 40 mile-per-hour wind.

Lotus Riverside, Shanghai, China


Tenants had yet to move in, but one worker died in the incident.

The Lotus Riverside is a residential apartment complex in Shanghai consisting of eleven 13-story buildings. On the morning of June 27, 2009, one of them toppled over, just barely missing an adjacent building. Had it not missed, it might have caused one toppled building to topple into the next, creating a horrifying domino effect that, thankfully, did not come to pass.

The cause of the collapse was attributed to excavation that was in progress to create an underground garage. The earth removed from beneath the building was dumped into a landfill near a creek, and its weight caused the river bank to collapse. Water from the creek then seeped into the ground, turning the building’s foundation into mud.

Vdara Hotel & Spa, Las Vegas, NV


Fortunately, singed hair was the only human casualty of the unintended death ray.

When researching hotels for an upcoming trip, many potential guests hope to find certain amenities, such as a mini-bar, a gym, or close proximity to sightseeing. However, the Vdara Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas offers a unique accoutrement that neither its guests nor its architect anticipated—a death ray.

The hotel opened in December 2009 and featured a unique, curved structure. However, its design collected solar rays and beamed them to the hotel swimming pool area. Guests sunning themselves nearby were regularly singed, such as Bill Pintas, who claimed that the hotel’s impromptu death ray had burned his hair and melted the plastic bag he had with him.

Playground at Pier One, Brooklyn Bridge Park, NY


The offending domes have since been removed from the play area.

Most parents who take their children to the playground know the drill. Before putting their kids into a swing, they touch it first to make sure the seat, which has been sitting in the sun all day, isn’t too hot. However, the designers of the playground at Pier One in New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park managed to overlook this principle when they designed three play structures for children to climb on, and built them out of steel.

The domed structures regularly became too hot to touch, much less climb. Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, measured their temperature at more than 127 degrees, and parent Roula Fokas observed, “You can fry an egg on them." In July 2010, The New York Post reported the domes would be replaced with new equipment which, presumably, could be touched by anyone, at any time of year.


Kemper Arena, Kansas City, MO


About an acre of the roof collapsed from excess water.

Kemper Arena is an indoor stadium in Kansas City, MO, that opened in 1974. It had been the site of the 1976 Republican National Convention and it won raves for its unique design. Rather than employ view-obstructing columns, the roof was suspended from trusses on its exterior.

On June 4, 1979, the roof collapsed when a heavy storm battered the city. Fortunately, it wasn’t being used at the time, so there were no injuries or fatalities, but it was a shock to the city nonetheless.

The roof had been designed to release rainwater slowly, in order to avoid flooding the nearby West Bottoms area. This caused rainwater to collect on top and pool anywhere the roof sagged, creating excess weight. Worse yet, the roof was suspended from hangers, and the strength of their bolts had been miscalculated. Once a single bolt gave way, many of the neighboring ones followed suit, ultimately leading to the roof’s collapse.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-...-failures.html

[epitome1170]

Originally Posted by Frankie

Engineers suck!

Architect

Good luck coming up with an efficient design and not having buildings fall down.

Your saving grace,
Structural Engineers.

[Setsuna]

Originally Posted by epitome1170

Not enough. And still not enough... structural engineers don't make crap compared to what others make and for the amount of liability they have on their design.

But I love what I do and love going to work so that counts for something.

Dang. Well as long as you love it man. That's the best position to be in.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by epitome1170

Good luck coming up with an efficient design and not having buildings fall down.

Your saving grace,
Structural Engineers.

I was just joking dude.

[epitome1170]

Originally Posted by Frankie

This is exactly right. The architect who does only "pretty designs" is not a real architect. The Architect does have to have reasonable knowledge of loads and dead and live loads, strength of materials, etc. It helps him/her to avoid creating unreasonably unfeasible designs. But the seeing to the structural integrity of the work is the engineer's role.

In most cases both the Architect and the Engineer sign off to the final product.

The architect signs off his part of the design... finishes, floor plans, egress, fire protection.

The structural engineer signs off his part... columns, foundations, beams (things that actually make a building safe).

They never sign off on the same items.

[epitome1170]

Originally Posted by Frankie

I was just joking dude.

I know... architects know they need us.

and most engineers know we need architects... even if they are a pain in the ass at times.

[ForeverChiefs58]

Originally Posted by epitome1170

How is a swaying bridge an architectural failure?

See my post #22

Architectural design trends and artistic tastes. My understanding of it since the bridge itself was designed by famous New York bridge engineer Leon Moisseiff, that it was at the time the call for a certain style of aesthetic architecture. His design was influenced by architecture at the time that was meant to include terms such as graceful, elegant, slender, and lean feminine type of architecture.

This type of design is what influenced the call for minimal girders and contributed to its actual failure. I know architecture and engineering run together a lot in design, and is probably why the footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge callapse is still shown today to architecture, as well as engineering and physics students as a cautionary tale as well as being selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[epitome1170]

Originally Posted by ForeverChiefs58

Architectural design trends and artistic tastes. My understanding of it since the bridge itself was designed by famous New York bridge engineer Leon Moisseiff, that it was at the time the call for a certain style of aesthetic architecture. His design was influenced by architecture at the time that was meant to include terms such as graceful, elegant, slender, and lean feminine type of architecture.

This type of design is what influenced the call for minimal girders and contributed to its actual failure. I know architecture and engineering run together a lot in design, and is probably why the footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge callapse is still shown today to architecture, as well as engineering and physics students as a cautionary tale as well as being selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

I realize the architect was going for a particular aesthetic approach, however, it was not an architectural failure, but rather an engineering one because of the lack of knowledge in vibrations and resonance due to wind and natural frequencies of the bridge.

The bridge itself could have given the same aesthetics had the engineers altered the natural frequencies (which could have been done numerous ways). This is, literally, a text book example of structural engineering failures and has aided in greatly understanding wind phenomenons and how it effects the structure.

There are definitely some architectural failures in that article... this is not one of them.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Frankie

These are ENGINEERING failures, not Architectural ones.

Thanks for saying the exact same thing CDCox said about 159 seconds before you did.

[ForeverChiefs58]

Originally Posted by epitome1170

I realize the architect was going for a particular aesthetic approach, however, it was not an architectural failure, but rather an engineering one because of the lack of knowledge in vibrations and resonance due to wind and natural frequencies of the bridge.

The bridge itself could have given the same aesthetics had the engineers altered the natural frequencies (which could have been done numerous ways). This is, literally, a text book example of structural engineering failures and has aided in greatly understanding wind phenomenons and how it effects the structure.

There are definitely some architectural failures in that article... this is not one of them.

I agree with you 100%. Especially since the actual bridge itself was designed by a bridge engineer, the same engineer who worked on the Golden Gate and not just by some architecture firm.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Stewie

How is designing a curved hotel that focuses the sun on the swimming pool area an engineering failure?

This one is more of an architectural failure, but there must have been hundreds of engineers on the job who had taken physics (as freshmen!) and knew all about how curved mirrors tend to focus light. If one of them had sent their concern up the chain of command, this could have easily been averted. Engineers have responsibility to society to make sure that the projects they work on are safe and serve the needs of their client regardless of whether a particular decision fell within their own realm of responsibility.

[ForeverChiefs58]

Originally Posted by cdcox

This one is more of an architectural failure, but there must have been hundreds of engineers on the job who had taken physics (as freshmen!) and knew all about how curved mirrors tend to focus light. If one of them had sent their concern up the chain of command, this could have easily been averted. Engineers have responsibility to society to make sure that the projects they work on are safe and serve the needs of their client regardless of whether a particular decision fell within their own realm of responsibility.

I believe engineers bitched and complained and were really against the Ray and Maria Stata Center building from the begining, but the architects wanted it their way, and like anything else in life will pay for someone to say yes. I am sure it is that way with these on the list, even though especially the Lotus Riverside, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and a few others sure appears to lay at the feet of the engineering.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by ForeverChiefs58

I believe engineers bitched and complained and were really against the Ray and Maria Stata Center building from the begining, but the architects wanted it their way, and like anything else in life will pay for someone to say yes. I am sure it is that way with these on the list, even though especially the Lotus Riverside, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and a few others sure appears to lay at the feet of the engineering.

Yes, but failure is an unfortunate but necessary part of engineering. As a society, we want to do things that have never been done before. Build a thinner bridge, fly to the moon, build world-wide communication network, make an arena without interior columns. The engineer's job is make those dreams come true. He or she applies what is known from science and past engineering projects to the new challenge. However, as you push the envelope, new failure modes that were never even thought of before become important. Wind causes a light bridge to vibrate at it's harmonic frequency. The light sexy skyscrapers you build are susceptible to impact by jet liners. Engineers then analyze these failures, learn from their mistakes, improve their designs, which enables the next frontier in innovation.

[HemiEd]

It has been probably 15, maybe 18 years, maybe more, but I was in Boston when the windows were falling out of one of those beautiful new buildings. It seemed odd to see plywood in the window openings that high up on a new building.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by cdcox

This one is more of an architectural failure, but there must have been hundreds of engineers on the job who had taken physics (as freshmen!) and knew all about how curved mirrors tend to focus light. If one of them had sent their concern up the chain of command, this could have easily been averted. Engineers have responsibility to society to make sure that the projects they work on are safe and serve the needs of their client regardless of whether a particular decision fell within their own realm of responsibility.

I guess it depends on the time of year the glass was installed in the hotel. It might not have been an issue (and no one would have noticed) until weeks later when the sun was at the correct angle. It's probably an issue a couple of times a year, but it might affect other areas when it's not focused on the pool.

I wonder if they've come up with a solution? A film on the windows or something?

[ForeverChiefs58]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Yes, but failure is an unfortunate but necessary part of engineering. As a society, we want to do things that have never been done before. Build a thinner bridge, fly to the moon, build world-wide communication network, make an arena without interior columns. The engineer's job is make those dreams come true. He or she applies what is known from science and past engineering projects to the new challenge. However, as you push the envelope, new failure modes that were never even thought of before become important. Wind causes a light bridge to vibrate at it's harmonic frequency. The light sexy skyscrapers you build are susceptible to impact by jet liners. Engineers then analyze these failures, learn from their mistakes, improve their designs, which enables the next frontier in innovation.

Yeah, I remember hearing how after the Hyatt Regency collapse it changed the way things were built around the country from both an architecture and engineering standpoint. Greater good can come from tragedy.

Othmar Ammann, a leading bridge designer and member of the Federal Works Agency Commission investigating the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, wrote:


"The Tacoma Narrows bridge failure has given us invaluable information...It has shown that every new structure that projects into new fields of magnitude involves new problems for the solution of which neither theory nor practical experience furnish an adequate guide. It is then that we must rely largely on judgement and if, as a result, errors, or failures occur, we must accept them as a price for human progress."

The Bronx Whitestone Bridge, which is of similar design to the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge, was reinforced shortly after the collapse. Fourteen-foot-high steel trusses were installed on both sides of the deck in 1943 to weigh down and stiffen the bridge in an effort to reduce oscillation. In 2003, the stiffening trusses were removed and aerodynamic fiberglass fairings were installed along both sides of the road deck.