A Demolition for a king

The kingdome on downtown Seattle collapsed in a controlled implosion yesterday, clearing the way for a plan to replace the leaking 24-year-old concrete structure - built at a cost of $67 million for the local football and baseball teams - with a $430 million football stadium. It took less than 20 seconds for the gelatin dynamite in 5800 holes to reduce the Kingdome to rubble. Seattle opened a separate baseball stadium last summer. The new football stadium is expected to be completed in about two years. Until then, the Seattle Seahawks will share the University of Washington's stadium

A spectacular farewell to the King

Thousands watch as Seattle's Kingdome comes crashing down. The 24-year-old stadium will be replaced by an open-air facility.

SEATTLE - Twenty-two miles of detonation cord and 5,900 gelatin dynamite explosives reduced the world's largst concrete dome to rubble Sunday in 16.8 seconds.
The 24-year-old Kingdome - once home to baseball's Mariners and football's Seahawks - was demolished to make way for a $430 million, open-air football and soccer stadium.
Once an engineering marvel, it was deemed too small for football and not cozy enough for baseball. Thousands who watched the 8:30 a.m. PT implosion cheered from a flotilla of boats in Puget Sound, downtown high-rises, hillsides and the Space Needle. The rest of the country could see it on the Web courtesy of Seattle-based Microsoft, with enhancements for 3-D glasses. A series of explosive flashes danced across the top of the 240-foot-high dome, followed by loud bangs. The roof caved in as columns fell inward. And the Kingdome disappeared in a cloud of dust.
"lt reminded me of Mount St. Helens, the way the dust went up so fast and covered so huge an area so quickly," said Bridgett Bell Duffy of Seattle, recalling the 1990 volcanic eruption. The dense clouds floated off over downtown Seattle, and a rock pile emerged, averaging 12 feet high. Cleanup began immediately and is expected to last up to four months. Pieces of the debris will be given away next month. The new Seahawks stadium is scheduled to open on the site in 2002. lt will be next door to Safeco Field, the $517 million home of the Mariners that opened last summer with a retractable roof.
The project is part of a billion-dollar public construction boom under way in downtown Seattle. A $118 million symphony hall opened last year. A $159 million public library and a $226 million civic center are being planned. And a $200 million Pacific Northwest Aquarium is being discussed for the downtown waterfront. The Kingdome was built in 1976 for $67 million. lt was named for Seattle's King Counrty.
Teams complained they couldn't make money in the stadium with too few luxury boxes, concession stands and restrooms. A series of owners threatened to leave Seattle or sell the teams if facilities weren't improved. Despite tax-payer objections, the stadium packages finally were approved.
The 67,000-seat Seahawk home, called the Washington State Football/Soccer Stadium, will be paid for with $300 million in public funds and $130 million from Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Safeco, its baseball neighbor with 47,000 seats, was the most expensive stadium in the United States when it opened last summer. It, too, was built mostly with public funds.
Will the Kingdome be missed? Local historian Walt Crowley says no.
"Let me just say it was aesthetically challenged," Crowley says, "The Kingdome was a victim of its main virtue: utilitarianism. lt was such a basic, unadorned place for sports. I don't know anyone who is sad to see it go." In its less-than-quarter-century history the Kingdome often was home to mediocre teams. lt never hosted a World Series or a National Football League division championship game. But some Seattle fans were melancholy over its demise. "I'm very sad to see it go. I grew up there," says Brian Patnode, 27, a construction super intendent. Scott Trimble, 22, a University of Washington student, watched the implosion from a neighboring hiliside with his fiancee, Abbie Groves, also 22. "lt was very cool," Trimble said of the demolition. "But it is kind of sad." "I certainly will miss it," said Groves, a nanny. "I always thought it was attractive. I know everybody else always thought it was ugly." Princeton University engineering professor David Billington, author of a book on concrete structures, believes the building should have been saved. "I think it's dreadful what's happening," Billington says. "This is the only one of its kind in the world. If ilt were able to stand longer, it would be a national landmark."

Quellen: USA Today 27.03.2000, New York Times 27.03.2000, Basler Zeitung 28.03.2000