You're not going believe this, but I have just finished a book: "Why Buildings Fall Down," by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori, both brilliant architects and engineers. It is full of fascinating stories of architectural disasters and bridge collapses both in ancient times, and in recent times. They also talk about different types of construction, and they describe a "space frame" which is used to support huge surface areas of buildings, like walls and roofs. I looked at the drawings of a space frame, and was having trouble visualizing it exactly. Today I was at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, for Photoplus Expo, a giant trade show. After I picked up my badge, I turned toward this towering glass wall, and suddenly discovered that I was looking at a space frame! How cool is that! I took about 10 minutes to study its construction, and then snapped this picture.
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