Why buildings fall down : how structures fail / Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori ; illustrations by Kevin Woest.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levy, Matthys.

Contributor:

Salvadori, Mario, 1907-1997.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Building failures.

Structural failures.

Physical Description:

346 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

Upd. and exp.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, 2000.

Summary:

Although modern technologies and new materials have greatly decreased the number of structural failures in today's world, buildings still fall down -- and whenever a building, a bridge, a tunnel, or a dam collapses, it is front-page news and often the beginning of a hunt for clues and culprits as fascinating as any detective story. Now two world-renowned structural engineers take us on an enlightening guided tour through the history of architectural and structural disasters, from ancient time to the present.

Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori examine buildings of all kinds, from ancient domes like Istanbul's Hagia Sophia to the state-of-the-art Hartford Civic Arena. Their subjects range from the man-caused destruction of the Parthenon to the earthquake damage of 1989 in Armenia and San Francisco, the Connecticut Thruway bridge collapse at Mianus, and one of the most fatal structural disasters in American history: the fall of the Hyatt Regency ballroom walkways in Kansas City. New to this edition is a chapter on how terrorism has become a threat in the collapse of buildings, as witnessed at the World Trade Center.

Contents:

1. The First Structural Failure 17

2. Miracle on Thirty-fourth Street 25

3. Will the Pantheon Stand Up Forever? 31

4. For Lack of Redundancy 55

5. Big Bangs 76

6. The Day the Earth Shook 90

7. Galloping Gertie 109

8. When Metals Tire 121

9. Thruways to Eternity 134

10. The Weaknesses of Mother Earth 149

11. Valley of Tears 161

12. The House of Cards 173

13. Structural Dermatology 183

14. Old-Age Death 207

15. The Worst Structural Disaster in the United States 221

16. The Politics of Destruction 231

17. The Structure of the Law 242

18. Terror from the Sky 257

19. Conclusion: Can We Prevent Future Failures? 269

A. Loads 281

B. Stress and Strain 289

C. Structural Materials 292

D. Structural Systems 295.

Notes:

"First published as a Norton paperback in 1994"--T.p. verso. Reissued 2002.

Includes index.

ISBN:

039331152X

OCLC:

51110485