Institute of Demolition Engineers dedicates regional meeting to “Mr Liebherr”.

The first IDE Midlands Region meeting of 2019 took place earlier this week at the headquarters of Armac Group, and the meeting was dedicated to the memory of Liebherr’s Darren Bennet who had been a huge and loyal supporter of the IDE.

More than 30 delegates were treated to excellent presentations by John Woodward FIDE, Adrian McLean FIDE and Danny Kearney who were joined delegates from Molson Finlay attending their first IDE meeting.

The evening started with a presentation from John Woodward entitled: “Asbestos – it bloody hides everywhere!” which included images of unusual asbestos finds on demolition projects including correctly bagged asbestos found beneath a school stage, and asbestos used in mortar in brick and stone walls. The images prompted good comment from the floor and the consensus from the room at the end of the meeting was that the images from the presentation would make a good industry toolbox talk if widely distributed.

The next speaker was Danny Kearney of Prosafe Consultants who has worked in the demolition industry for many years as health and safety advisor to Lee Demolition and many others. Kearney has recently qualified as an approved trainer for Mental Health First Aid and is launching, in conjunction with C&D Consultancy, Mental Health First Aid courses for the demolition industry from February 2019. Kearney’s presentation “Demolishing Mental Health Barriers” was a brief but telling overview of the massive numbers of people in the construction and demolition industries who are affected by mental health issues and was certainly an eye- opener for many in the room as to how high those figures are and – in particular – the tragically high number of people who take their own lives every year.

The final presentation of the evening was from Armac’s Adrian Mclean FIDE and addressed the correct way to call for the demolition industry to publish a guidance note for lift removal. McLean suggests that the knowledge of the older demolition engineers would be lost to future generations unless we take the time now to document their knowledge in a format that allows education in the future.

The evening then closed with lively discussion about training needs in the industry and the current CCDO card scheme with John Woodward reminding the delegates that the current DRO card does not allow the holder to undertake structural demolition work.

The next Midlands Regional Meeting will be hosted by AR Demolition in the East Midlands on Wednesday 8 May 2019 at a venue to be agreed.

Company bags contract to demolish “Coventry’s ugliest building”.

Industry news portal The Construction Enquirer is reporting that Birmingham-based Coleman & Company has won the contract to demolish the 14-storey Coventry Point office block to prepare the way for the ambitious £300m City Centre South scheme.

The firm will demolish the brutalist building – dubbed the city’s ugliest – under a contract worth £2.76 million.

The works will include the decommissioning, soft strip and demolition of the tower blocks connected by a glass walkway, as well as a three-storey red brick plinth building to the east of the site.

Following the completion of the demolition works a simple landscaping scheme is to be implemented to allow pedestrian access.

The long-awaited City Centre South scheme is central to the city council’s ambitions to create the second biggest-shopping destination in the West Midlands.

Read more here.

Local media outrage over Jacksonville blast is just “cashing in”on a successful project.

Just as day follows night, so spring follows winter. According to French footballer, actor and part-time philosopher Eric Cantona, “seagulls follow the trawler because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”.

Equally predictable – and rather less cryptic than Monsieur Cantona – local media complaints about collateral damage in the wake of a successful tower block implosion. So the “news” that a “gas line and dozens of windows were damaged” during the Old City Hall Annex Implosion in Downtown Jacksonville should come as a surprise to no-one within the demolition community, least of all to the team that carried out the blast.

According to local media reports, windows needed replacing in the neighbouring Blackstone building and at the Hyatt Regency hotel.

In further “storm in a teacup” news, the same media outlet reported that “a gas line was impacted during the implosion and is undergoing repair. There are no notices of evacuation.”

As demolition folks have come to expect, this news was not balanced by an account of the precision of the blast, the fact that the building fell within its own footprint as planned, that the blast was carried out safely, or that the materials arising from the blast will be recycled.

Could this be the tallest building ever demolished?

Demolition permits have been filed for the JPMorgan Chase HQ at 270 Park Avenue in New York. Although such claims will be hotly contested, media reports suggest the building will be the tallest planned demolition in history.

The filing is a significant step for the bank on the way to replacing the 1.5-million-square-foot Modernist tower previously known as the Union Carbide Building with a 2.5-million-square-foot skyscraper, to be designed by British Pritzker Prize winner Norman Foster/Foster + Partners architectural firm.

The demolition of the 52-floor, 707-foot building will be the largest intentional demolition in history; past contenders include the 612-foot-tall Singer Building and the 517-foot-tall Deutsche Bank Building. Completed in 1961, the tower that now stands was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The tower held a 50-year record for the tallest building designed by a woman.

The new tower that will rise is headed for at least 1,400 feet, with 70 floors that will hold 6,000 JPMorgan Chase employees, making the new headquarters one of the tallest buildings in the city and the tallest office building by roof height.

Read more here.

The most informative, insightful and forward-looking publication of the year is finally here.

It’s here! The all-new Demolition Directory has landed and it contains contact details for almost 500 UK demolition companies. That alone should make it required reading for anyone within or allied to the industry sector.

But the Directory also contains a host of forward-looking feature articles to stimulate the mind of anyone looking towards the future of the demolition business.

Implosion fells 59-year old Jacksonville tower block.

The former City Hall Annex, a long vacant structure overlooking the St. Johns River, came crashing down at 8 am Sunday (local time). The 15-story building was brought down to make room for new development.

The demolition was about a year in the making. Originally, the annex and the old courthouse at 330 E. Bay St. were to be torn down to make way for a new convention center. The Downtown Investment Authority in January 2018 voted to send out a request for proposals to develop a hotel, complete with an exhibit hall, ballroom, retail space and more, a plan based on a 2017 feasibility study.