Matthys Levy
Author of Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail
About the Author
Matthys Levy, an architectural engineer, has won numerous awards, including the AIA Institute Honor Award. He is a principal of Weidlinger Associates, one of America's leading structural Engineering firms Mario Salvadori (1907-1997) was James Renwick Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering and show more Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Columbia University show less
Works by Matthys Levy
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- Birthdate
- 1929
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Switzerland
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Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Members
- 779
- Popularity
- #32,680
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 25
- Languages
- 4
He then discusses specific buildings that either have, or have not, collapsed, and delves into the reasons that explain what happened. In particular, he reviews very interesting cases in which buildings failed because of a lack of understanding of the effects of wind, sand, soil settlement, heat, or snow, to name some common problems. In one example, he offers the fascinating anecdote of how a dome collapsed because of uneven snow loads caused by wind direction and tendency for drifting. He goes into great detail about particular failures that would be well-known to readers, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the catastrophic collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkways in 1981.
This book is much less technical and more interesting that his previous book, “Why Buildings Stand Up.”… (more)