Sunday, September 8, 2013

For every solution there is a problem

Don't laugh, but what if you spent years designing, financing, and building a tall building--and the thing turned around, reflected the sun and melted part of a Jag on the street?

They call it the Walkie Talkie Tower in central London. Or they did call it that--now they call it The Fryscraper.

It was designed by Rafael Vinoly, who blames the consultants he was forced to use for the um...glitch.

Apparently the specs were way off. The result? Cars and eggs melted to Dali perfection.

Vinoly had the same problem with a building in Las Vegas--but he prefers not to discuss that.

Maybe--in the future--make things less shiny?

In the meantime, they are erecting scaffolding on the London building to protect pedestrians from being scorched from above.

Years ago, I heard about another building in windy Chicago, where the wind currents were so strong, people could not get out the door--they had to form an assembly line to pull people out of the front entrance.

Two lessons from this: Learn from experience and of course, always have someone in mind to blame.