Unusual/Interesting Vaults (not doors)

[wylk]

This will probably be a short thread, on vaults (not their doors) that are interesting or unusual. Much of the time a vault is pretty plain, being simply a room with strong walls. Visually, attention is drawn to the impressive doors and makers have spent some time on their appearance.

In very old times a vault was built as a box right out in the open. Here's an example from 1912 in Adrian, Michigan:



These seem to have gone out of style rather quickly, though they do have the advantage of being able to view up to five sides to spot breakin attempts. What's interesting is a more contemporary example of a vault that sticks out into the bank's main space. This is the Jaindl Building in Allentown, Pennsylvania:



This appears to be a Diebold door. Aside from intruding into the main space, it's also at a 45-degree angle.

Another interesting vault was (is?) in Cheektowaga, New York. The vault is cylindrical and half of it is outside the building itself. I have not been able to find where this was, so I don't know if it still exists. This is from an article in the Mosler Messenger, April/May/June 1958:



A similar concept was in Lynwood, California, with a round-door, round vault:



Note that the doorstop just sticks up out of the floor by itself (rather than being next to a wall) and presents a bit of a trip hazard when the door is closed. This building is gone.

Back in time (though it still exists), one of our favorite French vaults has been discussed for its impressive Fichet door. But if this old print is accurate, the vault itself is impressive at least for its size:



If there are other impressive/unusual vaults, feel free to add them!

[Chubby]

I have just finished construction of a vault for a customer. I suppose it is "interesting" from one point of view. I was always told to disregard existing walls from the point of view of construction. So if a 18" wall is required that is what I put in, and tie to the existing 9" wall but otherwise ignore it.

The interesting part of the one I have just built is that the 2 existing walls against which 2 of my walls were put were well out of true with a corner which was nowhere near 90 degrees. I followed the existing walls as much as I could and that corner is as far out as the original- but my walls are dead plumb. The other 3 corners are 90s and that has made the outer room look better. The problem was that where the existing wall and my SR wall run next to each other there was a void which could be anything from an inch to 4 or 5 inches. So I simply infilled with my favourite sall aggregate mix and even dropped a few surprises into the pour! It means that those 2 sides are a very substantial over specification wall! I just didn't see the point in leaving a void when for a small amount of money and work it could be packed.

Actually by suggesting a couple of other tweaks to the original design the owner has got an extremely robust small vault with which he is more than happy.

Good thread and I would like to see some interesting observations in it. Maybe mine isn't as interesting as the OP but I thought it was worth sharing!

[wylk]

One more example of the "box in the middle of the floor" style, in this case it's way out in the middle, not merely close to a wall. Mount Holly, New Jersey.

[Safeone]

Hope this wont be 'short' thread as the op states. What an interesting twist on the usual vault design.........

Great pics and thanks for posting.

[wylk]

I quickly ran out of interesting vault designs from an exterior point of view. There are a few (but not many) interesting ones from an interior point of view.

Here is a vault where the design has more room than usual because the interior is tall. With most vaults the floor is either level with the bank's floor or it is slightly above. In this case, upon entry, there is a short staircase down to the vault's floor. This is supposedly in Brussels:


The image is not great but there may be two separate levels inside. A similar sort of vault was portrayed in the unremarkable movie Loophole (1981, Albert Finney, Martin Sheen).

In Madrid there is another Lips vault that is clearly two levels. There are other multi-level vaults that are known (Fichet/Paris shown earlier, and the Trinity Restaurant in NYC for example) but no images have been found that show off the interior like this one:

[wylk]

A very unusual vault is in Japan near Mount Fuji under a man-made mound. It does not seem to be a bank vault but might have been built as a mausoleum. It's abandoned and so far I haven't been able to locate it via Google Earth but it should be near the Fujiyama Garden Hotel at lat/lon 35-25-29 138-53-30.



See http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009...kyo-yamanashi/ and http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009...kyo-yamanashi/

[Chubby]

That looks to me like a repurposed military vault. I know of at least 1 in the UK Midlands that was bought by a bank and was subsequently used as a cash centre.

[Huw Eastwood]

This link throws a bit more light on it:
http://abandonedkansai.com/category/chubu/
Apparently a brokerage company called Sanyo Securities originally behind it, nothing to do with the electrical goods giant Sanyo.

[wylk]

I have located the Japanese vault at 35-25-39.18 138-53-37.89. Here is Google Earth imagery:

[Chubby]

The thread currently running about the super Chatwood safes made me wonder about CHatwood strongrooms. In particular does anybody have any images of those "mattresses" of reinforcing that they used to incorporate into the vault walls? They were very special.