Going My Way, Birnam Wood?
That's no ordinary 2,908-ton landmark rolling across Minneapolis this week. It's 'the world's heaviest single building ever moved on rubber tires,' according to Artspace Projects Inc., a nonprofit real estate developer in Minnesota known for moving logistical mountains. (Yes, the Empire Theater on 42d Street in Manhattan was bigger, but it was moved on rails, and then only 170 feet.) Five bulldozers will spend the next couple of weeks pulling the Shubert Theater, above, a quarter-mile to a spot next to the Hennepin Center for the Arts, where it will house local performance groups.
Built in 1910 as a legitimate theater, the Shubert was the site of the premiere of 'Birth of a Nation' in 1915; it became a burlesque house, and eventually a multiplex cinema. Artspace, which consults nationwide, specializes in recycling landmarks for cultural uses (800-229-5715). International Chimney Corporation (800-828-1446) is doing the actual moving.
CURRENTS -- RECYCLING