The Washington herald., 1922-02-26
American Institute Com
mittee Sees Poor Design
ing and Faulty Work.
SUBMITS REPORT
- TO D. C. OFFICIALS
Changes Recommended in
Building Regulations
For District.

The Knickerbocker Theater was
poorly designed" a special COM
mittee for the Washington Chapter
of the American Institute OF Archi-
tects reported to District officials
yesterday.
The report points out glaring
faults of construction as well
corroborating testimony before the
coroner's jury of the joint board of
army and navy engineers but Sc
verely criticises certain business
methods employed by the architect
for the building. Reginald w. Geare
The report declares the high.
curved Columbia road wall was Ave
inches out of plumb before the crash
occurred: the beams were too short:
there was not sufficient we'll bsaring
for some OF the beams; the beams
and trusses lid not connect at right
angles in some places: and members
Of the steel roof structure werc
oser-stressed.
Collapse Inevitable.
IN genertl." says the report, the
committee finds that the roof con-
ystruction was poorly designed, that
1t was So faulty in its entirety
that the partial collapse OF any part
of the structure would in turn pro-
duce conditions which would bring
about the collapse 'of the entire
roof. This feature of the design
Is in our opinion. fundamentally
wrong. as no structure should be
so interdependent that the break
ing of one portion produces the
Ncollapse of the whole. To make
matters worse. a great many mem
bers of the roof framing were
greatly overstressed, producing
conditions which made the total
collapse inevitable. II being only
necessary for a slight overlooking,
due to snow, or some severe shock,
to precipitate the entire structure
into the auditorium.
"As to the immediate cause of the
failure, there are SO many evil
dences of weakness, SO many faulty
details OF design such as over
stressed m<lnbers of truss, -beams,
columns. etc, 50 many poor con-
nections that Id our opinion they
all contributed their share in pro-
ducing the hnal collapse.
Position Of Main Truss
Truss IL, the main supporting
truss, had one end resting on a
column, the other resting on an
eighteen-inch I-beam having q
bearing on the Columbia road wall
of eight feet. This truss was con-
nected to the column by bolting
the bottom fiange of the truss to
four angles at the top of the col
umn. There was no bearing plate
and the top of the column was not
milled to give level bearing. The
other, on the Columbia road end,
was so badly designed that it un-
doubtedly was a large contributing
factor in the general failure.
THE wall bearing end of this truss
was also without a bearing plate.
The bearing made directly by the
bottom flanges of the bottom chord
The wall reaction at this point was
so great that the channels forming
the bottom chords spread. thereby
placing a considerable bending mo-
ment in the web of the channel
which is only e-quarter inch thick.
The gusset plate was so greatly
over-stressed that failure at this
point was a grea: possibility.
The system OF trusses werc
stayed laterally only at the top
chord by the roof beam or purlins
ana the concrete roo1 slab. NO
braces were provided to tie the bot
tom chords Of these trusses.
Change in Design.
1T appears by the testimony al
the coroner's inquest that the en-
tire design of roof framing was
changed. The designing was placed
in the hands Of the steel contractor.
The practice of permitting the steel
contractor executing the steel con-
tract to design the steel work your
committee feels is an extremely dan
gerous practice and should not be
permitted under any circumstances
as he has financial interest in all
that Is done.
THE architects specification re-
quires the contractor to submit all
structural detail drawings in dupli-
cate for his approval together with
such stress sheets or calculations
as he may require. The question
naturally arises did the architect
insist upon these drawings. did he
examine and checN them himself or
did he obtain the services Of a COM
petent engineer tc do so. A cursory
rouf;au,L ~. Dn11 Tt.,o