Roof is gone, steel skeleton dismantle begins

The roof of the existing building has been completely removed.


Here’s a shot from just a week ago when the roof removal had just begun:



With the roof removed, crews started dismantling the steel skeleton of the second floor.


The steel beams that were once under the roof are removed first. Instead of undoing each bolt that holds the beams in place, the crews actually cut the beams out but burning them at each end (pictured below). Once all of the beams are down, the columns will be removed in a similar fashion. The majority of the column is removed using the burning technique, however the base of each column will is removed by undoing the bolts where the column attaches to a steel plate in the concrete floor.