Birdcage slide

The old Birdcage hotel in Auckland is sliding very slowly up the hill to temporarily make room for a new tunnel (which will help that city’s enormous traffic jams for a wee while). The move is pretty slow, as this time lapse shows, as the old brick hotel was not very strong in the first place. The last thing it needed was to be put on skates.

This old pile is only 760 tonnes, a mere tot compared to the biggest building moved in New Zealand. Back in 1993 the recently built Michael Fowler Hotel was shifted around a corner and across the road . All 3,500 tonnes of it, furniture included. It’s now called the Museum Hotel but is known to locals as the “Hotel de Wheels”.

I once suggested to a client that they cut their timber house in half and move one half 3 metres towards the street. Easy way out of a tricky heritage situation. A house removalist quoted the job at only $10K, but I suspect the clients thought I was bonkers. Lost that job..

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Posted by Peter on 01.09.10 in buildings and weird and wonderful