JL Hudson Department Store Implosion

With the press of a button at 5:47 PM on October 24, 1998, Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer dropped the JL Hudson Department Store from his citys skyline and into the history books and record books. Hudsons was the tallest department store in the country and was second in square footage only to Macys anchor Store in New York. It dominated the retail market in the city through the 1970s before closing its doors in 1983. The store was built in 12 separate stages, the first in 1911 and the last in 1946. The complex had two retail basements and 23 above grade retail floors, including mezzanines. Two additional basements and six upper stories in a tower, provided storage and mechanical support for the 2.2 million square foot building. In all there were 33 levels in the structure. In the fall of 1997, the Downtown Development Authority of Detroit (DDA), retained a joint venture of Walbridge Aldinger and Jenkins Construction of Detroit to manage the project. Walbridge/Jenkins took bids for asbestos abatement of the structure and the contract, which took three months to complete, was performed by Loyalty Environmental of Chicago. The demolition contract went to a joint venture between Detroit based Homrich, Inc. and Boston based North American Site Development. They, in turn, retained Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) and the Loizeaux Family of Phoenix, Maryland to design and perform the tricky implosion of the Detroit landmark. No structural drawings of the facility were available ...



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