5 Shocking Architectural Failures

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

errr....no. Architects need to understand load capacity and all that sciency-building stuff too.


EDIT: Let me qualify my statement -- I understand that architects are not PEs and do not have the same degree of knowledge as, say, a Civil Engineer would have for building materials, etc. But they are supposed to have some knowledge on these matters as well in order to create realistic designs. Some of the examples given -- in particular the bridge in Tacoma, would seem to be more of an engineer failing than an architectural one, definitely.

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.