Chuck Williams: Sometimes you just can't blow it up

Some mornings you wake up, look at the tasks in front of you, take a deep breath, drink a cup of coffee, slurp down a second cup, then say to heck with it, we need to blow something up today.

You know, just blow it to kingdom come -- and back.

Well, apparently someone charged with tearing down the former Ledger-Enquirer complex in downtown Columbus had the same thought a while back.

Since Columbus State University purchased the building from McClatchy and announced its plans to tear a large portion of it down and come back with a new College of Education and Health Professions complex, the company line has been no explosives will be used.

And that is still what is going to happen. Birmingham, Ala.-based contractor Brasfield & Gorrie, the contractor that has the nearly $25 million project, and its demolition subcontractor, D.H. Griffin, plan to take down all of the buildings the old-fashion way.

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t think about imploding the Page Building, the six-story tower that sits at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street.

The Page Building, one of the ugliest structures in downtown Columbus for my money, is also the most challenging of the buildings to take down. It is the closest one to Broadway and the high-traffic areas and it’s the tallest. Throw out the Government Center and I know there are some people who wish they could and the Page Building is among the tallest downtown.

“There has been some discussion by a subcontractor,” said John Lester, CSU’s assistant vice president for university relations.

It never became a serious proposal that was considered by Brasfield & Gorrie or CSU. But Columbus being Columbus, there was some talk on the street that the Page Building might be pancaked by explosives.

The best way to word it is to say those charged with bringing down the Page Building flirted with the idea of implosion, but never embraced it.

When the idea was put forward, CSU officials were clear: It had to make economic sense and be a safer way to do it.

“It just didn’t make sense economically,” Lester said.

It never passed the economics test. I know how that feels. I don’t think I ever passed an economics test in college, either.

So, they are going to bring in a large crane and deconstruct the Page Building.

Back in 2012 and 2013, those constructing the whitewater course took out the Eagle & Phenix and City Mills dams using explosives.

No doubt, some would have liked to have seen a similar show on the old Ledger-Enquirer property. There were probably some who would have liked to have seen it imploded with some of us still in it.

But some days, as bad as you want to, it just doesn’t pay to blow something up.

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 6:55 PM.