Why Buildings Fall Down

by Matthys Levy & Mario Salvadori W.W. Norton & Co., 2002 Soft cover, 6" x 9", 346 pages 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 Civil 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 i