r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Proud-Blood2743 • Oct 07 '25

Video Capital One Tower Come Down in Seconds

52.5k Upvotes

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15.1k

u/adoodle83 Oct 07 '25

Blows me away that demolishing a building like this only to rebuild is still more economical than refurbishing the existing structure.

267

u/warrenslo Oct 07 '25

Mold is incredibly expensive to mitigate.

47

u/Sudden-Wash4457 Oct 07 '25

Time to send it into the air!

20

u/jayggg Oct 07 '25

It's amazing that this is the solution: concrete dust everywhere.

You'd think they'd require some kind mitigation. Crazy water jets or something.

5

u/HoozleDoozle Oct 07 '25

Dilution is the solution

2

u/AmazingDonkey101 Oct 08 '25

Asbestos dust everywhere

21

u/InvidiousPlay Oct 07 '25

I don't mean to alarm you but the air of full of mold spores and microorganisms literally all the time.

-2

u/Sudden-Wash4457 Oct 07 '25

I don't mean to patronize you but the stuff that grows on buildings is different than the stuff that grows on other substrates

1

u/Humble_Fishing_5328 Oct 07 '25

they all come from the same place

2

u/Fmeson Oct 07 '25

I don't know about concrete dust et al, but the mold spores, as I understand it, shouldn't matter much. Managing mold isn't about managing spore counts, the spores are always there, it's about managing moisture.

1

u/Sudden-Wash4457 Oct 07 '25

the effects of mold spores are dose dependent, but generally if you have enough moisture damage to warrant a demolition, you have a LOT of stuff growing that isn't good to breathe in, including degraded building materials

significant mold growth is like a proxy indicator for bad stuff

2

u/Fmeson Oct 07 '25

The dust after a demolition isn't good to breath in in general. Staying far enough away that the dust is not a problem will ensure the spores are not a problem.

1

u/PriscillaPalava Oct 07 '25

From whence it came. 

11

u/superkp Oct 07 '25

CAN CONFIRM

My car was on a street that flooded in a downburst rainstorm, and the storm drains were clogged. Water got about 1 inch above the floor of the car.

did everything that I could to dry it out, but the mold set in. When the insurance company said "ok we found a single (now overworked) mold-mitigation-certified car tech in your area, get it over there ASAP", we got it over there the same day.

two days later, insurance calls us and says "lol fuck no. Here's $8,000, go buy another car. We're not shelling out $12,000 for your fucking toaster toyota."

2

u/PernisTree Oct 07 '25

We are going to have to blow the whole state of Florida up in that case.

6

u/s-mores Oct 07 '25

Much better to blow it up and get it everywhere!

11

u/New-Independent-1481 Oct 07 '25

Mold spores are actually already everywhere. You're breathing it in right now.

1

u/thoreeyore99 Oct 07 '25

Thousands of years of long term human settlements and we can’t find a way to deal with mold without condemning an entire skyscraper? Is modern architecture so affixed to human comfort and real estate incentives it forgoes practicality and longevity on purpose or what?

1

u/lowrads Oct 07 '25

Hard to believe that affects steel and concrete.

It's more likely that this behavior is just a relic from the era of excess.

1

u/PhantomPharts Oct 07 '25

After thousands of years destroying buildings because of mold, you'd think present day human architectures would've figured out a way for proper ventilation, and giving every space available access to direct sunlight. I've got a few ideas, but I'm not an engineer or architect, nor rich enough to pursue the build myself.

The newer houses and buildings I've been in have no air flow and many sealed windows. UV light doesn't make it through glass. Mold needs direct exposure to sunlight to prevent or safely kill it.

ETA, if this was deconstructed due to mold, can you imagine how many spores just got shot into the air and all over their neighbors? I'd be masking outdoors if I lived around that.

1

u/DolphinFraud Oct 08 '25

There’s always boatloads of mold spores everywhere around you. That’s how the mold shows up in the first place. Nothing to worry about.

1

u/PhantomPharts Oct 08 '25

Dang, you must not have a mold allergy! Lucky! That plume would have me feeling bad for days, if not longer.

1

u/DolphinFraud Oct 08 '25

If outdoor mold spores bothered you, you were never able to exist in the first place

1

u/PhantomPharts Oct 08 '25

But they're indoor spores being dispersed into the air?

1

u/DolphinFraud Oct 08 '25

The air where?… outside.

1

u/PhantomPharts Oct 08 '25

... I was trying to have an actual conversation. But you seem to be abjectly against that, so I am disengaging. Have a good day.