History
Construction
began in May of 1964 and the Tower's doors opened to the general
public on October 6, 1965. At the time of construction, the Skylon
Tower was a privately owned Canadian Company, the Niagara International
Centre. The centre housed international exhibitions with all restaurants
in it operated by Canadian Pacific Hotels. In 1975, CP Hotels purchased
the complex and operated it until 1986 when it was sold to two local
hotel owners. In 1988 the final ownership change took place when
George Yerich, one of the hotel owners purchased the entire complex.
Construction
History
Soaring 775 feet (236 meters) above the Niagara Gorge
and overlooking both the Canadian and American Falls, the Skylon offers
the most breathtaking view of Niagara. The Tower's construction
represented a major first in the building industry the world over with
its adoption of the "slip-form" technique.
Because of the Tower's extreme
height and location, extensive wind tests had to
be conducted at the University of Toronto. Plans for
the construction were completed only after engineers
were satisfied with all the results
of
the tests. It was then decided to employ
slip-forming as the most efficient method of construction
despite the fact that this had not been attempted before
on a tapered structure. Employing the slip-form technique,
concrete was poured continuously on a round-the-clock
basis for 38 days. The slip-form, 40 inches in height,
was inched upward by hydraulic jacks which pulled the
entire form one inch every 10 minutes of the 38 days
with almost 6,000 cubic yards of concrete being placed
in the continuous pour. The tapered shape of the Tower
required reducing the size of the slip-form as it was
inched upward, a precise operation that had not been
previously attempted.
One of the most challenging engineering
feats was the construction and placement of the Dome at the
top of the shaft. The circular form for the base of the Dome,
108 feet in diameter, was assembled at ground level around
the Tower. Then, this form, weighing 200 tons, was raised
380 feet in the air. An ingenious system of hydraulic jacks and
jacking rods operated from the top of the shaft was devised
to accomplish this construction feat in only eight days.
