Method of and means for multi-story building construction

Claim 1

Apparatus for erecting single or multiple story concrete columnless buildings, said apparatus comprising: a permanent base for a building to be erected, said base providing a first casting bed; a first set of load supporting, downwardly swingable wall panels positioned generally horizontally on said first casting bed; filler material in any voids in or between said wall panels to provide a second casting bed; a first floor slab positioned generally horizontally on said second casting bed and lying directly above said first set of wall panels; lift attaching members secured to the periphery of said first floor slab; a plurality of spaced apart, flexible pick-up cables connected along a pivot line between said wall panels and said floor slab to pivotally connect said wall panels to said floor slab thereby forming an interconnected first set of wall panels and corresponding floor slab; additional sets of wall panels and floor slabs positioned one above the other in layers to provide a stack of said wall panels and floor slabs corresponding to the stories of the building, each layer utilizing the preceding layer as a casting bed; lift attaching members secured to each of said additional floor slabs; pairs of temporary spaced columns positioned exteriorly of said base and adjacent said lift attaching members, said columns being of slightly greater height than the height of the erected building; a bridge member movably supported between each said pair of columns, each of said bridge members extending over said stack of wall panels and floor slabs and carrying lift means adjacent each column; lift fixture assemblies attachable to, and extending between, said lift attaching members on said floor slabs and said lift means, and disconnectable from said lift attachings members of each floor once said floor has been erected; means for actuating said lift means to raise said stack whereby each of the wall panels in said first set of wall panels will swing downwardly on said pick-up cables about said pivot lines to a vertical, load supporting position and further whereby said additional sets of wall panels and floor slabs are sequentially raised by said interconnected lift means, lift fixture assemblies and lift attaching members so that succeeding sets of wall panels swing into position to erect the additional stories of said building whereupon said temporary columns and said bridge members are dismantled and removed.