Austin's Intel Eyesore Goes Out With A Bang

by clorenz1 | February 26, 2007 at 09:24 am

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A crowd gathered in Austin yesterday to watch a big ole implosion. The Intel building, which is being fondly remembered as an 'eyesore,' collapsed in the downtown area with help from a few explosives.

It seems Intel, and Austin have been discussing the buildings aesthetic for a long time, at one point they even tried to cover it...

However, in the end, the building could not overcome a serious hurdle. After waiting six years, Intel decided to give up hopes of completion (the building had never been finished), and the structure went down in front of a crowd of spectators.

Parts of the structure are still standing, and clean-up of the site will take some time. It's not something you see everyday -- especially in Austin.

The five-story start of the Intel building came down with a bang -- reduced to rubble, kind of.

"I actually saw a pretty bad demolition job.," said one onlooker. "You can see it's still standing."

he building was left unfinished by Intel after the high-tech bust of 2001. The federal government bought the property in 2004, and plans to put a new federal courthouse there. A recent effort by some Austinites to buy the building back, and use it for commercial real estate, failed.

The experience of seeing and feeling the Intel building implosion on Sunday morning was witnessed by more than a few people, several hundred in fact. For Martha Ruby Clark, she may have wanted to sleep in, but it was not an option for her.