15 Mistakes Made by Designers and Builders That Had Tragic Consequences (16 photos)

Architecture is perhaps no less precise than surgery. In any case, not only comfort but also human lives directly depend on the quality of work of architects and builders. Our review contains 15 cases where architectural errors cost lives.







Highway 19 Overpass, Laval, Quebec, 2006

Five people were killed and six were seriously injured when a 66-foot section of the roadway collapsed.





Ronan Point Apartment Building, London, 1968

An explosion in one of the apartments in the 22-story Ronan Point building in London, which complied with all building codes, caused a progressive collapse. The collapse occurred because the structure had a house-of-cards design. This tragedy claimed the lives of four people.



Pier One Playground, Brooklyn, New York, 2010

The engineers who designed this playground focused on its futuristic design and completely forgot to consider the materials. Most of the structures were made of bare steel, which reached temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months.



Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri, 1979

The roof of Kemper Arena consisted of several large-span coverings designed to protect against rain and wind, but the strength of the bolts holding it in place was miscalculated. In 1979, the roof collapsed. Fortunately, no one was injured.



Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, 2005

The strikingly beautiful Walt Disney Concert Hall has become another Los Angeles landmark. The building was designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, and his vision was to clad the exterior walls in steel panels. However, by 2005, the builders had to make some modifications to the building's façade because the metal had become a powerful reflector of sunlight, causing residents of nearby buildings to suffer from excessively high temperatures.



I-35W Bridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2007

Due to an outdated design, a section of the freeway bridge collapsed during rush hour, sending several cars into the Mississippi River. Thirteen people were killed and 145 injured.



Seongsu Daegyo Bridge, Seoul, South Korea, 1994

On October 21, 1994, a section of a bridge in Seoul that had recently been under repair collapsed. Parts of the bridge, along with buses and cars, fell 20 meters into the river. The tragedy claimed the lives of 32 people, most of them children.



Sampoong Shopping Center, Seoul, South Korea, 1995

On July 9, 1995, one of South Korea's largest buildings, the Sampoong Shopping Center, collapsed due to gross violations of building codes. 502 people died in the rubble, and 937 were seriously injured.



Boston Underpass, Boston, 2006

On July 10, 2006, the ceiling of a tunnel carrying vehicles collapsed, weighing approximately 25 tons. A woman was killed in the rubble.



Tuo River Bridge - Fenghuang, China, 2007

In August 2007, the newly constructed 268-meter bridge over the Tuo River collapsed in China's Hanan Province. The disaster occurred while scaffolding was being dismantled. The accident killed 30 people, injured 60, and left more than 10 missing.



Ville-Marie Tunnel, Montreal, Canada, 2011

Due to an outdated design, a concrete slab in the Ville-Marie Tunnel collapsed onto the road. It was part of a concrete structure installed to help drivers' eyes adapt to the darkness in the tunnel. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.



Val di Stave, Italy, 1985

The Stave Dam collapse in 1985 killed 248 people and destroyed 62 buildings.



Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri, 1981

On July 17, 1981, during a party in the hotel's atrium, two suspended walkways, one above the other, collapsed. The accident killed 114 people and seriously injured 216.



Railroad Bridge, Jefferson City, Missouri, 1855

Due to carelessness on the part of the builders, the first passenger train to travel on the new railroad caused a derailment. This tragedy claimed the lives of 30 people.



Banqiao Dam, Henan Province, People's Republic of China, 1975

Banqiao is an earthen dam built in 1952 to protect against flooding. Gross construction errors resulted in the dam becoming cracked and subsequently failing to withstand the onslaught of Tropical Typhoon Nina. The resulting flooding killed 26,000 people.