That’s 2 stories down and 8 left to go for the last holdout in the former Corporate Plaza office park, seen here from the northeast looking across Kirby Dr. toward 59. The freeway-facing and side facades of the once-10-story midrise have been totally removed, and the remaining facade is beginning to look a bit patchy around the top; piles of debris can be seen stretching out to the north of the structure, across the now-barren Upper Kirby plain where the partially demolished Corporate Plaza parking garage nearly demolished part of the demo team back in February.
- Previously on Swamplot: Long Drawn-Out Breakup of Corporate Plaza Nearing Final Stages at Kirby and 59Watch Corporate Plaza Fail to Demolish Its Demo Crew with Surprise Garage Collapse; Shredding of Corporate Plaza’s Parking Garage Now In Progress on Kirby Dr.; Sweeping Up the Crumbs at the Former Home of Miyako, Red Onion, and Madras Pavilion; Demo Crew Now Chewing Through Former Miyako, Red Onion, Madras Pavilion Office Complex on Kirby at Norfolk
Photo: Lulu
Office-Appropriate Cut on Kirby
are they taking this bldg down piece by piece or will they be reusing some if its structure for a new bldg? If they are taking it down piece by piece, why not instead implode it and save on the expense and the painstaking task of ‘piece by piece demolition’? I drive by this daily and figured they were going to reuse the skeleton, but now that levels are being removed, I don’t know whats going on….
I get the feeling that whoever is demolishing these buildings is doing it for the very first time. They brought down a big chunk that fell around the bulldozer like device they were using to pull on it. There seems to be a lot of debris escaping the area. I think they got to the last building, right next to the feeder, and are worried about it falling into traffic.
Even new demolition crews need practice, so if this is indeed a training exercise, this is as good a project to try out.
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I don’t mind that they are taking their sweet time on clearing the lot: each day that a new building is not there means less traffic on Kirby.
@CG I don’t think they’re reusing the material, although they did separate out some of the building materials initially (I think they sold off the steel/metal).
I’m pretty sure that the reason they can’t implode this building is that it’s right next to a highway and gas station. What happens if there’s a big KABOOM? Plus, it’s built right up to a sidewalk and while there’s scaffolding now, I’m sure it wouldn’t be enough to protect a pedestrian if several steel pieces fell that way.
@Lulu
I agree there is a degree of safety when it comes to imploding buildings, but they do it all the time with controlled demolition in confined places where there is much more at risk than a feeder road and a gas station. With controlled demo, they strategically place explosive charges to bring down a structure in a manor as not to disturb/damage adjacent properties. Also, the sites and public right of ways are access controlled so that no debris would fall on a pedestrian during an implosion.
It’s Cherry doing the demo, and it is certainly not their first rodeo. If you hire a demolition expert, and he says ‘Do not implode’, you do not implode, in any sense of the word.
@CG: I get the impression they are tearing these down on the cheap.
Does anybody have an idea what they’re planning on doing with the property after the tear down without location has to be something pretty significant ideal location for something spectacular we can hope