Yankee Chronicler
SAWHORSE
I found this video fascinating. Among other things, William LeMessurier was a world-class structural engineer. His firm was used as the structural engineer of choice by many of the top architects in the world. The fact that he made a mistake of this magnitude shows that everyone is human.
As a result of some high-profile failures, a number of years ago my state came up with the concept of "threshold buildings." Buildings with large clear spans and/or significant occupant loads were designated as "threshold" buildings, and the structural design had to be reviewed by another, independent, structural engineer. The system works -- I have reviewed projects as a plan reviewer on which the third-party engineer caught things that a code official wouldn't have had any way to spot. It doesn't mean that the structural-engineer-of-record was incompetent. As with LeMessurier, it just shows that even the best qualified and best intended engineers are human, and humans are not infallible.
As a result of some high-profile failures, a number of years ago my state came up with the concept of "threshold buildings." Buildings with large clear spans and/or significant occupant loads were designated as "threshold" buildings, and the structural design had to be reviewed by another, independent, structural engineer. The system works -- I have reviewed projects as a plan reviewer on which the third-party engineer caught things that a code official wouldn't have had any way to spot. It doesn't mean that the structural-engineer-of-record was incompetent. As with LeMessurier, it just shows that even the best qualified and best intended engineers are human, and humans are not infallible.
