ary48

wizard69 said:

volcan said:

Wonder what magnitude earthquake it can withstand. This is earthquake country after all. 

Really, it puzzles me that this sort of construction was even permitted,   I can't imagine load bearing glass holding up well at all in an earthquake.    Especially the theater entrance where there appears to be no supplemental support at all.   I can see the roof there coming down on people with massive pancakeing effect.   

What most people don't realize is that the entire spaceship is mounted on ball bearings that separate concave plates attached to both the ground and the building. When there is an earthquake the building floats (basically moves very slightly) through the tremors and the weight of the entire building moves it back to the proper location (deepest part of the curves) after the land movement stops. It's really quite ingenious. If you go back and look at the aerial photography of the building when the structure was just starting, the plates are very obvious (there are hundreds of them).