PISA BELL TOWER
When joy wanted to see Pisa I rebelled and wanted to know
why I should want to see another architect’s failure but was voted down and we
eventually visited it about 3 times. I was appalled when I first glimpsed the
lean of it but was intrigued by the efforts to stop it from falling over and
crushing a few dozen pilgrims on and around the tower.
Begun in 1173 , it initially leaned to the North, it was finished in 1292, by then it was leaning
South. By 1350 it was out of plumb by 1.4 METERS. But by 1993 it was 5.4 METERS. That’s about 15 feet for you Americans (U.S.
anyway).
By 1990, the Italians formed The Consorzio
Progetto Torre di Pisa to straighten it a bit. They hired M. Jarnolkiwski,
Pofessor of Engineering at Turin University to run the show. They shook loose 30 million Euros to work on
it for Eleven years. They used basically three combined systems; 1) Wrap the
tower at the waist and tie it back over another building to a giant tripod
tower that held the cables with a huge lead weight to hold it (the tower) up, 2) They drilled diagonal holes under the
North side and extract the soil ( it’s really just clay-sand) to create voids.
3) To assist this, they loaded a huge
pile of lead ingots (750 tons) on the north edge, as well as some deep
wells to extract some of the water lying around. They have some future plans to
drill down some cables to set anchors into the deep sand.
Anyway, after all
this work was done it pulled the tower back 2.6 mm . That’s about one inch! But they have hopes it will move back another
inch in the near future. One interesting
fact about all this is no one wants the tower to be vertical, as they sell 4
million tickets a year now to walk up to the top where Galileo was dropping
stuff off for his experiments. See some
phots I’ve been able to take thru the construction fence.
With all the brau Hau about the tower, the old cathedral
hasn’t gotten much press but it has a wonderful old timber roof inside and a
very notable wedge of stone in the sides to straighten it up to finish the
roof.
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| Drilling Under |
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| Lead weights |
A REMINDER;
CURMUDGEON (Dictionary)
1.
Archaic;
a crusty, ill tempered , churlish
old man
2.
Modern;
anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so;
anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and
humorous manner
IT SEEMED SO SIMPLE…
I’m still trying to understand our political system but it
may be beyond my understanding forever. However, here are a few tid-bits to
chew on when considering to take part in this system. Most call it a Democracy
but it is supposed to be a Republic. The
difference is who is supposed to represent you, I think.
AMERICA , USA
(Researched thanks to Jon Stewarts’ ‘America’)
There’s a lot of noise regarding the next election in about
a year, so let’s take a look at our mysterious Political System;
The House has two
chambers, called Congress (Bi-cameral, which
means two rooms)
House of
Representatives
“Lower House” (The Rif-Raf) Based on population , I think about one rep
per 30,000 citizens, men, women, kids, blacks)
Re-elected usually every two years.
Senate or Upper House
, 2 reps per State, get
re-elected every six years.
Since the Lobbyists actually run this country, let’s see
where the money comes from.
Lobbyists $$ in 2004 (In Millions!)
Greenpeace 2 million
NRA guns 4
NAACP ?
Labor Unions 90!
Merck/Lilly 26!! (Drugs!)
Christians ?( May be irrelevant as all
Republicans are rabid Christians)
Planned Parents 2.6
Hollywood 37
AARP 102!
Legal ABA 112!! Wow
ELECTORIAL COLLEGE
Does anyone really understand how this works?
I keep trying to make sense of it, but just don’t get it.
435 reps? Based on population? Plus 100 Senators? For instance, California has about 55
Electorial College people. Who are they? Who picks them? Sometimes they elect a Prez over the Popular
Voters. (Like Bush?).
You probably know by now that whenever we rent an apartment
in Europe or U.S. I have to send the Owner a DEFICIENCY LIST, or all the things
I believe was wrong with the place. Joy thinks this is stupid but please read
the definition of Curmudgeon above.
It goes like this;
SEATTLE DEFICIENCY LIST. FOR APARTMENT IN Seattle.
First off a map of the drop off/office + map of parking access + plan of towers. We
couldn't find the concierge first off. When he
gave us keys, he didn't say the lock to the tower lobby was the chip,
blue, that you just pass over sensor. Isn't with the unit key. Parking was confused as we didn't know where to park for
the NW tower. Lots of one way streets.
stop, unload at 1200 first? From garage take the tenant elevator, not public
one. etc.
blinds table too
high deck door needs new
rollers toilet paper, move to front
toaster is broken on right side
PORTLANDIA , Apartment deficiency list for Portland .
How about a few clothes hangers 6 would be fine
BR lamp switch off ,
kitchen microwave light nonfunctional
blinds too heavy to operate
no chair on deck
Disposal is missing rubber
baffles.
toilet seat is loose
location of toilet paper holder is very hard to use. How about on
wall next to door in front of toilet?
Dining table is too high, 36", chairs same.24" Use
normal heights for both. 30" table, 18" chairs.
A carpet under a dining table is a nuisance!.
GOOD POINTS - The wood & steel LR tables of rough wood
are great design
WESTERN WOOD STRUCTURES
My vacation this year was based on several items; Visit my son, Zaidi, a builder in Eugene, OR,
visit the scene of the crime; my Alma Mater, The University of Washington in
Seattle, where I graduated from Architectural School 65 years ago. I
wanted to verify that they had received two of my publications;; 'HILLSIDE
HOMES & THE EDUCATION OF AN ARCHITECT;'. I had never been able to get thru
to a person or on a website to verify this. Third; to visit Western Wood
Structures, who will be fabrication a 72'
dome for a project in Wisconsin, ISHA or The Institute for the Study of Human Awareness. Fourth; I forgot.
Meeting the owner, Steve,
and the structural Engineer Paul for the first time as we have been conversing
for over a year by e-mail, I toured their facility which was pretty impressive
as they have erected some very incredible works such as the 500' Tacoma Dome,
the recently finished Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland and other
projects around the world (China, etc.). Once they get a job , they source out
the materials; Timber & Glu-Lam beams from various fabricators, Steel
suppliers who make up the very complex connectors for the domes & such,
then cut, drill all members using some unusual equipment, such as a drill press
that drills beams from two side at once, assuring a straight bolt hole. Large
bandsaw that is on wheels in order to move around really big members too large
to move around. Plus a heavy duty
forklift that picks up material from the side (the first I've seen) in order to
move long timbers around.
Once all is cut, drilled it all gets trucked to the site along
with a Foreman & crew to assemble the structure. Their VARAX Dome stands for Variable Angle .
This dome is structurally made of moment
frames instead of axial connections like a Fuller Dome, thereby making
it much stronger when loaded un-symmetrically.
.
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| Connector |
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| Vsrex Dome Structure |
GUELPHS OR GHIBELLINES
If any of you go to Italy you will encounter the mysterious names
of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. This is merely an enlarged version of the
Hatfields and the McCoys., as they have been fighting since the 12th
century. Let me clarify it for you. The
Guelphs (I still don’t know how to pronounce it) who generally came from
wealthy mercantile families, supported the Pope, while the Ghibellines (I still
don’t know how to pronounce it) where wealth was based on large agricultural
estates. Florence was basically Ghibelline, while Siena was Guelph. They
managed to keep the wars going into the 13 & 14th centuries.
Must have been good for business. You will find peculiar crenelations on some
castles but you can tell that they were Ghibellines if they used the “Swallow
tail” type instead of the regular up and down type.
