Highway6 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 do we have confirmation its coming down tonight ? the rail was set to stop service tonight through sunday. i saw the heightened police presence this afternoon.. but it makes more sense that they are just gearing up for a demo tomorrow during daylight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Hm you could be right. I wish they would announce it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 i believe 13 said they were starting at midnight....going to push the walls in, little by little, starting at the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 i believe 13 said they were starting at midnight....going to push the walls in, little by little, starting at the top.I wasnt aware it wasn't going to be an implosion.. i thought that was the norm. Midnight sucks... anyone going out to video it ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 I wasnt aware it wasn't going to be an implosion.. i thought that was the norm. Midnight sucks... anyone going out to video it ??they can't implode because the owner wants his neighboring building to remain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 I passed it on the way to Tacos A Go Go where I am now. Everything seems in place. Its lit up with a bunch of high beam lights right now, and there's an excavator sitting right next to it in that bank parking lot thing looking ready to dig in. Maybe I video it depending on how my plans go tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Was there around 6:30 - they are apparently just using a bulldozer and no crane, etc. Also heard the midnight time but also that it may be ahead of schedule.Think I'll take a peek in a few. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 There's two articles now that say midnight. I'll head over there in a few and liveblog it from the parking lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 (edited) ACTION! Hoses are spraying the building. The excavator had the backhoe taken off and like a drill point or something put on to the end of it. The hoses focused on the north corner of the building and the excavator attacked! Big pieces of brick wall fell to the ground and the top north corner of the building is gone. At its highest point it has probably lost about 20 feet on one wall and 40 on the other. The excavator is standing down. There was a lot of smoke and some people seemed a little alarmed, so HFD went to make sure some more hydrants were working. The excavator sits waiting while a little...bulldozer? land mover? scurries around underfoot clearing away the fallen brick. He seems to be trying to smash up the big brick pieces perhaps to clear a path for the excavator to make another pass. About 100 people sit watching plus a couple dozen watching from Houston House balconies. Edited October 3, 2009 by kylejack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Excavator has been moved away to the far north curb and has fallen asleep. Bulldozer and 2...minibulldozers, and some infantry continue to clear fallen rubble. Men run along side the bulldozers guiding them around corners as they take debris from the back of the building around to the front for haul off. Crowd is decreasing. This will be a slow death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 yah.. sounds pretty anticlimactic. Appreciate the play-by-play though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Excavator was pulled around front and is ripping off the front stairs and east corner. I got some video. That ugly silver cladding was ripped off and you could see some arch work where the bricked over windows used to be. Perhaps it was once a pretty building. I'll upload video tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 looks like 13 interviewed a haif member on their morning newscast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAZ Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The Savoy Hotel is being demolished this weekend, after tenyears of neglect. That building washigh-profile, but there are many dangerous buildings in Houston. Not all of them are demolished before someonegets hurt. Two children died lastsummer, crushed by a collapsing staircase at the Westwood Fountains ApartmentComplex. Dangerous buildings are addressed in Chapter 10 of Houston’sCode of Ordinances . Chapter 10 isenforced by the Neighborhood Protection Corps. They bring their cases before the Building and StandardsCommission. Unfortunately, $2,000 is themaximum fine for a violation under Chapter 10, and that’s too low to get theattention of big owners. There were certainly countless fines levied on the SavoyHotel, adding up to perhaps tens of thousands of dollars. But the owners didn’t react until they saw$1/2 million in demolition fees. Untilthat endgame, it was cheaper for them to pay the fines than to make theirbuilding safe. The owners of theWestwood Fountains Apartments had been fined for several code violations beforethe staircase collapse. They paid thefines, but never fixed the stairs. It’sthe same story all over Houston. Dangerous buildings should have no place in our City. The Savoy Hotel was demolished before anyonecould get hurt. Two children died at theWestwood Fountains Apartment Complex. Let’s increase the maximum fines on dangerous buildings. Make owners take note. Make it cheaper to fix things than to pay thefines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 I wasnt aware it wasn't going to be an implosion.. i thought that was the norm. Midnight sucks... anyone going out to video it ??Despite what the 9/11 "truthers" believe, it takes more than a few hours, or even a few days, to do a proper implosion.Besides, this building would have been too far gone to allow workers to safely implant explosives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Despite what the 9/11 "truthers" believe, it takes more than a few hours, or even a few days, to do a proper implosion.Besides, this building would have been too far gone to allow workers to safely implant explosives.The city awarded Cherry the contract over a week ago. And while i don't know when the owner also picked Cherry after stepping in, Cherry had to be ready to step in and fulfill the cities obligation had the owner not initiated demolition by this weekend.Point being, Cherry had over a week.. which seems like a reasonable amount of time to plan a implosion of a relatively small building.... and grouping me in with some wacko conspiracy group was pretty unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Anyone know if there's a state statutory limit on the fines a city like Houston can impose for an ordinance violation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The city awarded Cherry the contract over a week ago. And while i don't know when the owner also picked Cherry after stepping in, Cherry had to be ready to step in and fulfill the cities obligation had the owner not initiated demolition by this weekend.Point being, Cherry had over a week.. which seems like a reasonable amount of time to plan a implosion of a relatively small building.... and grouping me in with some wacko conspiracy group was pretty unnecessary.I didn't mean to put you in that nest of nuts, sorry. I've been hearing more conspiracy nuts about 9/11 lately and it's just gotten on my nerves. A week is still not enough to drill into a STABLE building of that size. Any drilling into columns, assuming it was a simple implosion, would have been too hazardous to do a proper job with. Does anyone remember how long it took to wire the Montague for explosives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The city awarded Cherry the contract over a week ago. And while i don't know when the owner also picked Cherry after stepping in, Cherry had to be ready to step in and fulfill the cities obligation had the owner not initiated demolition by this weekend.Point being, Cherry had over a week.. which seems like a reasonable amount of time to plan a implosion of a relatively small building.Mr. Cherry said an implosion would not have worked as the owner wanted to keep the adjoining taller Savoy building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAZ Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Anyone know if there's a state statutory limit on the fines a city like Houston can impose for an ordinance violation?Excellent point. It appears there is a state imposed limit on fines for dangerous buildings, and it is $2,000. http://www.courts.state.tx.us/pubs/AR97/muni/mncascat.htmThat being the case, Houston ought to approach the state and see about changing it. I'll bet we'd have other big Texas cities on our side. They have many of the same problems we do with dangerous buildings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 anyone have an update as to how far along they are ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Slow going right now. They're on the main street side and have only gotten a little ways in to the building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Stopped by about 8 tonight to grab a few shots. They've been at it for about 20-22 hours now.. . i don't see how they're possibly going to be done by the end of the weekend. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seoid Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 We drove by earlier today around 1pm. The streets were still closed off but there was not much going on from what we saw. It was raining pretty good though.We had been looking for the Center Square building (seen from the freeway and were curious why it's still there) and just happened upon the street closure/Savoy demo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Stopped by earlier on the way home and they were still chipping away - at the rate they're going I don't see how it will be done before Monday commute. Maybe it will be cleaned up far in enough to reopen the rail, though...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Stopped by earlier on the way home and they were still chipping away - at the rate they're going I don't see how it will be done before Monday commute. Maybe it will be cleaned up far in enough to reopen the rail, though...?supposedly at 4am main will be open but it will take 2-3 more weeks to complete demolition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Video of part of the demolition has been posted on the HAI/HAIF video section:http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/Video.php?VID=19<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="281" data="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"> <param name="flashvars" value="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b270842a46&photo_id=3993369275"></param> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377"></param> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=b270842a46&photo_id=3993369275" height="281" width="500"></embed></object> 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 For those who missed it, there is a short article on the Savoy, with nice pics here...see the bottom...http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuwong Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 That ugly hotel is still there! It is still standing tall! The only thing i saw was the little building next to it being demolished a few weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic08 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 That ugly hotel is still there! It is still standing tall! The only thing i saw was the little building next to it being demolished a few weeks ago.The little building was the original Savoy...the one still standing is a newer addition...who knows how long that one will stand. They tore down the older one because it was falling in on itself and bricks were falling from it creating a danger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.