Five skyscrapers with major design issues

Engineers and architects are required to work together closely to create long-lasting structures with aesthetic appeal.

Despite apartment towers’ status as incredible feats of design, even those with big name architects don’t always come out as planned.   

Here are five developments with significant flaws.

Some of these skyscrapers have since had their issues rectified, while others continue to be problematic.

Beetham Tower, Manchester

Beetham Tower is a landmark in Manchester for more reasons than might first be expected. Source: sykerabbit77

In Manchester, England the £150 million (A$309 million) 47-storey Beetham Tower was built in 2006. It is the tallest tower in Manchester and includes 30 olive trees inside it, imported from Tuscany and planted before the roof was installed.

It also includes a distinctive blade at the top of the building, which exists for design purposes only, that unintentionally  created a loud whistling sound in high winds.

The building’s architect Ian Simpson publicly apologised in 2012, according to the Manchester Evening News,  but still opts to live in an apartment at the top of the tower.

The tower now has its own Twitter accounts – Angry Beetham and Happy Beetham – that regularly live tweet about the odd sounds coming from the building. The tunes are described by the UK media as anything from “spooky” and “haunting” to “musical” or a “howl”.

The noise has been credited as disturbing residents in the building, local pedestrians and disrupting the filming of an episode of popular British soap Coronation Street. Engineers have attempted to rectify the problem several times, but as of 2015 the sound remains on windy days.

20 Fenchurch Street, London (The Walkie Talkie)

The curved exterior of 20 Fenchurch Street magnifies heat onto the street below.

Despite the cost and its iconic status, the landmark tower has quickly earned a different name – the Walkie Scorchie.

​The problem? The shape of the building, coupled with its glass exterior, reflects light and magnifies intense heat onto the footpath below. During the planning process, sun-louvres had been removed from the building’s design in a cost-cutting measure, according to The Guardian.

The heat is so extreme that it has been known to fry eggs, scorch doormats and even melt parts of cars in what is called the “death ray” from the building. Spot test temperatures recorded the heat in the magnified spots to be as high as 91 degrees celsius.  A screen has been built to minimise the rays.

The Museum Tower, Dallas

The Museum Tower in Dallas when it was being constructed. Source: Justin Cozart

London isn’t the only location to have a tower magnifying temperatures and light to the point where neighbours are complaining. Another scorching building dispute was also seen in Dallas’ Museum Tower.

The 42-storey tower is the second-tallest residential building in Dallas and was completed in early 2013.

Since then, it has been in a “two year dispute” with the neighbouring Nasher Sculpture Centre, reported the Dallas News.

The Nasher Sculpture Centre claimed the glare from the building was forcing them to change the way they displayed artworks, scorched plants and created too much heat in the building, according to the New York Times.

Bridgewater Place, Yorkshire (The Dalek)

Bridgewater Place was cknamed The Dalek due to its distinctive look.

In Yorkshire, the tallest skyscraper has been causing havoc. Completed in 2007, the 32-storey mixed-use Bridgewater Place highrise has been controversial for years.

The specific shape of the building, alike to a Dalek from Doctor Who, has caused the acceleration of winds in the surrounding streets to become so extreme they have knocked over people walking in the street. 

In 2011, a man died after being hit by a vehicle that was toppled over by a “wind tunnel” effect in the area, claimed to be the result of the highrise.

Other wind-related incidents in the general vicinity resulted in a person with a torn liver, and a buggy being whisked onto the road by a gust, according to The Guardian.

Roads nearby are closed when wind speeds exceed 45 miles per hour and some of the entrances have been closed. Large screens and baffle boards are among the proposals from the building’s owners to fix the problems, though the Yorkshire Evening Post notes delays  to construct rectifications.

Citigroup Center, New York (601 Lexington)

Citigroup Tower’s ingenious design quickly made a complex job even trickier.

The now infamous Citigroup Center in New York was a feat of design when it was built in 1977 – created with the bottom nine floors as stilts over St Peters Church, holding up the top 50 storeys of the building. It remains one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Yet the skyscraper had a potentially fatal flaw – discovered after a student rang the building’s structural engineer William J. LeMessurier in 1978. A combination of miscalculations and minor changes added up to dramatic effect, with the building vulnerable to wind storms that could see it topple with a chance of one in 16 each year in certain scenarios.

Luckily, Mr LeMessurier worked quickly with the owners, insurance company and other engineering experts to come up with a solution and rectify the building in the same year to make it safe. The story remained unheard by the public, with a press strike occurring over the days the building was rectified, until it was broken in a 1995 story in The New Yorker.