Big Bang Possibility a Bust

There are No Plans to Implode the Springfield Tower When Midtown Springfield Development Begins

From the Times Community
By Jason Jacks
Feb. 8, 2006

Those hoping to see the Springfield Tower building collapse in a rumble of exploding dynamite may be disappointed to learn that a contractor for KSI Services said it has no plans to implode the structure to make way for the future Midtown Springfield development.

If the development is approved by county leaders later this spring or summer, Brian Mattingly, vice president of the Maryland-based contractor Goldin and Stafford, said the slender 14-story structure would most likely be brought down piece by piece. Construction may begin in mid-2007.

“The most feasible and likely method for demolishing this building,” he said, “is to use mechanical equipment to cut the building up, or use a ball and chain for demolition.”

Mattingly added, “No other method of demolition is being considered” for the building, which stands perilously close to homes, businesses and Interstate 95.

The Vienna-based developer KSI said it intends to build its mixed-use development on nine and a half acres currently occupied by the Tower building, a Holiday Inn Express and a wine store near the Tower Shopping Center in central Springfield. In an e-mail, Mattingly did not comment on how the other buildings would be destroyed.

According to the National Demolition Association, while imploding buildings grab plenty of television coverage, the demolition technique is rarely used. It says implosions account for less than 1 percent of all demolition work in the country.

But, has a building ever been imploded in Fairfax County?

According to county spokesperson Merni Fitzgerald, “the easy answer is no.”

She did say, however, that some county officials she spoke with seemed to recall a smokestack near Herndon that was taken down by explosives. “But that's not a building,” she pointed out.

Bob Stockton, the “Bob” in Bob's Barber Shop at the Tower Shopping Center, said if the contractor had decided to blow up the local landmark, it probably would have done so in the early morning, when traffic on the nearby interstate is lightest. You cannot have “falling glass” impede traffic.

However, with the dynamite option probably off the table, Stockton, whose early-1960s' shop predates the 1970s-era Tower building, said now he can only imagine what that explosive night might have been like.

“That would have been cool to see,” he said. “I would have stuck around to see that.”

© Times Community Newspapers 2006