The Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved

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Introduction to The Top Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved

According to Greek mythology, Atlas fought in a war against the Greek god Zeus, and as punishment, was doomed to hold the entire heavens aloft. He's often depicted in art as holding the world on his back. Atlas, then, knows a little bit about heavy burdens.

hydraulic jacking system in front of Cape Hatteras lighthouse

John Althouse/AFP/Getty Images
Atlas didn't have a hydraulic jacking system, like these movers of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. See more lighthouse pictures.

What would he say about structural moving, or the process of lifting an entire building at the foundation and moving it elsewhere? Well, he'd probably say that these movers have the help of machines and technology. All the same, even Atlas would probably be impressed by the weight of some of the buildings on this list.

Structural moving is an increasingly common way to preserve historic buildings that might otherwise be razed to make way for development. It's also a way to place a building in a safer location if it's threatened by flooding.

While almost anything can be moved structurally, from old churches to nuclear reactors, the buildings on this list set themselves apart by their weight and, sometimes, by the difficulty of the move. Everything about these moves is big: the number of engineering hours, the budget and the equipment. It's enough to give even Atlas a headache. After all, not even Atlas had to carry the world through a crowded downtown corridor. Read on to find out about the move that went through the heart of Minneapolis.

5. The Shubert Theater (2,908 tons)

Donovan Reese/Photodisc/Getty Images
Can you imagine moving 2,908 tons through downtown Minneapolis streets?

The oldest existing theater in Minneapolis, Minn., has been many things since it opened in 1910. It was a vaudeville stage that attracted the likes of Mae West and the Marx Brothers, a burlesque theater, a movie theater and even an evangelistic auditorium. But it became something else in January 1999: a world record holder.

The theater had been closed for several years when the city of Minneapolis decided it wanted to redevelop the block on which the Shubert was standing. Artspace, a nonprofit development agency, bought the building from the city and hatched plans to move it one block over.

Though the move was only one-quarter of a mile, it took five bulldozers 12 days to complete the move [source: PR Newswire]. Helping out the bulldozers were 100 hydraulic jacks that lifted the building and 70 dollies that formed a temporary foundation for traveling through the city streets [source: PR Newswire].

Artspace conducted research to determine how a redesigned Shubert could best serve Minneapolis and gained fundraising from private supporters and the state legislature. The restored Shubert Center, which will feature a midsize performing arts theater, as well as classrooms for arts education, is scheduled to open in 2008.

Read on to find out how a turn-of-the-century hotel beat the Shubert's record.

4. The Hotel Montgomery (4,816 tons)

When the Hotel Montgomery opened in San Jose, Calif., in 1911, it was the epitome of luxury. By the 1990s, however, it was vacant, deteriorating and facing demolition. The space was needed to expand another upscale, modern hotel. But the newly elected mayor of San Jose told developers to find a way to save the Hotel Montgomery and build the expansion. It seemed like an impossible task, until a frustrated architect just asked, "Why don't we move it?" [source: Bartindale]

What started as a discouraged utterance turned out to be an inspiration, and in 2000, the 4,816 ton, four-story Hotel Montgomery moved 182 feet (55 meters) down the street [source: Bartindale]. The move itself cost $3 million, while the total project budget of more than $12 million covered engineering, seismic reinforcement and asbestos removal [source: Bartindale].

To some preservationists, moving the building wasn't ideal. An elegant ballroom had to be torn down to relocate the structure, and the first floor was gutted to install structural supports. But when it comes down to losing the building or modifying it, moving a building can be a good compromise. Sometimes buildings are restored to their original condition in their new location, but in this case, the Montgomery underwent additional renovation to become a serviceable hotel again. The Montgomery is now a stylish boutique hotel, so visitors to San Jose can still enjoy a modern hotel room in a historic building.

How do you move a building?
While moving a large building takes intense planning and coordination, the process boils down to a few simple steps. The builder cuts openings in the building's foundation and installs steel beams for structural support. Hydraulic jacks are also installed under the structure; the jacks are connected by a central control system that monitors the pressure on each jack and keeps the building level. The building is jacked up, rubber dollies are installed below and the structure begins its slow crawl to its new destination.

What move came to be known as the "Move of the Millennium"? You'll find out on the next page.

3. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (4,830 tons)

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina may not be a traditional structure the way some of the others on this list are, but how could we leave out what came to be known as the "Move of the Millennium?"

John Althouse/AFP/Getty Images
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse slowly made its way to
safer ground.

The coastline was disappearing, leaving some people to fear that the tallest lighthouse in the nation would be lost to the encroaching Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse, which was 129 years old at the time of the move, posed a special challenge because it had no internal structural supports to hold it together during the move. Though the National Park Service approved $12 million to move the structure [source: Clarke], many citizens didn't think the job could be done. The project even faced a last-minute injunction to stop the move.

Apprehensive crowds showed up to watch as the lighthouse, mounted on a foundation of 400 tons of steel -- made up by hydraulic jacks and steel beams -- edged its way down a metal runway [source: Clarke]. It took hydraulic rams 45 seconds to a minute to push the lighthouse 5 feet (1.5 meters), and the entire move took 23 days [source: Clarke]. The team behind moving Cape Hatteras was rewarded with the Opal Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, which is the equivalent of an Oscar to an engineer.

What move tipped the scales at more than 7,000 tons? Find out on the next page.

2. Newark International Airport Building 51 (7,400 tons)

Usually airports are a way to move people around. But in 2000 and 2001, an airport terminal in Newark became the object that was moved, and at a cost of $6 million, that's one expensive ticket [source: Collins].

center portion of Building 51 moving to new home

Photo courtesy Expert House Movers
The center portion of Building 51 moves to its new home.

Building 51 at Newark International Airport in New Jersey was one of the United States' first passenger terminals. Aviation luminaries such as Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh kept their planes at Newark, and it was the nation's busiest airport until LaGuardia opened four years later in 1939 [source: Collins]. However, as airports modernized and grew to accommodate more passengers, Building 51 became office space and eventually faced extinction so that a runway could be expanded.

The Port Authority and the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office decided that the building was worth saving. It eventually took five months to move the whole building, which had to be cut into three separate pieces. The two side parts each weighed about 1,200 tons, while the central portion came in at 5,000 tons [source: Port Authority]. To move the main part three-quarters of a mile, 176 dollies moved at a speed of 100 feet an hour [source: Port Authority]. Now, Building 51 is the public entrance for the airport's administration offices.

Atlas Shrugged, Turned to Peter FriesenIf you had been in the audience for some of the biggest moves in the U.S., one face might seem familiar. Engineer Peter Friesen was part of the teams that moved the Fairmount Hotel in San Antonio, the Gem Theater in Detroit, the Shubert Theater in Minneapolis, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina and the Newark Airport Terminal 51 building in New Jersey, in addition to the thousands of other buildings he moved in his career. In the 1950s, Friesen developed the unified hydraulic jacking system that is used to evenly raise most buildings, and over his career, he earned four records in the book of Guinness World Records. A documentary about Friesen's life and career called "Pete: Moving Manmade Mountains" premiered in 2007. Friesen remains humble about his achievements, attributing his success at moving buildings to a simple motto: Think it through." [Source: Marck]

On the next page, we'll take a look at the current world record holder for the heaviest building moved.

1. Fu Gang Building (15,140 tons)

When it comes to big moves, it's only a matter of time before a record is broken. The current record holder in the book of Guinness World Records for heaviest structure moved intact is a building in China. The Fu Gang building weighs in at 15,140 tons, or 33.3 million pounds. It had to be moved over about 118 feet (36 meters), and it took 11 days to move it [source: Guinness World Records]. As this writer doesn't speak Chinese and all of the research written on this building is in Chinese, it's difficult for her to tell you much else about this historic move. So let's just take a moment to appreciate again that the Chinese moved a building that weighed 15,140 tons. How long will it take to break the record? The big moves on this list show that it's only a matter of time and determination.

Wonder how they celebrated?
The Fairmount Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, a previous record holder for heaviest building moved, had to cross the Market Street bridge to reach its new home. In Las Vegas, the odds were 7-to-1 that the hotel would make it to the other side. The bridge was reinforced, but even so, the mover put three bottles of beer on a ledge below the bridge. If the bottles broke, it would warn the crews that the bridge was sagging too much. All three things made it successfully through the move -- the hotel, the bridge and the beer [source: Clarke].

To learn about more feats of structural moving, take a look at the links on the next page.

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