That odd photo is a brick pier in the cellar of an uptown brownstone. There’s some water damage at the base from rising damp, but otherwise no reason it couldn’t perform its structural role. The line of piers and girders in the cellar is below the stairhall partition on the floors above, which is an …
The defining feature of a mansard roof, a sloped facade/roof, is mildly problematic as structure. Under just the gravity load of the wall’s own weight, there is a small overturning moment, which is resisted as an inward thrust at the top and an outward thrust at the base. If the sloped wall is carrying other …
The title of this post is recycled from a talk I gave 16 years ago, “Inadvertent Structural Action in Traditional Buildings; or Why Hasn’t That Fallen Down Yet?” That talk was about how buildings that were constructed without structural design are often stronger than we think they are. The picture above is not that, but …
I’ve written several times about the CROSS (Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety) website. It allows engineers (and theoretically others) to anonymously report issues that are potentially dangerous or have led to structural failure, so that engineers everywhere may learn from those problems and their solutions. It originated in the UK, sponsored by professional and government …
A few months ago, I discussed an example of an isolated wing of an old steel-frame building being connected back to the main block. It’s worth discussing the way this use of struts changes the analysis of such a building. The picture above is the back of a 1920s apartment house on west 23rd Street, …
