Consolidation of Palatul Telefoanelor

Palatul Telefoanelor has been built in three steps: 1932, 1940, 1946. Finished during 20 months (between 1931 and 1933) Palatul Telefoanelor has been subsequently extended both on the vertical side by adding two floors and on the horizontal side. The primary plans and the execution project of the metallic frame have been designed in New York. The building Palatul Telefoanelor represented during the two wars period one of the most important buildings in Bucharest, being the highest in Romania of those times (52.5 m).

The last earthquakes from 1977, 1980 and 1990 badly affected the phone centrals of Palatul Telefoanelor in a such a way that they were just about to be temporally closed down. According to the actual normative for the seismic activity in buildings, Palatul Telefoanelor has been ranked as of the main importance. The expertises undertaken during 1977-1993 revealed the over-stressed status of its resistance structure due to the deformations given by different earthquakes in the beams and columns. Together with the metallic frames, the outside masonry was also badly affected. The last two earthquakes intensively wrecked the building, almost causing it a collapse.

The solution for consolidation has been given by the project no. 23027 designed by SC Proiect Bucuresti. The project proposed the insertion of a perimeter diaphragm made of concrete in BAR system and the consolidation of the internal columns.

After an open auction, SC Rotary Constructii SRL has been appointed as the company in charge with the execution of the consolidation Project for Palatul Telefoanelor by Directia de Telecomunicatii Bucuresti in 1996; Rotary Constructii had the required experience to deal with big consolidation projects such as Negoiu, Majestic and Capitol hotels – buildings consolidated and restored by Rotary over the last years.

In order to oversee the execution along with the technical assistance and monitoring of the execution delivered by the designer, the customer hired a specialized consultancy company SC Conteh SRL.

The execution of the Project stated in spring 1997 and amounted the biggest effort ever put into a consolidation project in Romania.

Figures speak by themselves: 1682 tones of metallic rigid frame and 1250 tones of elastic armatures, of which 80 tones have been used only for the piles, 10250 cub meters of concrete and 16500 square meters of scaffolds.

The outside joinery has been completely remake of aluminum amounting 650 square meters of windows.

In order to restore the original architecture it has been used 5500 square meters of outer covering made of limestone, marble and granite. Supposing that an only worker would have mounted these materials, he would need 46 years of interrupted work in order to finish the outer covering.

The designer issued almost 300 order notes, based on the local changes of the project and adaptations to the real conditions as well as on the requirements of the customer.