BUILDING 82 IMPLOSION

Information assembled by B. D. Fulks with input from numerous folks, including but not limited to:         L. Troutman, W. Woomer, G. Rutzen, A. Gibson, B. J. Wright, V. MacBride

Memories of Building 82 will live long after it’s demise – Carbiders who worked in the Kanawha Valley will always remember and admire the atmosphere of Building 82. That red brick tower was the centerpiece of the chemical industry in the Kanawha Valley and indeed the entire world, as the Carbide influence was projected throughout the world via new technologies and production facilities.  Indeed the demise of Building 82 reflects the passing of the chemical industry into a new stage of “life” requiring different companies and management – a “world” that is foreign to many Carbide retirees.  Yet, the “old” Carbiders can rest comfortably in their retirement knowing that they participated in development of the chemical industry, one of the major events of the 20^th century – an event that has and will continue to benefit mankind throughout the world.

In the early years of the South Charleston Plant, Building 48 was the main office building located inside the plant.  The “new” Building 82 was located outside the plant, directly across the busy highway.  Building 82 was built in 1948; it was an eleven story “state of the art” structure housing 1000 employees in the 106,000 square feet, requiring a staff of 60 to operate the building.  The mail room, storage, and print shop were in the basement.  The Carbide Store was located on part of the 1^st floor.  Managers were on the 3^rd floor with Attorneys, Employee Relations, and Accounting on the 4^th & 5^th floors.  The 4^th floor also had an open room with facilities for 150 draftsmen (“drafters in today’s world”).  The 5^th floor was occupied by the telephone exchange, operator stations, and phone equipment.  Engineering, Library, and Steno Pool were on the 8^th & 9^th floors.  The 10^th floor held the 150 person cafeteria.   Some engineering records and blueprint equipment was in the penthouse accessed by stairs from the 10th floor. The company touted the fact that the building was completely air-conditioned and there were three high speed elevators (700 ft/min).  There were two separate access tunnels (for people and utilities), under MacCorkle Avenue, connecting the building to the old offices, and of course to the plant operating facilities. 

Why was it built – because the company was expanding very rapidly and required more management space to coordinate the new chemical products from the facilities and plants going up throughout the USA and overseas.  Building 48 was outdated, crowded, and was not equipped for supporting “modern” management teams.  Building 82 was known as the “mother” building for UCC Chemicals and Plastics.  In the 1960s, much of the management effort was assumed at the corporate offices in NYC (42st & Madison Ave. 1917-1959 and Park Ave. 1960-1980), until the move to Danbury, Conn. in 1980.

What role did “82” serve for Seadrift?  Engineering people in Building 82 played a major role in design of the initial Seadrift Plant facilities, and subsequent upgrading.  Among the many services in Building 82, were the Computer Rooms, housing the IBM-360 computer.  During the 1960s, Process Engineers did not have access to computers.  But they could arrange access to the computer during the midnight shift and on weekends.  Bernie Fulks recalls spending lonely nights & weekends using Fortran Programming & punch cards to access that IBM 360 computer.  Thus the building 82 computer was used for the statistically designed experiments used to commercialize processes in the HDPE Plant at Seadrift, and also to evaluate possible mechanical changes to the commercial HDPE plants at Seadrift.