The Houston Club was a pretty ritzy place when it opened up about 40 years ago but as times and real estate values have changed, that formerly luxurious and cool building was looking more and more like a relic that no longer fit the area where it stood. Cities evolve and change over time and to do that, they need to replace structures that don’t serve the needs of the residents anymore. Ok, who are we kidding. Some rich guys bought the building and know that they can put up a building twice the size and make a ton of money at it in the process, that’s why this 18-story steel and concrete block needed to be done away with and it was yesterday by the fine people at D.H. Griffin of Texas Inc. That’s the contractor that was hired into take this building down while leaving all the stuff around it standing up. How did they do? Looks like they aced the job!

My grandfather was always enthralled with these types of demolition projects and that carried on to me. A fond memory I have as a kid was driving into Boston with my parts and sitting across the water from a big building that was being taken down. We watched the implosion along with thousands of other people and it was as impressive a thing as I have ever seen before or since. When you consider how close stuff is packed together in a city like this, how much risk is involved, and the fact that there are no “do-overs” it really gives you an appreciation of the work that these contractors do. It is a high profile exercise.

Here’s a little about the building that gets taken down and the building that will replace it –

The implosion of the former Houston Club Building, which was an 18-story steel and concrete structure located at Rusk and Capitol, makes way for the development of Capitol Tower. This 35-story, 750,000-square-foot Class A office building is the first in Houston to receive LEED Platinum v4 precertification. The implosion marks the start of the final phase of the demolition process and is being conducted by D.H. Griffin of Texas, Inc., a company that is nationally recognized for its expertise in this area.

Now, here’s every angle we could find of this building going down!