February 11, 2001

7:15 AM

Anyone catch the fall of Three Rivers?The Steelers want some footage of the stadium falling. The Kingdome falling made the headlines here before, but didn't have any contests to my knowldege. So I was wondering does anyone know of any other buildings coming down? Any suggestions on what buildings should come down? And does the destruction or closing of a favorite place in your city or recall any fond memories?
posted by brent (4 comments total)

I saw it fall from the top of a parking deck at Sixth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard. We showed up at around 6:30am (D minus 1h30m) and there were already about thirty people there, and about half as many camcorders lined up along the northwest corner of the structure. This was probably the best place to see the implosion, as two of the most suggested viewing spots (Mt. Washington and the Point) ended up being in the path of the debris cloud, and another (West End Overlook) had a view mostly obscured by the new Steelers stadium.

It was pretty damn cool. Just hope the roll I shot as it fell comes out OK. :)
posted by Vetinari at 3:12 PM on February 11, 2001

Watched it from my bed. (Yeah, I've got a city view from my bed.) I drove in last night from the mountains just to see it. I was unimpressed. Bang, crunch, cloud. Yippee.

Of course, I'm still caught up in the fact that they demolished a perfectly good building that still has $30 million in debt on it. Bitter over a major waste of taxpayer dollars? Oh yes, yes I am.
posted by Dreama at 11:53 PM on February 11, 2001

Yeah... that lingering debt is kind of a slap in the face. Read about it in the Post-Gazette last week (sorry, no link, can't find the article) and didn't quite believe it.

Of course, just as multi-use circular concrete-and-steel stadiums (Three Rivers, Kingdome, Atlanta-Fulton County, etc.) were urban renewal fads in the late 1960s and early 1970s, imploding multi-use circular concrete-and-steel stadiums (Three Rivers, Kingdome, Atlanta Fulton-County, etc.) seems to have caught on in the late 1990s and continued into the new century.

Does anyone who knows more about other stadium implosions know about the lingering debt situation in those cases? Is Pittsburgh unique in this situation? I'd guess not... crushing public debt has been a fad for a far longer time.
posted by Vetinari at 5:34 AM on February 12, 2001

MSNBC ran this article about the debt that outlasts Three Rivers.
posted by Dreama at 6:32 AM on February 12, 2001