Embarrassing Moments in Engineering (and What They've Taught Us)

Once when I visited my sister and her husband in Ohio they were showing me around their town and pointed to a building designed by Frank Ghery, one of his buildings that looks like a crumpled paper tissue made of glass and stainless steel. My brother in law said the original design didn't have any awnings over the doors, but by the end of the first winter so many people had suffered from heavy snow suddenly being dumped on them during wind gusts, that they had to retrofit the entrances with awnings.

The domed baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, FL, where the Tampa Bay Rays play was built on the cheap (due to the politicians, not the engineers). After the city got their team and major league ball was being played there they realized the roof was too low and homerun balls would hit the roof or the supports. MLB had to create special rules for the umpires to use to rule whether a ball was a home run or not.

The Houston Astrodome originally had a grass field, the dome being transparent enough for sunlight to keep the grass alive. But there was so much glare from the roof panels the baseball players couldn't see fly balls. The management ended up having to paint the roof, which killed the grass. This, of course, led to the invention of the artificial grass surface known as 'Astroturf'.

This falls more toward sheer stupidity than an engineering blunder. The disappearing islands dredged up from the ocean floor off Dubai.

Money can't buy intelligence.

It seems that some of the problems weren't engineering, but changes in construction.

The Hyatt Regency walkway collaspe in Kansas City with its fastener design and actual construction differences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse