Strange building in London, whats happening here?, Its 122 Leadenhall Street !

[JG010491]

Its because of the construction of the building used an unusual technique of suspending each floor from the top of the core of the building. This meant that they had to remove floors from the bottom up before demolishing the core from the top down.

[lacika990]

the aliens stolen this part of building :)

[train52000]

Dude, they should of built that place like that. Its looks cool.

[Kirikolatza1]

yeah, from some years ago was fashionable this model mainly because you have free space on the ground. Has no perimetral columns but only big central ones, instead those columns there are tension cables all across the walls hanging from the big beams in the roof. I never been in London, is nice to se those two buildings Foster one and the other industrial one are close...

[seinfeldfan7898]

Lego?

[themaaan1990]

why did'nt they demolish it from the top down?

[Kelvari7882]

@themaaan1990 This was done for safety reasons, since its floors were "hung" from the top. By starting work from the bottom, they didn't run the risk of losing structural integrity in the middle of the job.

[mnic1234]

No, the music was written by Murray Gold for 'The Girl In The Fireplace', a Doctor Who episode from 2006. Its called Madame de Pompadour.

[bronzeonion]

LOL

[ecotts]

Wouldn't it just be quicker to get the Building 7 demolition crew on the case?

It would be down in 2 seconds flat! literally!

[BRBSHUTUPNOOB]

mushroom building :D

[dnicholsoncole]

The building is hung from its roof. The core went up first. there is a very stiff three dimensional lattice going out at roof height, and the walls and floors are hung from this on high strength cables. There was a fashion for building like this in the 60s. So the only way to demolish is upwards, as the only compressive structure in the building is an extremely stiff reinforced core.

[johneastmond]

@dnicholsoncole I was thinking this thing must be dangling from the roof. In this case it does make sense to unpin the floors bottom up. Even though I understand the structural system it still looks very odd!

[grungedistortion999]

The reason why they have demolished the bottom floors first is simply so they can, or could have if it weren't for the recession, start the piling and foundations for the new building sooner rather than having to wait for the whole building to go. saves time :)

[luisalmex]

Is a horrible building if we compare it with The Gherkin, I think it has a stupid and unfuctional design.

[TSM8088]

@luisalmex Yes, just like the Citicorp building on Lexington Ave. in New York.

[Maymona13]

This building has cute all over it! Thats a cute design if U ask me.

[stupidcrapcanyonlake]

when some people demolish smaller buildings, they take out a few floors from the bottom so it will be easier to place explosives and implode the building.

[comedyhunter]

In this case they actually demolished each floor one at a time all the way up to the top, no explosives used.

[blooba974]

@stupidcrapcanyonlake but... its very dangerous !!!

[EarthsGravitySucks]

i've heard of employees stealing pens, staplers, paper and such but this is going too far.

[Slack3ron]

LMAO

[NaniWaSuruKa]

thats hat happens when you only pay your employees half their paycheck

[oceannightdiver]

never mind the building, what classical tune is playing?

[comedyhunter]

The music is by David Arnold from the film Changing Lanes and was also used in Dr Who

[ta400]

This is a typical example of building rot. Quite common in London

[createsutoo]

looks like..... an Architectual Design.. to me......

an Invention say...... thats all i C.

[PlanetSierron]

Why this sad / strange music? It is only a building... lol

[ownerfate]

but that did look cool i gotta hand em that...

[johnny86blaze86]

Lol what dumass would think of starting from the bottom.

[Aarontlondon]

TO THE PERSON WHO POSTED THIS VIDEO:

This building was being demolished floor by floor from the bottom up for safety reasons. The building has now been fully demolished and they've started constructing the new building (The Leadenhall building) which when complete will be one of the tallest sky scrapers in Europe.

[EverClear222]

building without pants.

[rutlandplace]

Them beams are a bitch to spray with p20 mandalite or if you use mineral fibre,I fireproofed a hell of lot of buildings around the city of london.morceau fireproofinging from Pinxton notts.

[SuperHeroMan411]

no they are deconstucting it from bottom to top to make a new building much much taller

[DriftDriver36]

Youtube "dynamic construction" this building looks alot like that process.

[KamakazieIdiot]

1, they ran out of materials so they put them on the top part, the fatal blow was when they finished the top half, the builders got bored and went away.

[progress2007]

Wow, the music is cool!

Nice orchestration! - (a little monotonous toward the end though)

What is it?

[comedyhunter]

the music is by David Arnold from the film Changing Lanes.

Its also on the album Doctor Who - Original Television Soundtrack , Track 19 Madame de Pompadour.

[skyscrapercityvideos]

Sadly it appears the new tower will never be built. British Land are putting the entire project on hold, and are rumoured to be redesigning the original Rogers proposal :-(

[comedyhunter]

Thats a shame, I guess this is because of the credit crunch etc.

[patyo1994]

its not gonna colapse cos the weight isnt just supported by one single floor its by every floor, so the bottom floor isnt taking the weight of every other just its own weight

[specialks1953]

No, each floor supports its own weight as it is designed to do. If the trusses of the bottom floor were what was supporting the upper floors, it would have collapsed long before it got this far.

Engineering & Construction fact!

I may end up coming down but it won't fall down, It will be because of some kind of restriction or law. It may have to be taken down, but not because it's unsafe.

It may not make sense to you but you are not an Engineer nor in the multi-story construction field.

[patyo1994]

yes i said each floor was supportin its own weight...

[specialks1953]

patyo1994, I am very sorry! I misread your comment because my eyes left out the word NOT. I looked up more info on the building later and found it is being or now has been taken down. Sad to see it go. I did not find a view of what it looked like before the de-consturction started. I have seen other buildings built in the mushroom style and thought that was where this was headed. Thanks for your response or I would not have know my mistake.

Thanks, specialks1953

[Theronguardaaah]

yeah its being deconstructed

[ethicomm]

The Ponte Tower apartment building in Johannesburg is pretty strange. It's not on YouTube but is in Yahoo Images.

[20Justin1]

looks like an ice cream cone

[jeffeaston]

the are taking the bulding down from the bottom , they do it all the time

[RUBENSFLIX]

whats up with the sad music??

[igotbored44]

it looks like its being deconstructed.

[garycalgary]

there is a building like that in Vancouver Canada which is called the WestCoast Energy Building.

It is only one of 2 earthquake buildings. The idea is the core swings left to right and the building sways with the core in an earthquake.

[tubeindividual]

When they do finally tear it down, they will discover more victims of John R. Haliday Christie, just wait and see. How did you make those professional zooms and pans. Do you have special equipment?

[comedyhunter]

All "professional zooms and pans" were done post-filming using the Pan/Zoom facility in Easy Media Creator 10.

[Dext37Fielding]

this is were a new Sky Scraper developement is being put on hold...

[stratocaster539]

interesting to see the strength of the trusses as well as the core.Defies what happenen on 9/11.

[koriko88]

Not really. The trusses and the core are just doing their job as they normally would.

[Theronguardaaah]

just stupid music for this

[Dapiaman]

As a teenager I worked in St Mary Axe and watched this building being constructed in the late sixties. They built the central shaft first and then built outwards like a mushroom and worked their way down to ground level. It was said that building from top to bottom was the new concept in construction of tall buildings. The neighbouring building was built in the same way, as was another in Fenchurch Street. I think the first occupants of the building in the video were P&O.

[edgea09]

Its nearly done, just the core. A lot of progress has been made with foundation piles beneath and basement construction. Bring on the Leadenhall Building!

[dellinashell]

yeah its pretty obvious O_o

if they blew it up all the other buildings would get mashed....

its gone now tho i used to ride past it all the time :]

[mollysaver]

This building is as good as down now, just the core remains

[1MrTrap1]

its not finished

[jongoth]

yeah i work very close to here and its taking AGES to demolish! its being demolished from the ground upwards cos all the floors were suspended by a giant arm from the top of the building so if you do it from the top, all the floors would collapse.

what is this piece of music by the way? i love it!!

[comedyhunter]

The music is called Madame De Pompadour and its by David Arnold from the OST for the film Changing Lanes.

You may remember the track as it was used in an episode of Dr Who "the girl in the fireplace".

[2f2fcs]

its being demollished my dad said they wouldent make it collapse because it will damage the aviva tower ware my dad used to work in

[Andythecat11]

I work nearby, it looks pretty much the same now as it does there.

[comedyhunter]

I took this video was back on 23rd July 2007, any ideas why its not down yet?

[avalondep]

It's the former post office building. it was built as a pair with 1 the Undershaft (aka the AXA building which stands behind it). They're both suspension/core structures which means that the concrete core (visible at the bottom) holds up a big truss at the top, from which all the floors underneath are suspended. Hence they've had to demolish it from the bottom up (as well as saving time/money by building foundations for the next building on that site). Think of it as taking a chandelier apart.

[comedyhunter]

Thanks for the explanation.

[DIVERBLOKE1]

Now is fully sheeted in and being demolished.

There are three others like it.

[bryanr13]

wat building is that on the first second

[comedyhunter]

Do you mean the metal one?, Its the Lloyds Building.

[bryanr13]

o wow im stupid, thanx anyways

[SLIMIMPHAL]

This is actually a joke!!!!

They should have finished demolition early 2008.

Yet it hasn't got any further it seems from when I last saw it in september last year.

The workers are having a great time ..... doing bugger all !!

[redgeorgieredgeorgie]

IF you read what it says at the beginning of the clip you will see that it was taken in July 2007. That's why it doesn't look fully demolished yet.

[CincinatiKim]

Enabling works on the "Shard of Glass - London Bridge Tower" is underway, right next to London Bridge station, theres info on youtube about the development. London will then have the tallest building in western europe.

[webcraftdesign]

Now it looks a bit like the Central Bank in Dublin !

[EASYTIGER10]

It's demolished in this way because of the restricted site. As people have said, this is a "cantilever" design, where a strong central core has the floors "cantilevered" out. If it were demolished from the top down, you'd have to get all the material out beyond the edge of the floor below. Doing it this way means you just drop it straight down. It now has a rising platform to "catch" the debris due to the height. If "Tower 42" were demolished it would be probably be done in the same way.

[comedyhunter]

Thanks for the info.

[bakerloobadboy]

I think this was a case of the builders getting the plans upside down and they started building from the top down - LOL

[billiepiper4lifefan1]

i thought the music waz firmiller now i now it from doc who girl in the fireplace ep

[comedyhunter]

Feb 2008 - This building is shown in the starting credits for the new BBC series of Ashes to Ashes (Life on Mars spin-off) and looks like they filmed this about the same time as I took this video.

Search for video called...

Principio de Ashes To Ashes de la BBC

And see this building at 35 seconds into it.

[BasemanB]

Comedyhunter, check my video if you can.

[comedyhunter]

How recent was your video of this because it looks like they have only demolished one more level since I was there?

[BasemanB]

I filmed this video about 3 weeks ago. Nothing has changed, but they should be finish in Feb 2008. I heared noise in there, so somebody was working in this building.

[bejamrof]

They're demolishing the buiding from the ground up.

The structural system hangs all the floors from the top of the building (which sits on the core).

[sahbapasta]

what music is this? it's amazing!

[comedyhunter]

The track is called Madame De Pompadour and its by David Arnold from the OST for the film Changing Lanes.

Hope this helps.

[sahbapasta]

thank you so much!

[skyscrapercityvideos]

The new building will be one of the coolest skyscrapers in the world. Check out those links in the video's description.

[adriott]

i would'nt stand at that bus stop

[shakeyjake1990]

its getting demolished like that coz the buildings supported from the roof instead of going to the ground if you demolished it fro mthe top down it would have no support or anything it was on the news very funny

[808hannsz]

Is this a WTC demonstration on how strong the cores of the buildings should have been?

[cjt1881]

The new building is now underway, even though demolition of the old building won't be finished until early next year. Piling is taking place at ground level while the rest of the old building is gradually dismantled, so speeding up construction.

[garycalgary]

this building is similar to duke energy in Vancouver.

The one in vanocuver is similar to this and it's called an earthquake building. That means the center core can sway and the buidling goes with it.

The only other building of it's kind that i am aware of is in san francisco.

[HideTowerLondonSW1]

Dear co.,

will you be posting a further view of this building, showing more demolished state.

.

Something like a coctail umbrella would look good.

.

Thanks for posting this.

cheers.

from,

del-boy.

[cjt1881]

The building under demolition is 122 Leadenhall Street, The new Leadenhall building will actually be nicknamed "The Cheesegrater", the "Walkie Talkie" is a different building planned, officially called 20 Fenchurch Street.

[scotlandthebrave93]

Wow so the new leadenhall will replace it? I actually find the new one or thwe walkie talkie quite ugly

[boneycork]

Demolition has started.

[yourhavingalaugh07]

Put a pic of it on irecognisethat dot com, it's for this kinda thing.

[mazmik]

interesting video .. like the music too .. very haunting, whats it called & who's it by?

[comedyhunter]

Cheers, the music is by David Arnold from the film Changing Lanes.

Its also on the album Doctor Who - Original Television Soundtrack , Track 19 Madame de Pompadour.

[dmanc85]

Its being demolished to make way for the 225 metre Leadenhall Tower

[comedyhunter]

Thanks, What was the building?

[dmanc85]

The building being demolished used to be an office building for a company called Calyon. It also used to have a supermarket at the base!

[milapse]

That's a structural technique where the exterior of the building is in tension... The central 'trunk' supports a sort of 'umbrella' and the floors are 'suspended' from it. So If your going to tear that type of building down you have to start at the bottom. If you took off the top nothing would support the rest of it... make sense?

[Edwiness]

Very informative, thanks for that.

[JoshR343]

They are demolishing it, but they cant go in full guns and use explosices, because of the other buildings near by, so they are taking it down peice by peice, the core is then likely to be made taller, and the newer Leadenhall building, which will be coloquially known as "The Walkie Talkie"

[Markdorman]

The Mushroom V the Gherkin??

Strange way of doing things though, bottom up. Perhaps its a flat pack, 60s, type thing. Interesting Vid mate.