Engineering failures in real life

Posted by Patrick Lam on Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Save-on-Foods

So here I am staying in a hotel in Burnaby BC. Outside my window I can see a “Save-on-Foods”. Hmm. Let’s see. Save-on-Foods. Burnaby. Wait! I remember something from the Professional Practice Exam book! [edit 2020: This was well before the Algo Centre Mall collapse in Elliot Lake.]

OK, so is that the Save-on-Foods in question? Google Maps tells me that my hotel is 0.3km from the Save-on-Foods in Station Square, as described below.

Wikipedia, Station Square collapse

C. Peter Jones and N. D. Nathan, “Supermarket Roof Collapse in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada”. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. Vol. 4, No. 3, August 1990, pp. 142-160. (doi 10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(1990)4:3(142))

Well, it sure beats the view of a brick wall I had once in a Vancouver hotel.