44th story of 72: Photos of the initial stages of the 3-year, 22 million dollar project to remove the 45,000 marble panels from the 11th tallest skyscraper in North America, First Canadian Place, and replace it with glass.
I've been watching these brave souls risk their lives every day in sub-zero temperatures to erect the scaffolding and "Avro Hoist" structure. It really is an incredible thing to watch, day after day, from my office window. Today they were level with my floor, so I took a few snaps.
More info: "The same white Carrara marble as used on the Aon Center is employed as an exterior cladding and interior finish for First Canadian Place, with six hundred tons of the material on each floor. Foreshadowing what would take place with First Canadian Place in 2007, one of the marble slabs of the Aon Centre (then the Standard Oil Building) detached in 1974, falling and penetrating the roof of a neighbouring building, resulting in an eventual recladding of the entire Aon Center in white granite between 1992 and 1994. This problem would surface at First Canadian Place as well, as, during an intense storm on the evening of 15 May 2007, a 1 metre by 1.2 metres, 140 kg (300 pound), piece of white marble paneling fell from the 60th storey of the tower's southern face onto the 3rd floor mezzanine roof below, causing authorities to close surrounding streets as a precaution.[4] In late 2009, it was announced that, Brookfield Properties, the owners of First Canadian Place would follow the example of the Aon Center and replace, over the course of three years, the tower's 45,000 marble panels with new ones in glass, those on the main expanses with a white ceramic frit and the corners in a bronze tint, while the building podium retains its marble cladding." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Canadian_Place
Great photos Paul. My wife and I stayed at the Sheraton Centre last May for a weekend away from home. The Sheraton lobby offers some interesting photo opportunities.
Yakim Peled wrote:
Very interesting documentation. Scary just to think of these people. I don't think I could do it.
BTW, the 17mm seem to have a mustache distortion.
Happy shooting,
Yakim.
Yes, the 17 does have mustache distortion, but it is exacerbated in that shot by some very heavy perspective correction (via Photoshop). I'll post the original this evening.
It is a very nice lens, especially for $250 for a mint condition one with all the accessories.
After owning this for a while and shooting with it, I am convinced photodo had a bad copy of it. It is not quite as good as the "Magic Drainpipe" I once owned, but then that cost me a whole lot more money, too.
Never got to respond to this yesterday but thanks for the great story and images.
Yeah, I saw too the mustache distortion but was wondering if there is a way to correct it with ptlens like people have mentioned for the CZ 21's mustache distortion?
