This exciting illustrated tour takes you step-by-step behind the scenes of the most incredible implosions in the world from standing skyscrapers to-kaboom!-a pile of rubble. A hotel in Atlantic city, a bridge in France, an office in Tokyo, a factory in Pittsburgh, a casino in Las Vegas-these incredible demolition projects and more are illustrated with huge, full-color photographs satisfying our fascination with destruction through second-by-second views of each structure as it takes its final, devastating plunge back to earth. The author, with the help of the Loizeaux family of Controlled Demolition, Inc., relates stories and describes techniques for imploding structures-from bridges to skyscrapers-in this most arresting form of demolition where strategically placed charges fired with precision timing can make a huge building collapse onto itself without disturbing the surrounding buildings. Detailed blueprints attest to the careful months of planning, and discussions with expert contractors and engineers reveal the secrets, strategies, sheer power and excitement of one of the world's most dangerous trades. Dramatic picture sequences give second-by-second displays of famous and elaborate demolition projects including the implosion of Seattle's Kingdome, the destruction of missile platforms in Bulgaria, the final take-down of buildings decimated by earthquakes in Mexico City, and takes us onto the sets of movies like Lethal Weapon and Mars Attacks! for amazing implosions laced with spectacular pyrotechnics.
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The rumble builds to a deafening crash as the 32-story skyscraper plunges to the earth in a single, breathtaking, earth-shattering collapse.
DEMOLITION: THE ART OF DEMOLISHING, DISMANTLING, IMPLODING, TOPPLING & RAZING takes you behind the scenes of one of the world's most awe-inspiring trades: large-scale controlled demolition. Hundreds of huge, full-color photographs-alongside stories, structure specifications and descriptions-capture every detail as buildings from around the world are reduced to rubble. A hotel in Atlantic City, a tower in France, a factory in Pittsburgh, a casino in Vegas-each project is captured in second-by-second photographs that follow structures that are aging, damaged, or simply in the way of progress, as they take their final, devastating plunge to the ground.
Perhaps the only thing that captivates man more than assembling towering constructs is watching them come tumbling down-witness any child with a pile of building blocks. DEMOLITION speaks to this timeless fascination with amazing views of dozens of demolition projects. It explores the most modern technique-implosion-for taking down structures that have outlived their usefulness, but also examines the history of demolition, from Ancient Egypt to Ebbets Field, and the fundamental methods upon which the industry has been built.
The Loizeaux Family of Controlled Demolition, Inc., has pioneered the process of implosion whereby explosive charges are placed at strategic positions within a building's frame, weakening the structure and allowing it to fall in on itself. Elaborate planning and engineering precision are required to bring down these massive structures without disturbing the surrounding buildings, and with thousands of tons of concrete and steel crashing down in seconds, safety is always a primary concern.
In DEMOLITION, Helene Liss-with the help of the Liozeaux family-shares insider stories from colossal demolition projects like the Seattle Kingdome, and describes the techniques that Controlled Demolition, Inc., uses to implode buildings around the world. It also takes us to Hollywood and the sets of movies like Enemy of the State and Mars Attacks!, where demolition contractors consult with special effects coordinators to produce amazing implosions laced with spectacular pyrotechnics.
Implosion combines the raw power of explosives and the complex precision of engineering. Through dazzling photography and description, DEMOLITION reveals this fascination and little known world-a world of constructive destruction.
From the Back Cover
WITNESS THE RAW POWER AND TECHNICAL PRECISION OF LARGE-SCALE IMPLOSION AS YOU ENTER THE WORLD OF CONSTRUCTIVE DESTRUCTION
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Neil's Review of "Demolition",
By Neil Anderson (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Demolition: The Art of Demolishing, Dismantling, Imploding, Toppling and Razing (Hardcover)
Well, BLOW ME DOWN!!Finally, a "consumer" oriented book about EXPLOSIVE DEMOLITION! I've been hoping for such a book as long as I can remember! I just purchased my copy today (12-27-00), and have had nothing short of a BLAST with it! The photos are truly stunning, not only of the actual implosions, but also the close-ups of the drilling, placing the explosives, and other preparations, as well as the explosives themselves. Excellent section about the history of explosives in general. The vast array of structures shown being imploded, toppled, etc. is truly awesome. I also like the little pictures at the lower corners of the pages. If you flip the pages fast, these images act like an old fashioned "flip book" animation. Flip them the wrong way, though, and the building appears to rise out of its rubble! Very innovative. The diagrams of the Kingdome implosion were also very informative. The text throughout the book is also extremely informative. Living just across the street from a 1 1/2 story hospital building that was recently demolished conventionally (and shaking the h**l out of my house a couple of times), now I know why it couldn't be imploded (a building must be at least 5 stories for a successful implosion). The sections on "conventional" demolition were also extremely enjoyable. There are many books about heavy equipment, but very few of them actually show equipment built or modified for demolition (e.g., wrecking ball, hammers, jaws, long-reach booms, etc.) The bookstore where I bought my copy had several in stock, but I anticipate that it will be a very popular title, as it is the first book about the subject oriented to the general public. Again, it does a really great job of showing how the Loizeaux Family and CDI deal with one BLASTED THING after another! And it was fun, fun, fun when the Loizeaux's blew the building away!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not great,
By the_man_with_no_name "man_with_no_name" (Almaden Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Demolition: The Art of Demolishing, Dismantling, Imploding, Toppling and Razing (Hardcover)
This book has a lot of very nice pictures and some text to go along with them. However, other than the part about the Kingdome demolition, the reader is given few details about how the demolition of a structure was done and what the various considerations were in deciding the exact methods used. An equation or two would have been informative...
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Break out the hard hats and blasting caps...,
By A Customer
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This review is from: Demolition: The Art of Demolishing, Dismantling, Imploding, Toppling and Razing (Hardcover)
This book is quite a blast, literally, because it gives the reader some first-hand knowledge of how the building demoltion process takes place. And it shows this with some clear pictures and diagrams. The Kingdome implosion, in particular, stands out because of the level of detail that went into explaining it. All in all, this is a great book to give the budding young engineer or to keep on the family coffee table.
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