Problems of Assessing Existing Buildings for Strength

With the new format of The Structural Engineer now into its second month, Professor A. Bolton offers some apt comments on its contents and the criticisms that these should be more lively and readable. He writes: At the Extraordinary General Meeting views were expressed that The Structural Engineer should be made brighter from a journalistic point of view and that papers should be published which were of interest to all our members rather than to a few with research interests in that particular topic. Verulam

In this paper the author describes the development of a scheme to provide additional exhibition space at the Science Museum, South Kensington, London. The initial brief is discussed and the factors affecting the final design are illustrated. The special relationship between the engineer and architect is emphasised and attention is drawn to the particular construction problems encountered in alteration and rehabilitation schemes. Ralph L. Mills

This Guidance Note published by the authority of the Council of the Institution is one of the series published from time to time as a reminder of the standards of courtesy and responsibility which members are required to observe at all times. Guidance Notes Nos. l and 2 dealing with Informative Publicity and the General responsibility of members when called upon to check or appraise the work of another structural engineer, first published in August and September 1973 are repeated from time to time. They last appeared in The Structural Engineer, March 1977, pages 142-143.