The designer of the "Leaning Tower of Dallas" has been taking a wry pride in the stubborn resistance the creation is presenting to explosives and the wrecking ball, the AP reports. Thomas Taylor is the principal design engineer for Dallas-based Datum Engineers, which designed the 49-year-old, 11-story Affiliated Computer Services building that explosives mostly brought tumbling down Feb. 16. The concrete core that contained the stairway and elevator shafts remained after the dust settled. The column was left leaning by the pull of the rest of the crumbling building. That core was the stabilizing element that supported the 11 floors, Taylor told WFAA. He compared it to a tree trunk and the rest of the building to the branches and leaves.
Taylor also said that, as he understood the plan, the demolition charges were supposed to sever all of the branches and leaves and cut off the core at its base, toppling it to the ground. The problem is it didn't topple all the way, leaving the demolition contractor to chip away at the cast-in-place concrete with a wrecking ball. A spokeswoman for the developer and the demolition contractor said earlier this week the process could take weeks. "Nobody ever told me to make it easy to demolish," Taylor quipped, adding that he respects the demolition company's dilemma. "It could be humorous now because nobody got hurt," he added. "Maybe the contractor, the demolition contractor, many feel like people are picking on him but in reality, I think that everybody's having fun."
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