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From Library Journal
Structural engineers Levy and Salvadori have written a well-paced, highly informative, nontechnical work describing failures in a variety of structures such as buildings, bridges, and dams. Salvadori wrote Why Buildings Stand Up (Norton, 1990), so this is a natural complement. The subject, somewhat grisly in nature, is presented here with respect for the tragedies involved, and yet with a lighthearted pursuit of the truth as to the cause of the failure. Analysis of the failure is discussed and recommendations for improvement are offered, but without the usual condescension hindsight allows. Profuse illustrations by Kevin Woest, well labeled and explained, and several appendixes aid access. An index (not seen) is provided, but no glossary. This fascinating book is easily accessible to laypersons. Highly recommended.
- Alex Hartmann, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Alex Hartmann, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
The reader is sure to find the disaster that suits his or her taste. -- New York Times Book Review
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According to the Old Testament, the early inhabitants of the earth, the ancient Babylonians, were "of one language, and of one speech." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
According to the Old Testament, the early inhabitants of the earth, the ancient Babylonians, were "of one language, and of one speech." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but slightly difficult book,
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This review is from: Why Buildings Fall Down (Paperback)
This book emphasizes why engineers are paid the big bucks. Our lives our in their hands, and we depend upon them to cross every T, dot every I and calculate proper bearing loads. This book gave me a greater appreciation for the work structural engineers provide, and you can see that the engineering profession has a keen appetite to learn from disaster. You learn about famous and not so famous disasters and what it taught the world about how to build safer. It also gives us some insight into our crumbling infrastructure like bridges (there are a number of bridge failures covered in the book).My biggest problem, though, was it was a little hard to read. I'm a non-engineer, but I do have a fair bit of college math & physics behind me, but I felt they did a poor job explaining things for non-architects and non-building engineers. So poor that they had to put 4 appendices at the back explaining basic building engineering -- I recommend reading the appendices FIRST before reading the actual book. The diagrams and attempts to explain some of the more modern structures, like arena roofs were so hard to understand I had to read them 3-4 times before I could figure out what they were trying to say. And the diagrams were too primitive to really explain what was going on. But other than that slight knock, and trust me, you'll get over it quick, it's a really good book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun follow-up,
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This review is from: Why Buildings Fall Down (Paperback)
If you have read the book 'Why Buildings stand up' you should definitely read this one, since it is much more interesting to know why certain buildings collapse, since this makes the news.There are some chapters almost the same as the first book, but most chapters are case studies on bridges (the famous galloping Gertie in Washington State), explosions, structural failures etc. An extra chapter is added to explain the collapse of the the World Trade Center Towers after the September 11 Attacks in 2001. Also 5 Appendixes are added dealing with stress, loads and more engineering things, which can also be found on the PBS site on buildings.
5.0 out of 5 stars
structure problems,
By
This review is from: Why Buildings Fall Down (Paperback)
a good book explaining the details og building and bridge failures. im wondering why the author didnt include the word 'bridge' in the title since this book covers a lot of them. illustrations are very helpful as well
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