Without a boom
1960s office icon coming down piece by piece

By Allison Ballard

The utilitarian bank building has seen a lot over the decades since it was built in the early 1960s, from countless customers to the comings and goings of local business people to a taste of show business and as a filming location for projects such as the gangster/zombie movie "Dead Heist" to most recently the English comedy "Little Britain".

This building, though, isn't going out with a bang. As developers prepare for the next use of the space that overlooks the Cape Fear River, the View on Water Street, the old Wachovia Bank building has to come down piece by piece.

"We couldn't do an implosion. There was too much of a risk to the neighbors," said Terry Espy, of the Raleigh-based Momentum Group that is developing the View. Plus, there were considerations of the historic area, and the fact that the building is built like a tank. Randy Hudson, of the demolition company D.H. Griffin agrees. "The building is just too close," he said.

So instead, it's a slow dismantling.

"Every job is different," Hudson said. "And this one is too. It's similar to others we've done, but different."

What he's already learned about this project is that it will be mentally challenging, because it is like putting together a puzzle, in reverse, as they take apart the large concrete panels that make up the building - one by one.

The first part of the process began months ago, in April, by taking out some of the raw materials.

"We took the marble out of the common area," Espy said. "It's an unusual marble that you don't see very often. Some people are wanting to use it for kitchen counters."

The slate pavers from the walkway in front of the bank were taken up and they'll be used decoratively on the lobby's back wall.

Also, local artists will use recovered stainless steel to create doors and other pieces of artwork. "We're trying to reuse a lot of the metals and materials," Espy said. "We also invited churches to come in and use what they wanted."

Church members, friends and family came in to take doors, doorknobs, landscaping materials and walnut-wood panels. There was also a wood grid system in place on the top floor. Espy took some of that herself to make a unique bookshelf, she said.

After that initial stage, the demolition company D.H. Griffin came in about a month ago. "Essentially, it looked like any other building," Hudson said, with an open floor plan of sheetrock and air ducts.

The company started disassembling that with sledgehammers, breaking down the building further. A large pile of this now sits at the base of the building. This is where more separation of materials takes place, with copper and other metals, wood, bricks and trash placed in piles.

What can't be reused or recycled will most likely go to a company-owned landfill. After that, there's the removal of the floor tiles, which is a tedious process because there was some asbestos. "There's not a lot," Espy said. "But some was used with the glue under the tiles and carpet."

Hudson said the asbestos abatement is scheduled to take another two weeks. Then the company will begin separating the bank building from the building next to it.

That involves taking the panels off and dismantling the firewall, among other things, he said. Eventually, there will be a six-foot space between the two.

When it's time for the final stage of the demolition, the D.H. Griffin crew will drill to take apart each of the concrete panels and then use a muncher, which has enough length to reach up in to the building, to crush them. "Did you see the movie Jurassic Park? The dinosaurs, that's what a muncher is. They based the dinosaurs on that equipment," Hudson said.

Eventually passersby will be able to look up and see a big hole in the building, a hole that will get bigger and bigger until nothing's left, he said.

In four months, they'll be done and the space will be a vacant lot. Then, construction of the 68-unit luxury condominium complex will begin.

Beginning in mid-July, you can watch the progress of the deconstruction on the View's website www.theviewonwaterstreet.com.