Oh, Blast! Old Building Just Refuses to Fall

PROVIDENCE, R. I. — Neighbors of a high-rise apartment building were kept away Monday while demolition experts worked out plans to bring down the building that wouldn’t fall.

“We told you so,” said a grass-roots neighborhood organization that had argued that the building and two others were solid enough to be renovated for low-income housing.

More than 550 pounds of dynamite failed to bring the 36-year-old building down Sunday, although a second round of explosives knocked out the first two floors, leaving the main part of the building and a wing leaning against each other.

The neighborhood organization, Project BASIC, had tried unsuccessfully in federal court to stop the demolition of the 10-story Hartford Park building, contending that it was structurally sound.

“Why didn’t it fall? That’s an open question,” said David R. Evans, the explosives expert who coordinated the blasts. “I knocked out the two floors I wanted to knock out and, by all indications, the building should have fallen.

“It’s the way it’s built,” Evans said. “It’s built like a honeycomb.”

The Providence Housing Authority decided to switch from explosives to a wrecking crane, which will begin work today, Director Stephen O’Rourke said. The process could take up to two weeks.