My father worked for a company in Switzerland in the 80s and early 90s that was solely specialized in relocating buildings: either too old to be demolished due to historical value or because it was a cheaper alternative than demolishing everything and building again 10 meters to the side. He loved that work but it was very stressful and took its toll on him. I was very young but still remember seeing this old wooden church crossing the street with my father running in circles yelling to people.
A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
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Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#32https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2014/0...
They moved and rotated an Indiana Bell building in the 1930s.
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#33Zero-downtime deployments 1950s style.
Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves of the many mission critical practical applications in disciplines outside of Computer Engineering.
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#34Impressive feat - however, I was puzzled by this: > Naturally, some of the workers were nervous about this idea. Matute Remus was sympathetic to their concerns, and wanted to reassure these operators and make them feel safe. So his wife Esmeralda agreed to also go into the building while it was being moved. She even took along their seven-year-old son, Juan Jorge. Maybe this could work as a publicity stunt to persuad…
You are correct in that… however I think that this harkens back to "talk is cheap, actions lead." That is, it is very easy to say "this is safe" even if you don't think that it is. By putting something that you value on the line, then you are showing your level of commitment to the statement that "this is safe". I think that you will find it is not the "technical experts" who were afraid, but the workers in the build…
There is also a tradition to have architect and engineer of the new bridge to float in the boat under it while the bridge is being load-tested.
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#35Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#36Reminds me of the raising of Chicago in the 1850-60s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago
I was floored to see shopkeeps still open while they moved the building . Today, OSHA would have a heart attack.
Crazy huh?
> Consequently, the practice of putting the old multi-story, intact and furnished wooden buildings—sometimes entire rows of them en bloc—on rollers and moving them to the outskirts of town or to the suburbs was so common as to be considered nothing more than routine traffic.
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
There used to be a show in the US about moving houses - generally they were wooden houses and moved a mile or so to either a new part of town or another town. I think the huge wide (and pretty empty looking) roads helped - I can't think of many cases where you'd be able to do similar in the UK due to the narrow roads. Plus I'd rather move a wooden house than a brick or even a stone one.
It's fairly common to relocate houses in New Zealand, up to a couple of hundred km away. Wooden buildings built on piles used to be the standard construction method in New Zealand before poured concrete bases became the norm, so they're relatively easy to move: just chop the piles and jack it up onto a truck. My parent's friends actually gave a house away for free. They were rebuilding, it it was cheaper to give the…
The Museum Hotel in Wellington was also moved in 1993.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/74342852/...
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#38https://www.indystar.com/story/news/history/retroindy/2014/0... They moved and rotated an Indiana Bell building in the 1930s.
I came here to post this. It's crazy to see the big bundle of cable snaking away from the building!
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#39I didn't see it mentioned there, so I have to ask: what about the cabling? Depending on where the telephone cables entered the building, they would have to get up to 12 meters longer. How did they make that work? Did they splice every cable? Or did the cables already have enough slack?
Not sure about this specific example, but here's how cutovers between exchanges were achieved at the time. A similar process was probably used: https://youtu.be/VVTzEVPz1YA (the actual cut-over procedure starts at 8:20)
Re: A 1700-ton telco building that was relocated while running in 1950
#40I saw the same thing being done with a theatre in Manhattan in 1998 (to make way for the Disneyfication of Times Square) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Theatre_(42nd_Street)
The cleanup of NYTS was essential in getting tourists to keep going to new york as well as make it a livable place --companies were all moving to NJ for tax and quality of life reasons.
I really do not miss all the sex shops and prostitutes, pushers and all around hustlers who used to have a run of the place. I for one am glad they cleaned that up.