By Canadian Press

‘Leaning Tower of Dallas’ endures blows from wrecking ball

Feb 24, 2020 | 11:46 AM

DALLAS — The “Leaning Tower of Dallas,” a social media sensation born when a part of a building survived implosion, endured scores of blows from a wrecking ball Monday.

Dozens of people gathered in the Texas city’s downtown to watch as a crane was used to batter the former Affiliated Computer Services building.

The 11-story building found a second life online after surviving a first demolition attempt. It inspired jokes and comparisons to Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa when a Feb. 16 implosion failed to bring down its core.

The company that engineered the blast said some explosives did not go off. In the following week, people flocked to the site to post photos of themselves pretending to prop up the lopsided tower.

The remainder of the building proved resilient Monday, and some onlookers were nonplussed by the ball that began swinging around 9 a.m.

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“They’re taking the wrecking ball and hitting the side of it over and over again, and it’s still just ineffective,” said Shawn Graybill, a 24-year-old who lives nearby and came out in his pyjamas to watch the demolition. “It’s not knocking the tower down.”

Lloyd Nabors, whose company is handling the demolition, previously said the tower was leaning in the direction it was intended to fall, and there aren’t any safety concerns. The building is being demolished to make way for a $2.5 billion mixed-use project

The demolition was set to end by noon, but the the core of the tower, including the elevator shafts, was still standing. Minutes before noon the work crew lowered the wrecking ball back to the ground, only to resume battering the tower 15 minutes later.

As demolition work took place, an online petition to “save this landmark from destruction” continued to draw signatures. Graybill said he hasn’t signed but plans to if the tower doesn’t tumble soon.

And as the effort to topple the structure passed the three-hour mark, people began to take another genre of photo — pretending to push the tower over rather than prop it up.

The Associated Press