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Why Buildings Fail

"The design professional, whether architect or engineer, is faced with the tremendous challenge of anticipating, predicting, and mitigating against all possible modes of failure."
—from the monograph

Simply put, successful designs depend on an understanding of destructive environmental and human-caused forces and agents. Why Buildings Fail identifies and investigates these factors and their influences on buildings and construction projects.

Features

• Clear explanations about fundamental errors that negatively affect a project are provided throughout the monograph. These errors can occur at the outset of a project, during the design phase, during construction, and in the operation of the building.
• Case studies of specific failures are interspersed as well. Examples include the reclad Amoco Tower in Chicago, the collapse of the Civic Center Coliseum in Hartford, Connecticut, and the tragedy of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency.
• Discussions of failure-avoidance strategies and dispute resolution measures close out the publication.

Author
Kenneth L. Carper, a registered architect holding degrees in architecture and structural engineering, is a professor at Washington State University.

Continuing Education and Cost Information
$250 ($150 for current NCARB Record holders)

119 pages
10 PDUs and 10 AIA LUs in health, safety, and welfare (HSW) and Sustainable Design (SD)