As I said yesterday, there is a very long list of historic fires that I could point to for discussion of their influence on design, so any list I put here is abbreviated and representative. The Rogers, Peet fire of 1898 is interesting not because it was unique but because it pointed to a future …
In the Twitter discussion stemming from yesterday’s post about failures, Bill Harvey mentioned that he had a list of bridge failures caused by buckling and I responded that I had a similar list concerning fire failures. So I’m now going to try to present a useful list of fires that have had a significant effect …
I suppose I get what I deserve if I look to Business Insider for any kind of enlightenment about structures. But the title “11 of the biggest structural failures in history” is a sure way to catch my eye, so here I am. It’s not that Peter Aitken‘s list is terrible but rather that’s it’s …
A small but highly visible portion of Lewes Castle collapsed suddenly on November 11. The only reason I know anything beyond what’s in the news article is the coincidence that I visited the castle with my family about three years ago. In the UK, it’s a recognized monument but not unique in its 11th-century heritage; …
At the APT conference last week, I was one of the judges in the Student Design-Build Competition run by the Preservation Engineering Technical Committee. The most important thing to say on that topic is that, as in previous years, I was greatly impressed by the effort, thought, and creativity that the students brought to the …
