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19
Jul

Countdown: 3 substantial architectural oversights

Architecture helps define the final product of any building - be it commercial or residential.

Sometimes, however, ambitious design can result in some unwanted side effects. These side effects can range from slight annoyances to actual mortal dangers. In today's blog, we're counting down three massive architectural oversights and the problems they led to.

  

3. Walt Disney Concert Hall - Los Angeles

If you ever travel to LA, one of the numerous landmarks that is suggested to check out is Frank Gehry's iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall. Known for creating some of the most visually impactful buildings out there, the nature of this impact is polarising - some love Gehry's work, some hate it. There's rarely an in between.

walt-disney-concert-hall

"Walt Disney Concert Hall Across Grand" by Arturoramos - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Regarding the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Gehry's design had one fundamental practical flaw upon its initial completion. Look at the above picture and you'll notice that the concert hall's exterior is pretty shiny. While that may be appealing in one sense, the problem is that the sun would reflect off the building with too much intensity.

There were two resulting issues from this. The first was that when the sun was in certain positions, it would result in reflections so bright that it could blind drivers and other passers-by. The second was that the reflections could also heat up neighbouring condos (e.g. the Promenade Towers would heat up by up to 5 to 8 degrees celsius). Unsurprisingly, these needed to be addressed, and they were by having the key problem areas sandblasted. The exterior looks aesthetically the same now, just without the blinding and heat-inducing reflections.

 

2. Lotus Riverside building - Shanghai

Back in 2009, a new near-finished building complex entirely collapsed in Shanghai. When we say it collapsed, we mean that the whole building just kind of fell over on itself in one complete whole.

lotus-riverside

The building's ill-fated fall was not so much due to any architectural oversight. Rather this one was the result of poor decisions made during its construction. Specifically, when workers began contruction on a neighbouring underground car park, they chose to take all of the unearthed dirt and simply pile it up into a landfill beside a nearby creek. This created a type of dam.

In time, the creek's banks collapsed and water started to flood the construction area where the building was. Not long after, it rained. The earth became so soft that the building lost all of its essential foundations and simply fell over in one big piece.

 

1. Citigroup Center - New York City

Residing somewhere in the heart of New York City (in Manhattan, to be more specific), the Citigroup Center building first came to being in the 1970s. Compared the majority of other buildings in the city, the Citigroup Center has an almost exclusive, unique difference - it sits on a base of stilts.

Before construction even began, there was an important obstacle they had to account for: St Peter's Lutheran Church. It already called the area home, and they were unwilling to move. They were happy to have the old church demolished, but only on the provision that a newer church be built in the same area at the base of the Citigroup Center.

This made one thing clear, which the building's architect William LeMessurier ultimately accounted for: the Citigroup building could not come all the way down to ground level like most buildings. So, instead, his design had four massive stilt-like pillars that would hold the entire weight of the building above. These stilts sit on the centre of each side. This allowed the church to be rebuilt in its original spot under the new Citigroup building.

citigroup-centerCheck out more photos of the Citigroup Center here

While architecturally impressive, it came with one fundamental flaw. When engineering student Joel Weinstein looked at the building's overall design upon completion, he found that quartering winds (winds that strike the corners of a building, not just a single face of it) could have literally brought the building down if they were strong enough. While LeMessurier initially dismissed Weinstein's concerns, he eventually double-checked the student's calculations and realised he was right.

Still, this wouldn't be a real problem provided the builders had constructed the building with the specified wind joints being welded on. But when LaMessurier called up to confirm these had been used, he found out that they had instead opted for bolts. Simply put, bolts provided nowhere near as much stability as welded joints. Experts predicted that NYC would have a storm capable of knocking the building down every 55 years if the problem wasn't fixed. If the tuned mass damper (a device mounted in structures to reduce mechanical vibrations that could lead to structural damage) were to ever fail, then this estimate would sit somewhere closer to every 16 years.

During the year of fixing the building (replacing the bolts with properly welded joints), a massive hurricane in the form of Hurricane Ella was making its way towards Manhattan, sporting the type of winds that would've almost guaranteed the Citigroup building's demise. Luckily, Ella made a last minute turn back out to sea and the building was properly fixed.

What makes this particular danger so noteworthy is that the oversight was kept secret. Builders fixed the issue at night so as to not arouse suspicion, and LeMessurier (and others) never uttered a word about it for years. The reality of what could've almost led to mass destruction in the heart of Manhattan didn't emerge until around 20 years later.

If the building had fallen, if Ella had knocked it down and those fixes were never made, estimates showed that the collapse of the Citigroup Center could have killed around 200,000 people and 156 city blocks would've been damaged in the process. In other words, Manhattan would be ruined.

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