It Seemed Like a Good Idea

Rybczynski writes, "'A work of art, architecture, whatever it is, needs time to finally make a judgement as to whether it's right or not,' says I.M. Pei in First Person Singular (1997), Peter Rosen's fine documentary about the architect. It is a cruel irony that after 30 years, what many consider Pei's greatest work, the East Building (right) of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., has gone seriously wrong."

Architects such as I.M. Pei, Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry have all produced celebrated buildings that, years or sometimes only months after completion, have sprouted major structural and functional problems. This article examines some of the more famous instances of famous buildings with infamous problems.