All good things must come to an end

[Don Coatney]

The Carter carburetor manufacturing plant in St Louis comes down. 

 

http://fox2now.com/2015/08/24/carter-carburetor-demolition-to-begin-monday/

 

[Niel Hoback]

Why, I could throttle those guys! It chokes me up to see that building come down.

[Young Ed]

Interesting they labeled it a super fund site which made me think they were paying the bill for clean up. Then it goes on to say it was a complex thing to figure out who owned it and was responsible for the clean up. So are the current owners super screwed???

[Plymouthy Adams]

it is just another building and another industrial complex to be upgraded...

[Mark D]

Some day someone will mourn the loss of these "castles" of Industrial Age manufacturing.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/08/26/demolition-of-carter-carburetor-factory-in-st-louis-begins/?layout=mobileview

Edited August 26, 2015 by Mark D

[ggdad1951]

threads combined

 

your friendly truck side mod

[TodFitch]

Some day someone will mourn the loss of these "castles" of Industrial Age manufacturing.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/08/26/demolition-of-carter-carburetor-factory-in-st-louis-begins/?layout=mobileview

 

Is having a uniquely designed tire manufacturing plant turned into a shopping mall a loss or a save?

 

http://www.seecalifornia.com/shopping/los-angeles-citadel-outlet.html

[Plymouthy Adams]

I know facilities that were closed simply not because of production and such...but chosing it over the other site...lets just say the clean up o the other site would well exceed reasonable cost compared tot he other....so it being less productive, winter weather closures and on top of that poor work habits that led to spills and contamination...lets reward the good workers by loss of jobs...

[Ulu]

Some day someone will mourn the loss of these "castles" of Industrial Age manufacturing.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/08/26/demolition-of-carter-carburetor-factory-in-st-louis-begins/?layout=mobileview

 

It won't be the structural engineers. Every time we're called in to "OK" a remodel of one of these old buildings, the structural deficiencies make it a losing proposition, economically. We get called in to examine these dinosaurs every year, and the risk of just touching one is more than we would ever want to assume. Those brick spandrel jobs are the worst. None of those 10 million bricks are anchored or reinforced at all, judging by modern codes. Ties from floor or roof to walls are never sufficient. Gravity loads are usually well supported (unless the earthwork was poor and resulted in settlement) but lateral loads never figure, and uplift loads were generally unconsidered.

 

Some really historic buildings were saved with expensive and heroic means (read about the Oakland City Hall rehab) but someone has to really want to spend ($85 million of taxpayer) money, more than to make money, to do this.

 

Just like we build better cars these days, we build better buildings too. Not necessarily more attractive, but more solid.

[Mark D]

Truth be told, I'm an designer by devotion and architect by training... 

 

Some projects are impossible, and get overuled by budget constraints. However I remain a persistent optomist.

 

I worry that our 19th century castles will only exist in photgraphic form.

 

Better designs are possible, but losing such important pieces of the past is a high price to pay for progress.

[Ulu]

I loved architecture before I was persuaded to become an engineer. Dad told me: "There's a lot more starving architects than starving engineers." To this day, I'm not sure if he was right.

 

But old stuff isn't structurally safe & the rehab we have to do saving public stuff & old school buildings is very expensive--and challenging.

 

We like the challenge, but too often the real budget comes to head with the hoped for budget, and it happens when the contractors see the structurals. At that point our clients like us to re-design everything for free so they can make it less expensive.

 

The challenge is harder to accept at that point.

 

But our clients like "team players". That means we bail them out at our expense.

 

Well, ya do what ya gotta do to keep clients. 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Ulu

[Mark D]

I loved architecture before I was persuaded to become an engineer. Dad told me: "There's a lot more starving architects than starving engineers." To this day, I'm not sure if he was right.

 

But old stuff isn't structurally safe & the rehab we have to do saving public stuff & old school buildings is very expensive--and challenging.

 

We like the challenge, but too often the real budget comes to head with the hoped for budget, and it happens when the contractors see the structurals. At that point our clients like us to re-design everything for free so they can make it less expensive.

 

The challenge is harder to accept at that point.

 

But our clients like "team players". That means we bail them out at our expense.

 

Well, ya do what ya gotta do to keep clients. 

Truth in every word. The architect mentor that I had as a young man always said to me, "Mark, you don't want to be an architect you want to be a liquor store owner. Your customers need it when they're up and need it more when their down." I've never forgotten that advice, and the job I have today is about as close to that as of ever been. I work for a national off-price retailer managing their corporate real estate. People will always need cheap socks and underwear...

[Ulu]

Hah!  Thank you Mark.

 

The first good engineer I knew told me about the same thing. "This is a job you do because you'd do it for free....because you love to do it, 'cause it sure ain't for the big money..."

 

OK, I make a reasonable income for this area. I'm not pampered, but I don't worry about paying the bills either.

[Young Ed]

I'm not sure its on the same level but this post had me thinking the other day. I drove past the hockey rink that the Mighty Ducks movie was shot in and they are preparing to knock it down.

[Ulu]

When I took my current job almost 22 years ago, one of my first projects was to rehab a job I drew 40 years ago, when I was a total rookie.

(The Wherehouse, in Clovis.)

 

That made me feel old then, but I was only not yet 40!

Edited August 31, 2015 by Ulu

[Plymouthy Adams]

When I took my current job almost 22 years ago, one of my first projects was to rehab a job I drew 40 years ago, when I was a total rookie.

(The Wherehouse, in Clovis.)

 

That made me feel old then, but I was only 40!

should have done it right the first time....  sorry, you walked into that one...

[Ulu]

HehHehHeh...I was a Rookie! 

 

The structure was still OK. Still is too. I still shop in that store from time to time.

It was mainly an architectural facelift on a 20+ year old building, but they "had" to cut the trusses (!!!).

Their compulsion became my profit. 

 

Several years before that job, I had left this aluminum mfg company to work for a high rise contractor, my first project was to do the walls for a job I'd just done the windows for.

 

Man, stuff better fit together when you're in that situation! There's nobody else to blame.