About this blog

The original intention of this blog was to help promote my handcrafted jewelry and beading supplies. However, I believe I lead an interesting life (which Dave gets a lot of credit for), so you will often find ramblings about things other than beads and jewelry! Hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy living it!!!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Implosion of the 1515 Tower in Palm Beach

On Valentine's Day, Dave and I went to downtown Palm Beach to watch the implosion of the 1515 Tower. To some, that may not sound like the most romantic thing to do, but we really enjoyed it. Besides, Dave and I have a tendency to do things that are a little left or right of center (which is why life with him is SO exciting)!

Here's a little history on the tower. It was built in the mid 70's and is located on the Intracoastal Waterway. In 2004 it suffered insurmountable damage from the hurricanes that came through and residents were forced to leave...forever. This building has been an eyesore to residents of nearby condos since that time and considering the value of this waterfront property, they wanted something done about it. Finally, it was scheduled to be demolished. Nearby residents were concerned about the demolition as this tower stands 279 feet tall, and their residences are only 200 feet away! This demolition, handled by Advanced Explosives Demolition is the 3rd largest building imploded in U.S. history. I'm happy to report it went off with out a hitch, well, except for the delay in pushing the button at 9:00am as scheduled. The demolition crew found a man hiding within the blast area shortly before 9:00am and had to have him escorted from the premises!



A view of the tower from Flagler Dr the day before


A close-up of the tower the day before (the road was closed to traffic on Sunday)


Dave and I braving the cold (well, 42 degrees is cold by Florida standards!)


A shot of the tower from the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway (notice the small 4-5 story building to the left...this is just a parking lot away)


This was taken with my cell phone since Dave was taking the video. If you look very closely at the left side of the tower, you can see a couple of puffs of smoke...this is the start of the implosion


This was amazing to see, hear and actually feel live!



The cloud of dust...luckily the wind was pretty strong so it never reached us



A shot with a little wider of an angle

This is the video of the implosion that Dave took. For maximum effect, turn your volume up before starting the video and you'll be able to hear the first series of explosions. The implosion didn't actually start until about 9:06, and Dave's arm was getting tired holding the camera up, so he had turned it off. He turned it back on just in time to catch the first explosion! (And also, as a warning, I do believe the word "sh*t" may have been uttered once or twice out of sheer amazement. I do not nearly have the technical capabilites to figure out how to bleep it out!)



3 comments:

  1. Someone was charging admission? lol!

    The first thing that comes to mind watching the video is the memory of the World Trade Center Towers falling, but this was so much better because there were no terrorists and there was noone killed. whew!

    Oh! And I cannot believe your guys were wearing heavy coats and knit hats! lol! It's 41 degrees here today and we're so warm and happy just running around in long sleeve shirts. After several weeks in the low 20's and teens, this feels rather balmy! hehe!

    I enjoyed seeing a cute pic of the two of you guys, too ;-)
    Happy Valentine's Day to a crazy fun lovin' couple!


    ~Lisa

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  2. Awesome! Are they making way for yet another Condo?! The condo nazis will love it :)

    We love stuff like this. Thanks for posting it!
    J thought it was awesome!
    misha

    p.s. stay warm down there!

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  3. They actually didn't charge admission...just one of Dave's favorite sayings (although I do think it would have been worth a small fee to see that)! Not sure what they're planning for that space yet...should be interesting considering its such prime real estate. Funny how we become accustomed to our area. I'm originally from New York, and when I first moved down here, I could run around in shorts when it was in the 50's! Now I get a chill if it goes below 75!

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