Building Go Boom
Watch this former Xerox building in Dallas implode
The Sunday-morning implosion of the Xerox/ACS building executed by Trammell Crow went off as planned, with a huge tan plume of smoke and a volume that viewers found to be louder than expected.
The building was imploded in preparation for a controversial Sam's Club that Trammell Crow plans to build at the corner of 75 and Haskell Avenue. All transportation channels, including the adjacent freeway and DART trains, were shut down 30 minutes before the implosion fired, to keep the area clear.
The implosion was well-covered by local media, including helicopters. Spectators toting umbrellas in the morning mist formed watching parties at parking lots around the periphery and whooped as if they were at a football game after the building fell. About a dozen charges could be heard exploding, and the easternmost side of the building collapsed first. (This slow-motion video shows it in minute detail.)
Prior to the implosion, Trammell Crow predicted that the sound level would be "similar to or less than a thunderstorm overhead." Residents from at least a couple of miles away testified that they heard the explosion loud and clear.
Matthew Salazar, an architect who lives nearby, went to the roof of the LA Fitness building to film a video (posted above).
"I've seen an implosion before in Atlanta, so it wasn't the first time — the loud bangs still catch you off guard, though," he said. "I obviously can't comment on implosion from a technical level, but it looked like it went off pretty well. They got the building to fall away from the highway."
Aside from the controversy of the site itself, Salazar said that Dallas has a reputation for implosions. "It's not necessarily a bad thing, though," he said. "I don't really know enough about the actual building. But it wasn't the most beautiful thing ever built."
Implosions have an inherent appeal. "Buildings take a long time and a lot of processes to go up and become built," he said. "And while a demolition certainly also takes a long time to make happen, it's so instantaneous."
