Taking Down the King Dome... 

Lisa and I had prime seats on the 42nd floor of the Key Tower building, thanks to our friend Tina, a brilliant architect at Bohlin, Cywinski, Jackson - and the nicest person we know. We arrived around 7:45am and shared breakfast with about 50 other friends and family of the firm.  Who better to watch the destruction of one of the Seattle's most controversial structures than a room full of design and engineering wonks?

It was a cool, clear day.  A perfect day for destruction...

(Note that clicking on these images will bring you to a full-size version, each is ~200k, my apologies if you don't have a fast net connection.)

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The dome had been stripped down to the bare bones, and was ready to go.

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There were several helicopters circling around the site and crowds of people in all the surrounding vantage points.

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When was the last time Rob was awake before 8am on a Sunday?  With only one cup, he is not a pretty sight.

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Lisa contemplates the fate of the dome.

 
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  3, 2, 1...

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Kaboom! That was beautiful.

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I think the amount of dust surprised a lot of people.

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Especially the ones in the street near the clock tower.

 
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Unfortunately the city-wide ban on gas masks was still in effect from the WTO protests.

 

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Within about 5 minutes, down town was a cloud of dome dust.
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At moments, it looked like a new fallen snow had covered the city.

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As the cloud of dust headed west, the spectators in Elliot Bay made a hasty retreat.

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After the dust settled, we had a birds-eye view of the perfectly flattened King Dome.  Engineering at it's best.

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