Thursday 16 July 2020

"San Francisco building lifted 10 feet in preparation of rising sea levels"

From Dezeen:

A historic waterfront building in San Francisco that weighs 2,075 tons, the equivalent of 20 space shuttles, will be hoisted up over three metres above ground to protect it from flooding caused by climate change.

Building 12, which was completed in 1941 for America's shipbuilding effort during the second world war, is being lifted up in advance of a renovation by architecture firm Perkins and Will...


OK, so they are going to pop it on stilts and have a suspended walkway to the nearest piece of high ground for access?

Once raised Perkins and Will will extend the building from 118,890 square feet (11,045 square metres) to 230,000 square feet (21,367 square metres), adding a new basement, second level and mezzanine.

In other words, the site owner couldn't get planning permission to demolish a historic building, but the council allowed him to lift it up and build another two storeys beneath it, thus preserving the 'iconic' roof-line (I think it looks ghastly, but it does have historic significance).

6 comments:

Penseivat said...

"..adding a new basement,....".
That's just spoiled my joke about Alexandra Occasional Cortex having a basement built to prepare for the same rising sea levels. Bugger!

Mark Wadsworth said...

PS, go on, what was the joke?

Penseivat said...

As that was the punch line, the rest is irrelevant, unless her plan was to turn her house upside down so the basement doesn't get flooded.

Mark Wadsworth said...

P, aha, now this makes sense!

Bayard said...

Mark, isn't that the house from the Wizard of Oz?

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, that tornado was an early portent of Catastrophic Climate Change.