The colossal work that turned an entire building in the USA for almost a century

In terms of engineering expertise, moving a building that weighs tons is relatively easy these days.

Over the last few decades, techniques have been refined, the machines in charge of the transfer have become more powerful and the methods have become more varied, from installing helium balloons to using rails or ropes.

Structures of all kinds have been relocated: old Victorian homes, apartment buildings, schools, factories and even entire bus stations.

However, in the 1930s, changes of this kind posed a monumental challenge.

In the case of the headquarters of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company, a telephone company located in the city of Indianapolis, in the United States, the work was a little more complicated: the building was rotated 90 degrees horizontally.

The construction had eight floors and weighed 11,000 tons.

The amazing thing is that the process was done while the employees were still inside the building.

Every morning during business hours, the company’s 600 workers entered and exited through a door that was not in the same place as the day before.

A movable wooden platform allowed employees and the public to enter and exit the building at any time while work was in progress.

Wires and pipes were lengthened to make this possible so that telephone, gas, heating or sewer services would not be interrupted.

The process was carried out in just over four weeks, with extreme precision and gave the Indiana Bell Telephone Company, a subsidiary of the AT&T company, the long-awaited space to expand its headquarters.

expansion projects

In 1929, the company’s managers realized that the space they had on North Meridian Street had become too small. They then thought of demolishing the old building, completed in 1907, to build a larger structure.

However, as a telephone company, the headquarters provided an essential service to the city and it was not possible to shut it down.

The solution adopted was to move the old structure towards the back lot in order to make room for the new building on the free land.

The transfer began in October 1930 with the help of dozens of manual hydraulic jacks and a steam engine.

“The plan calls for the original eight-story building to be moved from its current corner location to the rear of the property,” newspapers announced at the time.

The project “will clear an area of ​​60 by 30 meters, on which the new building will be erected”, announced the company’s management.

Over the next four weeks, the huge steel and brick building moved, inch by inch, 16 meters to the south, rotated 90 degrees, and then moved again 30 meters to the west.

During the entire month of works, the company did not miss a single day of work or interrupt the service.

The old building stayed for 33 years at the new address, until it was demolished to make way for a larger building.

different methods

“Basically, there are two ways to relocate a building: dismantle it and rebuild it in the new position, or move the entire structure”, explains Irene Rodríguez, senior engineer at the British company Mace Group.

“The choice of process is made according to many factors. The distance to be traveled is one of the most important”, he adds.

In addition, explains the expert, there are technical differences depending on the type of construction.

“It’s not the same thing to move a building with load-bearing walls [que constituem a estrutura da construção] or one made of steel, as in this process it will be necessary to temporarily reinforce the structure to avoid collapse during the move”, he adds.

The most common today is for companies to resort to engineering groups specialized in this type of project.

This whole process took place in Indianapolis nearly a century ago.

“Moving the old building presents some very interesting problems, mainly because the move must be done without interrupting service,” acknowledged the board of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company.

“The project is not an experiment. The contractor who did the work had an enviable track record of tackling far more complex motion problems,” the text continues.

“The plan was adopted only after long and careful consideration of both safety and economics.”

“It is interesting to note that it was definitively demonstrated that, at no point during the work, was the strength of the building diminished. During the movement, the foundations were as strong as at any other time”, explained company representatives.

With the move out of the old building completed in December 1930, the new headquarters was ready for occupancy in late 1932. Thus, the Indiana Bell Telephone Company became a landmark building on the city’s skyline for decades to come.