The Uptown theater here in Toronto Collapses

[Elie]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/12/08/theater.collapse/index.html

Today at 10:30 in the morning I saw on the news, and I used to go to that theater as well!!!

Can one go after the Architects and sue their balls off?

My condolences to the person who died and I hope for a fast recovery to the injured.

Elie

[Kruzin]

Since the theatre was built in 1920, I rather doubt the architect who designed it is still around...

[Elie]

I'm sorry I should've said the maintenance folks and those who do the upkeeping of the Architecture itself should be responsible.

[Marshmallowman]

It was due for demoltition but people were protesting to try and stop the demolition.....hmm

[UtwigMU]

First, it's civil engineer, who's job is to makes things stand.

As architect you're generally required to only have basic knowledge of statics.

Otherwise, in such cases, they first check wether construction was according to plan.

If it wasn't the guy/company who did supervision and signed the get go gets blamed.

What was the construction made of?

If it was and it still colapsed, it's the civil engineer/the person who did calculations fault.

Also note that 20's standards are not the same as today and also our knowledge of earthquakes and materials (steel, reinforced concrete. which were a novelty then is thorough.

Thirdly, modern standards in USA (not sure about Canada) are way bellow Eurocod. Things they build in USA wouldn't pass in EU.

And finally there are fire and other regulations for public buildings and it's inspectors fault for letting such buildings be used.

Otherwise, saving/reinforcing most buildings is possible if there is financial backing.

[agallag]

The building was already in the process of being demolished. One report I heard said they accidentally cut a supporting beam before the wall it was supporting had been removed. The wall then fell over and landed on the building next door.