Since the inevitable worldwide financial collapse in 2008, many ambitious and costly building projects were put on hold. In Lake Highlands, Dallas for instance, there stands the Lake Highlands Town Center, meant to be a vibrant, urban, mixed-use complex boasting side-by-side retail and residential with its own stop on the DART light rail line. Streets, sidewalks, and street lamps highlight a blank slate of patches of empty earth. Our structural collapse attorneys remark that the train stop has been built, and the DART train stops there where no passengers yet wait.
Other projected building projects have simply been downscaled into less ambitious creations. In many cases, our structural collapse attorneys point out that this means “temporary” structures built of lightweight frames, vinyl, or canvas. In London, the Olympic basketball stadium is such a structure. Made of PVC panels, there is already talk that the structure might later be disassembled and reassembled in 2016 for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
But it might be misleading to speak of these structures as “temporary.” Although comparatively impermanent in materials and design, the structures are generally designed to be used for years. For instance, the new Pasadena ice skating center in California is a tent-like structure erected near “permanent” civic buildings of a more classical and grandiose nature. The tent-like complex that hosts children’s hockey and ice-skating groups was built to last for 25 years.
But despite the best intentions, such temporary structures don’t always stand for their intended span. Our structural collapse attorneys at Denena & Points recently wrote, for example, about the early demise of the Dallas Cowboys’ tent-like training facility in 2009 in a disastrous collapse that left two prominent Cowboys’ organization members crippled.
And our structural collapse attorneys’ posts feature regular reports on the deadly collapses of temporary tent-like outdoor structures or concert stages. For instance, an outdoor tent structure apparently intended for years of use by a bar-eatery in St. Louis collapsed last year in a storm, killing one patron and injuring others. And the tragic collapse of the outdoor concert stage in a storm at the Indiana State Fair around a year ago left multiple people dead and dozens injured.
News reports of tornado touchdowns, hurricanes, and other disasters demonstrate that even the most permanent structures are vulnerable to damage and collapse from storms and other disasters both natural and manmade. The problem is that the temporary structures currently favored as cost-efficient and modern solutions to building needs are far more vulnerable to damage from winds, heavy snow, rain buildup, and other conditions than the more permanent structures.
Our structural collapse attorneys emphasize that temporary structures’ support frames are generally made of more lightweight materials and less deeply anchored into the ground. “Walls” and “roofs” might be made of vinyl or canvas rather than more traditional building materials. That’s part of what makes them more cost effective.
But just recently our structural collapse attorneys pointed out the dangers presented by the more lightweight construction of modern “permanent” buildings over the last several decades. Their lightweight construction makes these buildings, intended to be permanent, more likely to collapse in a shorter amount of time than the traditional masonry and heavy timber construction of past eras.
A miscalculation regarding the load bearing capacity of the structure might lead to its sudden collapse. For instance, part of a floor collapsed to deadly effect during a concert in the new student center of Canterbury University in New Zealand two weeks ago because a structural engineer did not factor the live load of a dancing crowd into the design of a floor which was likely to see many a dancing student crowd over the years.
And miscalculations regarding the strength, width, and spacing of structural supports can have disastrous consequences. Such miscalculations, and a continuing cover up of the danger they presented, have been reported as likely contributors to the spectacular failure of the Dallas Cowboys training facility in 2009.
And corroding materials or poor connections within a structure might bring the whole thing toppling down. In Sydney, Australia last week, a steel support beam snapped in a car park and caused the structure to partially collapse. The car park collapse put much of the Westfield EastGardens Shopping Centre mall in danger of collapse. The collapsed car park was shored up so that owners could retrieve their cars. The mall was evacuated and there has been some ongoing confusion about what parts of the mall could reopen and when. So far, the cause of the collapse has been tied to corroding bolts and connectors affected by water buildup in the car park’s nearby air conditioning and refrigeration block. The car park apparently abutted the food court.
Our structural collapse attorneys understand the financial temptation, even seeming necessity, to jump on the temporary architecture bandwagon. But we caution readers to consider the decreased resistance to the effects of wind, water, vibration, impacts, and time in structures designed by their very nature to be lighter, temporary buildings. Even the most imposing tent is still a tent. We won’t deny a tent’s advantages: it’s cheap, portable, lightweight, and airy. But even a bear can knock down a tent. Texas storms can knock down even imposing, multi-million dollar tents.
The London Olympics are unlikely to see a Texas windstorm challenge their new, tent-like basketball arena. We hope that the Olympics will help point out the modern advantages of temporary architecture. The fine Olympic performance of the structures themselves should also remind those knowledgeable about architecture and design of the importance of careful structural engineering work, good materials, and diligent load calculation. Carelessness is any aspect of design or construction can present its dangerous, even fatal, effects much more quickly in a temporary structure then in a permanent one.
Read about the injury dangers of poor design and construction in temporary architecture in our structural collapse attorneys’ article on the failure and collapse of the Dallas Cowboys training facility.