Top 6 building disasters: The Walkie Scorchie is not alone

 

The City’s 37 story Jaguar-melter, otherwise known as the Walkie Scorchie, is under review this week. 

 

It looks like Land Securities, the skyscraper’s developer, is due to submit a planning application which will outline how it intends to deal with the building’s dangerous reflective glare, which has seen it melt part of a car, set a carpet on fire and (thanks to former City AM-er Jim Waterson) fry and an egg.  

 

We’ll have to wait and see what solution Land Securities comes up with – but for now, we thought we’d take a trip down the cobbled lane of building disaster memories and look at London’s other architectural snafus (and a few from further afield). 

 

 

 

Opened on 10 June 2000, the bridge was closed two days later because it was swaying too much. It re-opened in February 2002, having shock absorbers fitted to curb the oscillations. This cost an extra £5m.

 

 

Four months after the £80m refurbishment of the former Stock Exchange Tower was complete in 2009 its windows started popping out and falling down on the street below. Protective scaffolding had to be erected while the building was reclad. 

 

 

 

Just before the Olympic Games kicked off in London in 2012, architect Zaha Hadid was forced to defend her design of the centre because the curvaceous roof was obstructing the view of the diving board from the very top rows. 

 

 

Richard Rogers’ T5 design at Heathrow came under fire in November when it emerged that the light bulbs hadn’t been changed for up to five years because there was no safe way to reach them. Around 60% of the bulbs had gone since it opened in 2008 and the airport had to draft in high wire walkers to do the task. 

 

 

 

The Vdara in Las Vegas became known as “death-ray hotel” for a short while, thanks to the reflective glare bouncing onto the bathing deck below. Sound familiar? Turns out the Vdara was even designed by the same architects as the Walkie Scorchie (20 Fenchurch Street). 

 

 

In Los Angeles, some of the stainless steel panels used in Frank Gehry’s concert hall had to be sanded down to stop drivers being completely blinded by the reflected rays from the building.