“Passers-by in Tokyo’s busy Akasaka district have started to notice something odd about a 40-floor hotel — it has shrunk to about half its original height. Slowly but surely, and with none of the explosions or dust normally associated with the demolition of skyscrapers, the hotel is being torn down. Engineers reinforced the top floor with steel beams and then effectively lopped it off, keeping it in place to be used as an adjustable lid that can be lowered down the building on an external support frame. Workers at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka have brought in 15 hydraulic jacks on which this ‘lid’ now sits as they remove one floor at a time.”
