I receipt the book very quikly and in excelent conditios of use, as a new book.

THE BOOKS GIVES A LAYMAN A GENERAL IDEA ABOUT STRUCTURES, ELASTICITY, STRESS AND STRAIN WITHOUT TOO MUCH MATH. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND THE CONCEPTS ARE CLEAR AND CONCISE. THE BOOK IS EASY TO READ AND VERY ENJOYABLE.

I am not an architect or engineer, but I found this book really fascinating. The authors explain things so that those not in the field could understand, but sometimes get too technical. The illustrations were great, but there should have been more, and some color photos would have been nice.

One thing the authors did not point out, is that hindsight is 20/20. It is almost as though they believe they would never make any errors like those they describe (though some designs they discuss really do sound irresponsible), that buildings they designed would stand forever regardless of environmental factors like earthquakes, floods, etc.

I'm a young Civil Engineer from Portugal. Some months ago I went to New York and I found this fantastic book. I've also bought the book "Why buildings stand up" which is, again, amazing. The descriptions are in such a simple way that even lay people can understand easily the functioning of structures.
It was a pleasure to read such interesting books.

I'm hopeful that the authors will produce a new edition of this book, with the forensic explanations of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers explained in detail.

It is, nonetheless, a worthy sequel to Prof. Salvadori's great work, "Why Buildings Stand Up." It's best to buy both and read them in sequence.

It's also fun to cross the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia (as my son and I did last summer) and think about Galloping Gertie...

:)