You know this had to be a government project. Had this tower been started by a private-sector entrepreneur and the tilting started happening with completion of the second floor, s/he would have said, "Stop construction! Where the hell is the fucking architect who engineered this shit? Fire his ass and find me someone who can do it right! And tear down that damned mess before someone gets hurt!"
But no, a government committee said, "Too bad about the lean. But we already got the appropriation to build this fucker, and by the gods, we're going to have it built. If anything bad happens, we'll blame the other party and let them deal with the lawsuits."
I grew up in a farmhouse built on what was then the edge of the “frontier” in 1843. Despite two-foot thick foundations/ basement walls of fieldstone and mortar holding heavy hand-hewn beams, the first floor settled several inches tilt to the south side. After the US Civil War when the second story was added the Pisa solution was chosen. The second story was built level atop the sloping base.
It’s still standing some 222 years later but is unlikely to see 225. Contracts have been signed for the sale of the old farm to suburban developers who turned down $2 million to allow my brother to stay on in his 2002 custom split level because “it wouldn’t match the development.” The old farmhouse may get some beams salvaged or it may just be shoved into a hole along with all the other traces of a farm that produced surpluses since 1833.
As a famous writer from nearby (I shopped in his uncle’s hardware store) said repeatedly, “So it goes.”
You know this had to be a government project. Had this tower been started by a private-sector entrepreneur and the tilting started happening with completion of the second floor, s/he would have said, "Stop construction! Where the hell is the fucking architect who engineered this shit? Fire his ass and find me someone who can do it right! And tear down that damned mess before someone gets hurt!"
But no, a government committee said, "Too bad about the lean. But we already got the appropriation to build this fucker, and by the gods, we're going to have it built. If anything bad happens, we'll blame the other party and let them deal with the lawsuits."
That, and the foreman’s cousin would have been getting a backhander on the materials, probably 😂
The government? The Roman Catholic church? Almost one and the same thing in those days. Equally corrupt and equally boneheaded, I reckon.
I was being facetious, commenting for the sake of humor rather than historic accuracy. I leave that to Mr. Fell.
But you're not wrong.
I was there during Covid. There wasn’t a soul around. It was great. We had the place to ourselves and the parking was a breeze.
“What does ‘baffled’ mean?” 😂
I grew up in a farmhouse built on what was then the edge of the “frontier” in 1843. Despite two-foot thick foundations/ basement walls of fieldstone and mortar holding heavy hand-hewn beams, the first floor settled several inches tilt to the south side. After the US Civil War when the second story was added the Pisa solution was chosen. The second story was built level atop the sloping base.
It’s still standing some 222 years later but is unlikely to see 225. Contracts have been signed for the sale of the old farm to suburban developers who turned down $2 million to allow my brother to stay on in his 2002 custom split level because “it wouldn’t match the development.” The old farmhouse may get some beams salvaged or it may just be shoved into a hole along with all the other traces of a farm that produced surpluses since 1833.
As a famous writer from nearby (I shopped in his uncle’s hardware store) said repeatedly, “So it goes.”