The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply, the Tower of Pisa, is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. The tower is one of three structures in the Pisa's Cathedral Square, which includes the cathedral and Pisa Baptistry.
The collapse of the World Trade Center occurred on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, after two commercial airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City as part of the September 11 attacks. The North Tower was the first building to be hit when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the skyscraper at 8:46 a.m., causing it to collapse at 10:28 after burning for 1 hour and 41 minutes. At 9:03 a.m., the South Tower was struck by United Airlines Flight 175, collapsing at 9:58 that morning after 55 minutes of burning. The resulting debris severely damaged or destroyed more than a dozen other adjacent and nearby structures, ultimately leading to the collapse of 7 World Trade Center at 5:21 p.m. The hijackings, crashes, fires and subsequent collapses initially killed a total of 2,760 people. Toxic dust from the collapses soon gave rise to numerous long-term health effects that continue to plague many who were in the vicinity of the collapsing towers, with at least 3 additional deaths reported. The 110-story towers are the tallest freestanding structures ever to collapse.
122 Leadenhall Street, which is also known as the Leadenhall Building, is a 225-metre-tall (738 ft) skyscraper in central London. It opened in July 2014 and was designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; it is known informally as The Cheesegrater because of its distinctive wedge shape similar to that of the kitchen utensil with the same name. It is one of numerous tall buildings recently completed or under construction in the City of London financial district, including 20 Fenchurch Street, 22 Bishopsgate and The Scalpel.
Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Texas. ACS was ranked at number 341 on the 2010 Fortune 500 list. Founded in 1988, by Darwin Deason, ACS operated in nearly 100 countries, generating over $6 billion annually. As of September 2009, ACS employed approximately 74,000 people.
A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. It was most commonly in use during the 1950s and 1960s. Several wrecking companies claim to have invented the wrecking ball. An early documented use was in the breaking up of the SS Great Eastern in 1888–1889, by Henry Bath and Co, at Rock Ferry on the River Mersey.
In the controlled demolition industry, building implosion is the strategic placing of explosive material and timing of its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings. Despite its terminology, building implosion also includes the controlled demolition of other structures, such as bridges, smokestacks, towers, and tunnels.
The Zip Feed Tower was a grain elevator and feed mill in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At 202 feet it was the tallest occupiable structure in South Dakota from its construction in 1956–57 until its demolition in December 2005. The mill closed in 2000 and in 2005 was scheduled for demolition to make way for office and retail space.
The Imperial Hotel is a hotel in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. It was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of Western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the Imperial Palace grounds, next to the previous location of the Palace moat. The modern hotel overlooks the Palace, the 40-acre (16 ha) Western-style Hibiya Park, and the Yurakucho and Ginza neighborhoods.
Fuji Xerox Towers is a high-rise skyscraper located in Downtown Core, Singapore. It is located on 80 Anson Road, in the zone of Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar. The building sits within four roads, namely Tanjong Pagar Road, Bernam Street, Keppel Road and Anson Road.
Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) is a controlled demolition firm headquartered in Phoenix, Maryland. The firm was founded by Jack Loizeaux who used dynamite to remove tree stumps in the Baltimore, Maryland area, and moved on to using explosives to take down chimneys, overpasses and small buildings in the 1940s. The company has demolished several notable buildings by implosion, including the Gettysburg National Tower, the Seattle Kingdome, and the uncollapsed portion of the Champlain Towers South condominium.
The Tower (formerly Block 82 Tower and Bank One Tower) is a 35-story building located in downtown Fort Worth, Texas bound by Taylor Street, Throckmorton Street, West 4th Street, and West 5th Street. At 488-feet, it is the fourth tallest building in Fort Worth. When it was completed in 1974, it was the tallest building in Fort Worth until the completion of the Burnett Plaza in 1983. On March 28, 2000, this tower was severely damaged by an F3 tornado; consensus was nearly reached to demolish the tower, but it was instead converted into the tallest residential building in the city.
The Harmon was an unfinished high-rise building at the CityCenter development, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It was named after its location at the intersection of Harmon Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. The Harmon was developed by MGM Mirage and Dubai World, with Perini Building Company as general contractor. It was designed by Foster and Partners as a non-gaming hotel, and was to be operated by The Light Group. It was scheduled to open with the rest of CityCenter in late 2009. The tower originally was to rise 49 stories, and would include 400 hotel rooms and 207 condominiums.
The Packard Automotive Plant was an automobile-manufacturing factory in Detroit, Michigan, where luxury cars were made by the Packard Motor Car Company and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Demoliton began on building 21 on October 27th, 2022, and a second round of demolition began on building 28 on January 24th, 2023, which was wrapped up by April 1st, however all demolition efforts by the City of Detroit halted, which stopped finishing demolition work of building 21. The Packard Plant currently sits empty and partially demolished, with many parcels still remaining.
The Hotel Grand Chancellor was a major four-star hotel in the centre of Christchurch in New Zealand, one of eleven Hotel Grand Chancellor establishments across Australia and New Zealand. The hotel was located at 161 Cashel Street, close to the city's City Mall central shopping precinct.
Ocean Tower SPI was an unfinished, 31-story condominium in South Padre Island, Cameron County, Texas, United States, that was imploded when it was deemed unsafe to remain standing. Construction was halted in May 2008 when cracks formed in the building's supporting columns, and investigations revealed that the core of the skyscraper had sunk by more than 14 inches (360 mm). Though the developers initially vowed to fix the problem, studies discovered that repairs would have been too expensive, and plans for its demolition were announced in September 2009. At the time of its controlled implosion in December 2009 the building weighed 55,000 short tons (50,000 t), and it was the tallest reinforced concrete structure to be demolished in that way. It was nicknamed "Faulty Towers" and "The Leaning Tower of South Padre Island".
Demolition is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for reuse purposes.
