SUNY Stony Brook Legend?
Eve Michael
parents (professors) - which I wonder if anyone else has heard:
The story goes that when they were building the new part of the Health
Sciences Center they were also constructing a lecture center (Javitz?).
Somehow there was a mix-up and the super-strong concrete which was meant
for the foundation of the HSC (a multiple [20?] story building) was used to
construct the single-story concrete bunker-style lecture center, and the
plain concrete meant for the lecture center ended up in the foundation of
the HSC. So the story goes that now they have a lecture center built to
withstand a nuclear bomb and the HSC is on a crumbling foundation.
So has anybody heard this about SUNY-SB or any other college out there?
There wouldn't be any truth to this story, would there? As I recall the
story was told to me as a fact along with some other stories about how
poorly constructed the HSC was, including the fact(?) that the main intake
for the building's ventilation system was put in close proximity to where
all the cars and taxis pause to pick-up/drop off/wait for patients, thus
bringing a lot of exhuast fumes into the building.
--Eve
Krovetz
> I grew up near SUNY-SB and I heard a story - I _think_ it came from my
> parents (professors) - which I wonder if anyone else has heard:
> The story goes that when they were building the new part of the Health
> Sciences Center they were also constructing a lecture center (Javitz?).
> Somehow there was a mix-up and the super-strong concrete which was meant
> for the foundation of the HSC (a multiple [20?] story building) was used to
> construct the single-story concrete bunker-style lecture center, and the
> plain concrete meant for the lecture center ended up in the foundation of
> the HSC. So the story goes that now they have a lecture center built to
> withstand a nuclear bomb and the HSC is on a crumbling foundation.
Well, I was at Stony Brook when the Health Science Center (HSC) was being
built. The lecture center was already there and had been there for some
time, so I don't think there's any truth to the story. However, with
regard to the HSC, I remember a story that Ward Melville had a restriction
that no building at Stony Brook could be taller than two stories (Ward
Melville was the owner of Tom Machan (sp?) shoes, and the person who
donated the land to the University). When the HSC was built, it was
the tallest building on Long Island (is it still?).
Do the students at Stony Brook know about "The Bridge to Nowhere"?
This used to be the name of the bridge from the Student Union to
the library, but it was left unconnected when they realized they
had no place to connect it (it was between two floors). Eventually
they hooked it up to the Fine Arts Plaza. Since it is now hooked
up, I wonder if current students had heard about its past.
Bob
Adriane Moser
> parents (professors) - which I wonder if anyone else has heard:
>
> The story goes that when they were building the new part of the Health
> Sciences Center they were also constructing a lecture center (Javitz?).
> Somehow there was a mix-up and the super-strong concrete which was meant
> for the foundation of the HSC (a multiple [20?] story building) was used to
> construct the single-story concrete bunker-style lecture center, and the
> plain concrete meant for the lecture center ended up in the foundation of
> the HSC. So the story goes that now they have a lecture center built to
> withstand a nuclear bomb and the HSC is on a crumbling foundation.
We are always told that the (two-story, sorry!) Javits Lecture center can
withstand a nuclear bomb because it has no right angles on the outside.
--
Adriane Moser amo...@ccvm.sunysb.edu
Adriane Moser
> regard to the HSC, I remember a story that Ward Melville had a restriction
> that no building at Stony Brook could be taller than two stories (Ward
> Melville was the owner of Tom Machan (sp?) shoes, and the person who
> donated the land to the University). When the HSC was built, it was
> the tallest building on Long Island (is it still?).
can see the USB HSC and Mather hospital both just until you enter the port
in Conn. Nothing else on LI is identifiable at this distance.
> Do the students at Stony Brook know about "The Bridge to Nowhere"?
> This used to be the name of the bridge from the Student Union to
> the library, but it was left unconnected when they realized they
> had no place to connect it (it was between two floors). Eventually
> they hooked it up to the Fine Arts Plaza. Since it is now hooked
> up, I wonder if current students had heard about its past.
Yeah, some of us know about it. I assume it was build after they built a
new library around the outside of the old one? BTW, they are now building a
new Student Union around the outside of Old Biology/Central Hall.
--
Adriane Moser amo...@ccvm.sunysb.edu
Kimberly Nelson
David Gillies
the book 'The Effects of Nuclear Weapons' (highly recommened) you will
discover that the dominant damage modes in buildings due to blast loading
are due to 'ground slap', where the overpressure compresses the ground and
deforms it, and suction effects due to blast-wave 'shadowing' as the blast is
diffracted round structures. Of these two, ground slap is the most important,
especially in the 'Mach Front' region that you get in an airburst, where the
the incident and reflected blast waves merge anf form a Y-shaped triple point
which rises from the ground as you get further away from ground zero.
One of the most surprising things about blast damage is the tiny overpressures
that are required to blow a house to pieces. The DoE and the military built
some typical residential houses in the Nevada desert and then nuked them to see
what would happen. 2.5 psi overpressure was enough to turn a brick-built
two-storey house into rubble, and even 0.5 psi would render it uninhabitable.
You get *much* higher pressures than that near a bomb. Whatismore, sudden
overpressures are very bad for your health! Your lungs are less tolerant of
overpressures than houses, so even if your Lecture centre (or Health centre)
survived, those inside that weren't dismembered by the flying glass or smashed
against the wall by the wind (and the book gives curves for mortality figures
for impacting with concrete surfaces vs impact velocity, and for penetration
by 1 aand 5 gram masses of glass vs velocity!) then you'd die from ruptured
lungs.
One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.
______________________________________________________________________
David A. G. Gillies (D.A.G....@bradford.ac.uk)
University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
(c) 1994 Wittgenstein and The Furniture Depository of The Living Dead
A little learning is a dangerous thing - but not half as dangerous as a
lot of ignorance.
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