In David Macaulay's illustrated book, "Unbuilding," published in 1980, a sheikh buys the Empire State Building and has it dismantled, piece by piece, to be reassembled in the Middle East.
The national safety net for women and children fleeing domestic abuse is being "dismantled piece by piece", according to the charity Women's Aid.
Another example: when the President cajoled BP into setting up a fund to compensate people damaged by the Gulf oil spill, a prominent conservative intellectual concluded that "American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington".
The clock-tower was dismantled piece by piece by the Jurchens, who carted its components back to their own capital in modern-day Beijing.
The exquisite natural plumbing that made it all possible had been dismantled, piece by piece, to protect coastal communities and extract oil and gas.
The idea of university being the magic key to a bright future is being dismantled piece by piece, and this latest piece of research is finishing it off.
The one clear plus was that the artificial housing bubble also created jobs in the housing supplies, construction, and financial industries, even as our manufacturing sector was dismantled piece by piece and moved to low-wage areas around the world.
Some House Republicans suggest that dismantling pieces of the administration's regulatory regime could be part of a trade-off with the administration for advancing some of the president's jobs agenda, though members insist that they have not seen enough details to know where potential compromise could be found.
Sitting on the floor, taking apart my childhood self, this picture of me that looked up at us as we dismantled it, piece by piece, with the daughter I was trying to raise so she couldn't be taken apart so.
Spurs are only six points behind the vibrant Liverpool side that dismantled them piece by piece in that 5-0 defeandand five points adrift of the Champions League places that represented the minimum requirement for Villas-Boas this season.
The cable cars and monorail were dismantled, their pieces stacked on top of each other and left in a corner of the site, which is now a business park.
