Tall & Urban News

The Capital Plaza Office Tower in Frankfort, Ky., disappeared on March 18 into a cloud of dust.

There were a few booms of dynamite and then the 28-story building collapsed and crumbled to the ground in a matter of seconds.

A sizable crowd gathered in Frankfort to watch the demolition. Many of them filmed on their smartphones and cheered once the building was gone.

Capital Plaza Office Tower opened in 1972 and closed in 2016, and was the tallest building in Frankfort. Following its demolition, the Kentucky State Capitol building is now the tallest in the city. 

It was imploded to make way for a new 385,500-square-foot (35,814-square-meter), 1,500 employee office building, and a 1,206-space parking structure.

The tower had been recommended for demolition since 2008, when a Lexington-based architecture firm determined it would be more cost-efficient to tear the building down and put a new one in its place. In recent years there had been reports of concrete falling from the tower and water leaking from the building.

Prior to Sunday, Gov. Matt Bevin and his wife, Glenna, auctioned off the opportunity to ceremonially start the implosion.

Andrew “AJ” Stivers, of Shelbyville, won the eBay auction with a bid of $15,000. Stivers operates Quality Care for Kids, a group of ophthalmologists, pediatricians and trained technicians that provides vision and hearing exams to schools across Kentucky, according to a press release.

Bevin’s office said it received more than 80 bids. The entirety of the $15,000 winning donation will go to Glenna’s foundation, #WeAreKY! Inc., which works to support statewide foster care and adoption initiatives.

For more on this story, go to USA Today.