General

Escalating demolition costs pile on the woes at Deutsche Bank building. It was a problem created amidst the US nation’s darkest hours; and yet the toxic Deutsche Bank building in Manhattan seems intent on making that problem even worse. More than eight years after that fateful day in 2001, the demolition of the “Tombstone at…Read moreRead more

Ohio city suspends $1.6 million federal funding earmarked to clean up dilapidated properties. Mansfield city officials told council Monday long-time historic preservation commission chairman Alan Wigton stirred up an e-mail campaign that has put a halt on National Stabilization Program funds. Wigton contends the city is failing to comply with the historic preservation act. The…Read moreRead more

Demolition companies among those embroiled in FBI document subpoena in Ohio. Northern Ohio’s Morning Journal is reporting that the city of Lorain is being ordered to provide a federal grand jury with documents from Jan. 1, 2003, to the present, relating to the city of Lorain and Don Buchs of Lorain, the All American Demolition…Read moreRead more

Chicago failed in its bid to host the 2016 but demolition will continue regardless. When Chicago failed in its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, many s conservationists celebrated what they saw as a last minute salvation of many of the city’s historic buildings, many of which had been earmarked for demolition in the…Read moreRead more

Demolition underway at Talladega Superspeedway grandstand. Experienced excavator operators should look away now. Talladega Superspeedway President Rick Humphrey took the ceremonial first crack at the concrete grandstands Monday morning as the track started a $13 million renovation project. The old metal seats that have been in place since the track opened 40 years ago are…Read moreRead more

IDE President Terry Quarmby takes a timely look at the definition of waste. The 2009 series of Institute of Demolition Engineers Seminars and Road Shows touched upon the subject of waste. I was reminded that the UK Construction Industry produces around 100 million tonnes of Construction, Demolition and Excavation waste per annum and that only…Read moreRead more

Airport serving Colombian capital Bogota slated for demolition in 2012. After months of indecision, Colombia’s government announced on Thursday the planned demolition of Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport, scheduled to begin in 2012. Built in 1959 and featuring in every self-respecting drug smuggling movie made ever since, the airport’s foundations are not compatible with a…Read moreRead more

Demolition man’s near death experience caught on camera. A second view of a video we posted last week shows just how close one man came to losing his life to an incompetent excavator operator.

Multiple fires as Executive Inn nears implosion day. Roll on 8 November 2009. With any luck, once the blast and resulting clean-up is over, I will never again have to write about the demolition of the Executive Inn, a saga that seems to have begun around the time Methuselah was a boy and which has…Read moreRead more

Demolition delay ruling sought to protect historic buildings. The Harvard planning board is considering the creation of a demolition delay bylaw to provide communities time to review their options when a historic building is facing the wrecking ball. This follows a request from local history aficionado Jonathan Feist, who said the bylaw can provide anywhere…Read moreRead more