Dorm Imploded at University of Alabama
Over July the 4th the University of Alabama imploded a dorm, wasn't LSU supposed to do the same thing to a dorm on campus in Baton Rouge? The short answer is yes, LSU was supposed to have already imploded Kirby Smith Hall, that implosion was supposed to have taken last month but plans changed.
While the authorities at the University of Alabama began their July 4th fireworks early with some serious boom boom pow at the old Tutwiler Hall, things were considerably quieter on campus at LSU. (Scroll down if you want to see the implosion video) That's because the company in charge of the LSU demolition of Kirby Smith Hall found a way to bring that structure down one floor at a time.
The demolition plans of the 13-story Kirby Smith Hall which students have called an on-campus home since 1967 were modified in April of this year after new equipment became available. The contractor on the job the Lemoine Company and Lloyd D. Nabors Demolition announced that "high-reach" equipment had become available for the Kirby Smith job and the structure could be brought down one story at a time.
This one story at a time method was determined to be more cost-effective for LSU. There were also concerns that the implosion would generate "a lot of inconveniences" for residents and businesses who lived near the worksite in the days and weeks following the implosion.
Meanwhile on campus in Tuscaloosa, the preliminary blasts that would take down Tutwiler Hall went off on schedule at 7 am. I don't know if the implosion was flawless but it looked pretty spectacular. The residence hall was opened just one year after LSU's Kirby Smith Hall in 1968. According to a story reported on AL.com more than 50,000 women called Tutwiler Hall home during their time at the University of Alabama.
Here's the way it all went down, literally.
As you can see in this report from WAFB Television in Baton Rouge that was posted in May of this year the demolition of LSU's Kirby Smith Hall is proceeding a lot differently than the demolition of Tutwiler Hall on campus in Tuscaloosa.
I guess you could say that everything old is new again, or at least it seems that way when it comes to residence halls and high-tech gadgets.
13 Had To Have High Tech Items That Are Now Obsolete