The Reason a Whole Office Building Was Rotated

In the heart of Indianapolis, USA, an 8-story office building slowly rotated like the hands of a clock. Inside, 600 employees were working as usual. The company needed a new headquarters as it grew, but demolishing the existing building would have shut down its internal telephone equipment and potentially disrupted the city's communications. So, the engineers flipped the script. Instead of moving people and equipment out, they decided to move the entire building, keeping everything inside as it was. They laid out rollers meticulously beneath the foundation and used massive jacks to lift the building slightly. As 18 people operated the jacks incrementally, the 11,000-ton structure began to inch around at a mere 38 centimeters per hour. The real challenge was the wires and pipes. Not just telephone and electrical lines, but also water, gas, and sewage pipes were all at risk of being severed. To overcome this, all lines and pipes were pre-extended to be flexible, and a temporary passage that moved with the building was even installed at the entrance.