ever heard about the shanghai apartment block which toppled over in the middle of the night what
about the london office block that accidentally transformed into a deadly heat ray today we're
donning our hard hats and exploring the most expensive construction mistakes in the world
the aon center
in its heyday the second tallest building on earth chicago's aon center initially christened the
amaco building remains to this day an elegant expression of mid-century modernism architect
edward darryl stone in what can only be described as an outrageous flex decided to cloud his grant
park masterpiece in italian carrara marble a material favored by classical artisans since
antiquity the problem with that is michelangelo wasn't building 83 story skyscrapers the windy
city's dramatic temperature fluctuations caused the marble cladding to crack and warp and when
an entire panel broke off and crashed onto the rooftop of the neighboring credential center well
it was high time for an 80 million dollar granite re-clad at least they probably had insurance
tacoma narrows bridge jobbing construction workers tasked with putting up what was at the time the
third longest suspension bridge in the world could already see which way the wind was blowing that's
why they nicknamed the tacoma narrows bridge in washington state galloping gertie even before
it was finished some bright spark reckoned it would be a great idea to use cheap plate girders
underneath the road bed after a rocky start the bridge eventually just collapsed after four
months and seven days in a modest 40 mile an hour wind the cost roughly six million dollars which
in today's money after inflation works out not far off a billion dollars twenty fenchow street
when construction of this innovative curvy skyscraper by the river thames in london
was completed in 2014 local wags took to calling it the pint glass and engineers probably needed a
stiff drink when it became obvious that their gigantic concave facade was focusing beams of
summer sunlight like a molten death ray trained onto the busy pavement below one hapless local's
flash car was partially melted necessitating an embarrassing payout and the hasty installation of
a gigantic sunscreen that set developers back a cool 10 million dollars sydney opera house
widely recognized as a triumph of aesthetics and an emblem of a young forward-thinking australia
sydney opera house is in fact an object lesson in construction failure in 1957 the
australian government held a contest to design a future national opera house winner john hutzen
submitted his now iconic sail light design which won over the judges but little actual
planning had gone into his pitch this situation wasn't helped by the hasty construction schedule
and the fact the government swiftly decided it wanted four theaters rather than the initial two
inside the same shaped structure without a single project manager in charge and a plan
that evolved haphazardly over time the budget spiraled it should have taken four years and
four million australian dollars to complete but in the end took nearly 14 years and an
eye-watering 102 million australian dollars their mistake simple old-fashioned rubbish planning
lotus riverside building seven in the early hours of june 27 2009 residents of shanghai's min hang
district awoke to an almighty crash a 13-story building part of an 11 building apartment complex
that was in the final stages of completion had toppled over killing one zhao deacon a 21 year
old construction worker investigators figured out that a large quantity of earth excavated to build
an underground garage was foolishly dumped onto a nearby creek that caused the creek to divert
underground sweeping away building number seven's foundations the estimated cost to the developer
of this laxadaisical practice 30 million dollars and half a dozen jail terms for those responsible
brandenburg airport the german people enjoy a reputation for technical efficiency or at
least they did until a fairly humdrum city airport project that should have taken a
couple of years and cost 2.5 billion euros opened a decade later to the tune of seven billion euros
what went wrong all sorts actually for instance it emerged two years into the project that
alfredo de mauro chief planner for ber's fire protection system was never actually
qualified to be an engineer everyone thought i was an engineer dimaro sheepishly told the
dpa news agency i just didn't contradict them whereupon fire chief de mauro was quite rightly
fired there was also an issue around roughly half a million euros of alleged bribes paid to
corrupt officials allegations of price fixing and poor planning that led to the inadequate
fire safety setup not to mention inadequate check-in and baggage handling facilities
for the airport's expected traffic turns out the germans were just winging it the millennium tower
the tallest residential tower in san francisco stands 58 stories high
but it's shrinking so much so that between its unveiling in 2009 and today it has already sunk
some 18 inches and started ominously leaning 14 inches to the west the problem it's sitting
on inappropriate ground specifically old bay clay the solution drive 52 140 000 pound piles
some 250 feet deep into the bedrock way under the city in case you think that process which
is currently underway comes cheap it doesn't the total bill including compensation for the
tower's well-heeled inhabitants will come in at over 100 million dollars whoops and the sidewalk
is already cracking so they better get a move on harman hotel the city of las vegas is no stranger
to costly regrettable errors but rarely has an error been so lavish as the harman hotel
designed by a prestigious team at foster and partners architects the boutique hotel
was initially slated to loom fully 47 stories over the world famous strip however building inspectors
halted the project after just 26 stories had been erected noting that rebar reinforcements
in the concrete had been inadequately installed this meant the upper condo element was abandoned
despite some 88 excited rich punters putting deposits down eventually vegas authorities
demanded the building be pulled down altogether not with a wrecking ball but painstakingly
floor by floor the cost of building up to this point had been an estimated 275 million dollars
and the cost of demolition a further 173 million dollars what happens in vegas doesn't always stay
in vegas it turns out what do you think is there a common thread to all these epic construction fails
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