I have worked with a lot of building
renovation projects, both as the one drawing the “plans,” and the one
overseeing the construction—often on the same projects. One of the most common problems with
renovation is the danger of unforeseen conditions. We’ve discovered undocumented pipes hidden in
walls and in the ground, multiple layers of interior finishes, and even had a
contractor bore through an outdoor sidewalk to find out (almost too late) that
it was actually a concrete roof over occupied (underground) space below.
But one thing that’s fairly easy to
document, and yet something that can be a real concern when you start tearing
into a building, is the location and configuration of critical components of
the building’s structure. Clients like
to say, “Why can’t we just open this wall and make this room much larger?” Or,
“Do we have to keep this post in the center of this room? It just gets in the
way.” When that happens, we’re forced to
start using words like “load bearing” to describe the difficulty in simply
eliminating certain walls, beams and columns. For the most part, clients
understand; but they aren’t always happy with the cost associated with changing
them.
Structural systems are what makes a
building a building. Sure you don’t often see the columns, beams, trusses,
joists, and footers, but they’re there just the same. And without them, there
is no building. Structural systems are designed carefully and deliberately with
just the right amount of mass, substance and connections to work together as a
cohesive unit to hold the building’s shape during times of stress, be it
internal shifts in load caused by movement and redistribution of people or
furnishings, or external loads like high winds, snow, and even the occasional
earthquake.
A well-designed structural system can be
downright beautiful in its functional elegance.
Each component piece of the structure works with all the others, in its
own place, to protect the safety and well-being of the building’s
occupants. Everything is there for a
reason and contributes to the integrity of the whole. Should a well-meaning designer or contractor
come along and oblige a request from a client to remove a wall or pull out a
column, the integrity of the structure could be compromised. In that case, the
builder and the occupant may find themselves at the center of a pile of rubble.
Or worse.
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Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/6845630/big-white-hotel-roof-collapses/
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But if the same contractor took the time
to assess the desired need and then find a way to work it into the structural
system by (for instance) adding a column and footer, or a header beam to span
the room, etc., it might be possible to achieve the same goals while preserving
the carefully balanced structural integrity of the original facility. To simply apply changes without considering
how they might impact the whole of the structure is irresponsible, at the
very least; and could even be dangerous.
This brief entry here isn’t intended as a
lesson in structural engineering or effective project management. As you’ve guessed by now, there’s a reason I
bring up this important lesson.
Recently, as my wife and I have been taking an online college course
that includes a detailed study of the US Constitution (and related history and
context), it has become apparent to me that the Constitution is an incredibly
and skillfully written document that provides a (here’s the word) structural
framework for our governmental system that both protects its integrity and
provides strength and resilience in the face of challenges—both inside and from
without. The more I study the Constitution,
I’m in awe at how the Founders arranged and interconnected each component of
government to achieve such operational perfection.
And like the structure of a building, the
Constitution cannot simply be amended or ignored without extreme care taken to
think through the impact of desired changes and build back into the processes a
new structure that works perfectly within its existing framework and provides
the same ability to protect the rights of each citizen as the original.
The US Constitution isn’t simply the latest in a series of ideas
floating around the country as to what we should do and how. It’s not a dynamic or “living” document that
can be changed on a whim. Rather, the Constitution is the base structure of our
Republic that makes our country the United States of America. To dismiss it or change it into something
else would mean America would cease to be what it is today. And, like randomly pulling out a column in a
building because it’s “in the way,” such an action would leave us all in the
midst of a pile of rubble of what once was “a more perfect Union.”