Good eye, I see that sort of thing on the mass built McMansions where they don't use a stop at the base of the first stair riser in the basement. There the stairs pull away from the floor structure. Here the wood bends, and you know wood bends a lot prior to structural failure, it gives you lots of warning indicators.

This structure is not near failure from what I can tell in this single photo. However I'm interested in the hidden steel plate/splice connection in the four foot dogleg bend at the outer edge. Think of it as a steel biscuit double bolted at each end. Trick stuff, could be a hidden problem in a wet climate. It could also just be a surface applied steel plate on the backside which we cannot see. That would be much easier to pull off and not split the member.

People keep mentioning hurricanes and heavy snows which would cause trees and heavy branches to fall on the car if the car port wasn't there. I'll take the car port, thanks.

I'd build it out of steel or aluminum sandwiched between some good looking 1X.

Far right side it is brown, downspout follows one of the braces.

I'm also a little surprised that there aren't members horizontally tying the three verticals together. It seems like this might be a little weak in torsion, but again it's probably just "brute forced" into being strong enough for code. I really like the fact it's kind of minimal with respect to # of members, even if the members themselves are huge.

I like it.

Yep.

Who ever designed & built that wanted (and got) reactions from people less edjumencated.

Well, visually, I like it. It does look a bit under-engineered, but then I'm not an engineer, and I haven't done the math.

If it was mine, I would feel better if the uprights were steel.

Hah, quick search yielded...

http://www.hallbuilding.com.au/photo...%20Carport.JPG

http://architechome.com/wp-content/u...ort-photos.jpg

Thanks. I missed that.

Cantilever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

. . .for those trying to correct those who correctly called it a Cantilever design.

it would have been easy to put uprights over by the retaining wall - it must have been done that way for visual effect

I wonder if the code req'd a struct. eng. to approve the plans?

I kind of like it. Lots of boring and ugly architecture in this world, and this is interesting.

Who knows, maybe it gets braced and tied down for major weather events?

Doesn't it look like a bus stop? I now think that played a key part in the design.

Maybe the lightweight fiberglass sheathing is designed to separate from the structure during high winds. If so, this would reduce the wind load quite a bit.

This thread shows that engineering by the seat-of-the-forum pants is possible, but it's better performed and confirmed on paper.

At the time, most folks thought this would never work either:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1280777749.jpg

Sherwood

Ran out for lunch today and passed 3 places that I drive by every day. They all had similar structures and I never noticed until now.

Sherwood, I think you got something there... and downward force really is what's going to destroy it if ever (like heavy snow which won't happen in that region).

I'd agree with unlikely to happen.

We got 12 inches at DFW this past winter.

A significant number of car dealers lost inventory when their structures collapsed under the weight.

The things people built - before the world was taken over by 4'x 8' plywood and vinyl siding:

Folly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are all over Europe at the Autogrilles:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1280779977.jpg

Ugly. but probably cheap and effective.