The Sinking Library

I was watching How I met Your Mother the other night, and Ted was telling Robin about an architect who designed a library, however when he was doing the calculations he forgot to factor in the weight of the books, and as a result the library started to sink a little each year, until it was eventually condemned. I thought that this was an interesting story, so I decided to Google a little more to discover where that library was built and who designed the building. If the story was true I was sure Google would have the answer. What I discovered however, was that the whole story was an urban legend, apparently for years there have been stories floating about regarding how libraries across the world had been the victims of this architectural flaw. However the few libraries that have actually been sinking were always found to be the result of faulty materials, shoddy workmanship, or poor investigation of the soil prior to building the library.

I must say that I was quite disappointed that this story wasn't true. I had once heard a story about an architect who built a supermarket, and had used all available space to maximise the shop floor to fit in more goods, however didn't provide an access point for disabled people, and so the company had to purchase land next door in order to fit in a ramp for disabled access. This bluder cost the site construction a few delays and a decent chunk of money, however it didn't result in the building being unusable. So I guess I wanted to hear a story about a bigger blunder, and was disappointed that I hadn't found it in the sinking library story. I suppose I will just have to settle with the Leaning Tower of Pisa!