Implosion!
The GDBF and I went to our first-ever implosion this morning. The Wachovia Building on the corner of North Ave. and Peachtree St. was demolished this morning at 8:00 a.m. (well, more like 8:20). We met Joeventures and a couple of his friends at the Krispy Kreme on Ponce around 7:00, and walked over to the demolition site soon thereafter. (We overheard some fellow implosion-goers at Krispy Kreme: “It’s demolition day!!”) The streets were blocked off for about two blocks around the building. There was a sizable crowd, which continued to grow the closer it got to 8:00. It was sort of like tail-gating. People in nearby apartment buildings were hanging out on their balconies and roofs, watching.
While hearing the explosions and watching the building fall like a house of cards was super-cool, I also felt a little pang of sadness. I was one of the apparently few Atlantans who felt the building shouldn’t be demolished. Ah, well. At least the site will be put to good use with condos and retail. But the Wachovia Building was unique, so I just hope the buildings that go up in its place don’t look too cookie-cutter.
Rusty has more photos on Flickr. (He also photographed the building back in May, before much pre-demolition work had begun.) There’s also a podcast coming. We recorded before, during, and after the implosion.
RIP, Wachovia Building. B: 1959, D: 2006.
I always worry when they knock those suckers down, that weird mold and asbestos and animal droppings will fly into the air and make nearby people sick.
(Because, I can suck the fun of anything.)
omg that scared me so hard Saturday morning! I was already up and realized I had been hearing a helicoptor outside for like half an hour. So I started to wonder what was going on. I thought maybe a manhunt or some hostage crisis or something. Not a minute later I hear the boom and rumbling. Immediately I thought someone blew up a building, like a terrorist attack. I went outside and heard sirens but couldn’t see anything. So I ran back in and turned on cnn and there it was.
I wish I would have known. I so would have walked over and watched.
I watched from the opposite side, near Crawfor-Long. I posted some of the best videos I’d found… thought you may find it interesting: http://dangerpop.com/2006/09/30/implosion-615-peachtree-street-building/
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing, Brent!
oh wow! how awesome. i’ve always wanted to see one of those, ever since i learned the diff. between implode and explode.
also — i hope you feel better and glad you liked the pole dancing graphic. will get it together and make a better, smaller one.