Since I started looking at the new NYC Building Code with a topic that is tangential to my usual work, I might as well continue that way for a bit. A topic that was added to plain-vanilla IBC in its entirety by the New York City code committee is structural peer review. I don’t see …
The photo above is from the HABS survey of an abandoned Armour & Company plant in Providence, Rhode Island. The building was a warehouse and factory for meat products, and had some mildly interesting Moderne architectural touches. It was abandoned, vandalized, and then demolished. I chose the picture for the nice view of the big …
Yet another obscure truss form that I had not heard of, coming at me from the HABS/HAER index: the Smith truss. The picture above is from Robert Smith’s 1867 patent and I’ll make this short: that’s a double Warren Truss. The connections are a bit odd, possibly reflecting Snith’s carpentry background, but the layout of …
While looking through the HABS/HAER index, the item “parabolic arches” jumped out at me. There are only five surveys with that keyword: the bridges over the New York State Barge Canal (the renamed and expanded Erie Canal) in the Genesee Valley Park in Rochester; the Sixteenth Street Bridge over the Piney Branch Parkway in Washington …
The picture above shows a pleasant fall day on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. I took this picture because I was struck by something off in the distance: two tall buildings overlapped. Here’s the relevant portion of the photo expanded and marked up: The green lines mark the 1930 Nelson Tower at 450 Seventh Avenue. It’s …
