> > > 3. When the library that was connected to the Evans Library was built, they neglected to take into account the weight of the books to be stored there. The Battleship Library (as we commonly termed it) is, to this day, slowly sinking.
> >
> > Hate to burst your bubble, but that's a legend. I've heard it on our college campus too.
>
> All I can say in my defense is after hearing all the bad architecture stories abounding the Texas A&M campus, I thought this one was true:
>
> 1. The O&M Building's thirteenth floor is sloped. You can set a marble at one end of the corridor and it will roll to the other end.
>
> 2. There's a building over on the west side of campus (I believe it's the journalism building) was originally our school's color (maroon). Over time, the color has faded to burnt orange, the school color of our arch-rivals, the University of Texas.
>
> 3. The chemistry building was built backwards. The main entrance is effectively in an alley, the back doors (which are now facing the street) are used as the main entrance.
>
> 4. One of the buildings on East Campus (I think it's one of the small animal buildings) was built without janitorial storage closets.
>
> 5. The urinals in the Aerospace building are about a foot off the floor. Perfect for men who are shorter than 4'. There's another building where the urinals are about 1 foot too high.
>
> 6. The Architecture building... geez, there's so many things wrong with that one.
>
> [1] The main building is oriented the wrong way. There's no reason to go through the huge main atrium. The entrance at the end is pointless. There's nothing out there to go to.
>
> [2] Rumor has it that it was designed too large to fit onto the site, so the architect proportionally scaled it down, length-wise.
>
> [3] The suicide steps at the end of the atrium (at the entrance nobody uses) were shortened because they didn't want to uproot an oak growing on the site. After completion of the building, the tree died. These steps are at a 12/12 pitch.
>
> [4] The concrete on the outside is too shallow, causing a freeze/thaw effect each winter/spring. As a result, the rebar is visible at the top of the main wall where the concrete flaked off. Every year or so, a new patch of concrete is placed up there.
>
> As you can guess, I didn't treat the "sinking library" story with much skeptism when I first heard it.
>
> -Faux "I used to study Architorture, er, Architecture." Pas

And then there's the story about the Senate Office building in Washington, D.C.. When it was built, they forgot to put a door between the Senator's office and his secretary's. The fix cost was $1000 per door times 100 senators. And that was back in the days when a hundred grand was real money. I suppose the secretary could have gone out into the hall and in the front door of the Senator's office.
Howard