How to shrink a skyscraper surreptitiously

In Japan, especially in the major metropolitan areas, the laws and regulations regarding construction are EXTREMELY strict.  The amount of noise, disturbance, and physical detritus that can be generated all seem to be much more rigidly controlled than they are here in the States.

And yet-- sometimes, that large building does have to come down!  It might be old, and not up to code anymore, or perhaps the owners can no longer afford the taxes and no one will buy it, or it simply might need to be removed in order to make way for a new bypass.  Over here, it'd be roped off, and depending on how close it was to other buildings, (carefully) knocked down or (carefully) blown up.  More often the former, naturally, since this isn't the movies, but still.

In Tokyo?  They install humongous jacks and a set of screening scaffolding.  The jacks hold up the building while behind the screening (that keeps the noise, dust, and construction unsightliness to a minimum) workers will carefully dismantle the bottom two floors of the building, trucking the bits away for recycling.  The building will be slowly lowered to the ground, the jacks will be reset, and another two floors will be taken away, and so on, until the whole thing quietly disappears.  Sometimes they'll do it from the top down instead, just for a change.


Source, including a time-lapse video of one such demolition:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/science/tricky-ways-to-pull-down-a-skyscraper.html?_r=3&