Donation from Playboy boss rescues iconic Hollywood sign from demolition.

His magazines, movies and TV shows have been providing a public service for hairy-palmed teenage boys the world over for more than 40 years. But Playboy boss Hugh Hefner has now made an even bigger community-minded statement by helping save the iconic Hollywood sign from demolition.

The soft-porn magnate gave $900,000 (£580,000) to the fund which was set up to stop the site being developed. The sign is owned by the city, but the property around it belongs to a group of Chicago-based investors.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the news as “the Hollywood ending we hoped for”.
Schwarzenegger said Hefner’s donation and a $500,000 matching grant brought to an end a $12.5m fundraising campaign. It means 138 acres around the hillside sign will be protected from developers, who wanted to turn the land into high-price housing estates.

Hefner, who calls the sign “Hollywood’s Eiffel Tower”, said: “My childhood dreams and fantasies came from the movies, and the images created in Hollywood had a major influence on my life and Playboy.”

Read more here.

Work underway on demolition of Wolverhampton bus station, stage 1 of redevelopment.

Workers from local demolition company Armac have moved in to demolish Wolverhampton’s bus station ready for a £22.5 million transformation as the work kicked off a day ahead of schedule. The facility in Pipers Row has been closed since April ready for the re-build, which is part of a wider £176m interchange project to link the bus and train stations.

Wolverhampton City Councillor Paddy Bradley, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said today: “This is the start of the regeneration of our city as we know it. This will bring jobs, better transport links and money to Wolverhampton. It’s importance cannot be understated and to now actually be able to see the development finally starting is a real confidence boost for the city and for the people of Wolverhampton. And this is just the start. Stage two which will link the interchange to the train station is still very much something we are working to make happen. It’s an exciting time.”

Work had been due to start at the bus station in November last year, but there were legal delays over the transfer of property from transport authority Centro to Wolverhampton City Council.

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Negotiations progressing over future of Scottish Highlands oil yard.

Hopes of a breakthrough in the long-standing deadlock over the future of the mothballed Nigg yard were given a boost this week when it was revealed that top-level talks between interested parties are progressing, and that a planning application could soon be lodged.

But a spokesman for one of the principal parties, the giant DSM Group, was playing his cards close to his chest and would not reveal exactly what their plans were. DSM’s Edinburgh-based representative Bryce Stewart told the Journal, “It has taken a lot longer than we would have hoped for. We have spent a lot of time with Highland Council, so we are well positioned. We are getting all our ducks in a row and we would hope to make a planning application quite soon. We have got a lot of people piling up behind us, and that’s all we can say at the moment. We will just have to see how things work out.”

It has previously been suggested that DSM would take on the role of landlord at Nigg.

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Indian tower block faces third demolition after twice sprouting new floors.

Most demolition professionals will sooner or later come up against a structure that proves difficult to demolish. But very few have come up against a building that respawns each time it’s demolished.

And yet that is precisely what has happened to the upper two floors of a residential building in India that have sprung back to stand tall in defiance after being demolished twice in three years.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) had first demolished the top two floors of 5F Palm Avenue in April 2007 after a campaign against illegal constructions. The building was, however, back to its original height within a few months of the demolition.

A second demolition drive was carried out in November 2008 after the illegal reconstruction came to light. But once again, the two floors were rebuilt in quick time.

“The promoter bribed officials of the civic body as well as the local police station to reconstruct the demolished portions. This illegal building is living proof of the promoter-CMC-police nexus,” said a resident who met mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya following the Stephen Court tragedy to lodge a complaint.

“If there is a fire, there is no way the residents can get out of here unscathed. Even fire tenders cannot enter the lane because of the narrow approach to the building,” he added.

Mayor Bhattacharyya, who had promised to increase surveillance and initiate action against promoters, landlords and civic officials involved in illegal constructions, expressed surprise at the “rebirth” of the two illegal floors.

“It is strange that these two illegal floors came up again. We will demolish the illegal portion of the building again,” Bhattacharyya said on Sunday.

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Dream come true as UK demolition contractor allows girl to demolish school.

Way back in July 2009, we brought you the audio recording of an Irish schoolgirl calling a local demolition company in the hope that they would demolish her school and her teachers long with it. This turned out to be a prank but the winner of a raffle held by St. John’s School in Marlborough has won the opportunity to do this for real – this Thursday, 29th April at 3pm they will get the chance to knock down the former headmaster’s office at the old school site on Chopping Knife Lane.

Beth Pope, who won the top prize, will get the chance to take part in a supervised demolition of part of the former school building, organised by local company Lawson Group Ltd who are undertaking the demolition at the site, and the UK’s premier house builders Crest Nicholson.

Beth will be invited on-site at 3 pm on Thursday 29 April to take part in a health and safety briefing, before being kitted up in protective clothing. She will then climb on board one of Lawson Group’s state of the art Caterpillar machines before being guided and supervised by a fully qualified and experienced demolition operative as she helps commence the knocking down the former office of the Headmaster of the school.

The demolition works are currently underway to clear the site of the former St. John’s School buildings to make way for housing being constructed by Crest Nicholson. Building has already started at the site and will continue once the demolition is completed. Martin Wilson, Director of local business Lawson Demolition said “We are delighted to have Beth on site to take part in the demolition; it is the chance of a lifetime, to get to knock down a Headmaster’s office – I’m sure there are plenty of kids out there who would love the chance! We are also very pleased to be involved with Crest Nicholson in the redevelopment of this site to make way for fantastic new housing. We have spent great care planning the health and safety for competition winner, and we hope that Beth enjoys the day.”

World-famous film studios could have stake driven through its heart.

Long before the slasher movies and torture porn that now constitutes movie horror, one name stood severed head and bare shoulders above the rest: Hammer. In its 60-year history, Hammer’s Bray Studios were the spiritual home of the British horror movie industry, the cradle from which cult classics as The Mummy, The Curse of Frankenstein and – most famous of all – the Dracula series starring Christopher Lee in the titular role, were torn.

But it now appears that the studios days are numbered, demolition crews bringing its illustrious career to an end as assuredly as van Helsing’s stake through the Transylvanian Count’s cold, black heart.

Earlier this month, the Maidenhead Advertiser reported that current owners the Bray Management Company says the the operation is struggling to keep up with technological advancements. A planning application was recently submitted to the Royal Borough for repairs to Grade II listed Down Place, the site’s central building. The application notes that the studios, formerly used to provide offices and facilities in connection with the film business, have been hit hard by the economic downturn and are no longer a viable business – and hinted at plans to turn the historic site into housing.

The plans to level the site for housing came to light in an application to replace the roof and windows of Down Place which were discussed and approved at a Bray Parish Council meeting earlier this month. The documents discussed revealed a further application is likely for extensive work to convert the site into housing.

Fans of Hammer Films and British film history have moved swiftly to highlight the threat, starting a Facebook campaign group, blog and Twitter to raise awareness about the studios’ plight.

Read the full story here.

Steel plant implosion takes officials by surprise.

An implosion last Sunday morning at the former McLouth Steel plant in Trenton leveled an old lime storage building. The 41 metre (134-foot-tall) building, built in the late 1960s, came down in about 30 seconds, said Dan Hellickson, a project manager for Detroit Steel Co., which now owns the former McLouth Steel.

However, the planned demolition appears to have taken city officials by surprise. Reports suggest that they knew the building would be coming down but were surprised it actually was last Sunday, said William Hogan, city engineer.

The demolition company applied for the permit April 1. It was approved April 5, but the company never picked it up, Hogan said.

The building was demolished for several reasons, Hellickson said. It was no longer necessary at the facility, to clean up the skyline, to generate revenue through scrapping materials and to make the site more attractive to bring in business.

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Demolition of former Eagle Crusher buildings prompts EPA intervention.

Asbestos in rubble from demolished Eagle Crusher buildings and a lack of proper paperwork prompted the Ohio EPA to halt cleanup at the South Market Street site.

Recycling Creations from Marion made progress with cleanup since owner Eric Keith was cited and fined in November, but residents and city officials aren’t satisfied.

The debris came from three buildings. The one owned by Eagle Crusher had been damaged by fire.

Dina Pierce from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency confirmed Wednesday that two months ago an inspector found asbestos in the rubble and told Recycle Creations to stop cleanup.

In March, violation notices were mailed to Recycling Creations and Eagle Crusher.

Pierce said Eagle Crusher did not file a notification of intent for demolition of the fire-damaged building, and Recycling Creations demolished a building without an asbestos survey.

State law requires an asbestos survey to be done before any demolition of commercial or multiple residential properties. Ten days before demolition, a company must file a notification of intent with the Ohio EPA. The letter outlines the project, location and potential for any airborne asbestos.

Read the full story here.

US Coast Guard is preparing to demolish Alaska’s tallest structure.

Beginning Sunday, the Coast Guard will establish a safety zone around the 411 metre (1,350-foot) Long Range Aids to Navigation tower in Port Clarence.

The zone include all waters within a two-mile radius of the tower that is the tallest of its kind in the U.S., but in poor shape.

Demolition is scheduled for sometime between Sunday and Friday, depending on the conditions.

Read more here.

Two Glasgow tower blocks set to be demolished next year in simultaneous blast.

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) plans to bring down the two blocks on the site at the same time to minimise disruption to the local community.

Safedem Ltd, which had the demolition contract for the first block, recently won the contract to carry out demolition work on the second block – resulting in plans to bring down the two simultaneously.

Local residents would have faced two sets of road and rail closures, as well as evacuations from their homes, if the demolitions had taken part separately.

Jim Sneddon, GHA’s Executive Director of Regeneration, said: “We are always very mindful about the disruption a demolition causes to the wider community. “When we appointed Safedem as the contractor for the second block at Red Road we felt it made sense to now consider doing the two blocks at once.

William Sinclair, managing director of Safedem, recently named Demolition Company of the Year and Explosive Demolition Company of the Year, said: “We have been working with GHA and the local community for just over a year now and have carried out continual reviews to minimise the impact of our operations upon local residents and businesses.

“Now that we are involved with the demolition of this next building, it didn’t make sense to go ahead and demolish the first building then, a few months later, demolish the next building. It does, however, make sense to have one blowdown demolition operation bringing both buildings down at the same time to minimise the impact on the community. It means there will be less upheaval having only one evacuation for local residents and businesses instead of two.”

Read the full story here.