How the Japanese Destroy a Building

[Norm in Fujino]

My university campus is undergoing reconstruction at present. Just after moving into my new 18 story office building in June, they began tearing down the set of buildings next door, including one building where I had had an office for nearly 15 years. It was said to be a dangerously unstable (as in not earthquake resistant) building, though, so not many of us were sad to see it go. As soon as I realized what was happening, I began taking pictures from the 17th floor of the building where I have my new office. Here's what the site looked like near the beginning (July 12):

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/Demolition/P7120038w2.jpg

And here's what it looked like two months later (September 6):

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/Demolition/P9060094_NWw1.jpg

For everything that happened in-between, see my Demolition site (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/Demolition/).

All these shots were taken through glass windows with the Olympus C-755UZ.

[Phill D]

Nice pictures Norm, especially through a window. What's going to be put there in place of the old buildings?

[Norm in Fujino]

Thanks Phil.
What in its place? more buildings, of course ;) I'm going to try and record the building process as well, but it'll take a couple of years.

[Phill D]

More of the same - :( Shame, one of those nice well manicured japanese gardens would have been nice. Not as profitable though :rolleyes:

[Norm in Fujino]

More of the same - :( Shame, one of those nice well manicured japanese gardens would have been nice. Not as profitable though :rolleyes:

Well, it's a university, so sheer monetary "profit" isn't part of the equation. It will house a museum and research institute, I believe. I'm personally glad I no longer have to work in building #2, though. As I mentioned on my longer series (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/Peregrinor/Demolition/) of photos, building 2 was seriously under-spec in terms of earthquake resistance (the floors were actually sagging on the 6th floor where we had our Institute and offices), and it was rolling the dice each time we chose to come to work. Tokyo is overdue for a big earthquake, you know. :(

[cdifoto]

Wow they work fast. And clean up really well! Nice shots Norm.


Although I must say here in the USA they do it even faster. We just implode ours. Couple seconds and we're done. lmao.