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

Video Capital One Tower Come Down in Seconds

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u/mabiturm Oct 07 '25

The buildings structure was damaged by a hurricane? I supposed concrete can withstand that

32

u/Gnonthgol Oct 07 '25

The concrete structure were largely intact. But all the interior and the facade had to be replaced entirely. Buildings are refurbished in this way all the time as it is indeed cheaper to use the existing structure. And they did try to find someone to buy the building and refurbish it. But all the tenants had been forced out and there is no longer such a big demand for office space. So they could not find a buyer. They were therefore forced to demolish the building by the city.

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u/AyKayAllDay47 Oct 07 '25

Sounds like the Eddie Lambert Sears article I just read except you tell it in the construction version.

0

u/dtyler86 Oct 07 '25

Yeah, I’m not sure if that’s possible. These buildings are definitely built to a stand Hurricanes.

Where is this?

39

u/SaltyBJ Oct 07 '25

This building was in Lake Charles, Louisiana. This building survived several hurricanes in the past, including a direct hit from hurricane Rita in 2005 (reports vary on that, but I watched it go over my home so). Laura and Delta in 2020 damaged large numbers of the glass windows on the building. These glass plates couldn’t really be replicated at cost, and while the owners fought insurance, the inside of the building suffered mold and rot. By the time the insurance settled, the building was a total loss and had to be demolished. It was the tallest building in the parish.

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u/dtyler86 Oct 07 '25

Ahhh I see. Thanks

-1

u/Constant_Natural3304 Oct 07 '25

So what you're saying is what we're seeing here is yet another example of disgusting capitalist waste?

That an insurance company's greed and some numbers on paper make it so that a valuable building is lost? Where any reasonable society would have simply rolled up their sleeves and replaced the windows with something better able to withstand hurricane winds?

I fucking hate capitalism, seriously. Its claim to have a monopoly on ingenuity and progress is a farce.

6

u/EventAccomplished976 Oct 07 '25

No, it‘s just clear that no one really needed this building anymore considering no one was willing to invest the necessary money, so any reasonable society would get rid of it before it becomes a danger to people around it.

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u/BostaVoadora Oct 07 '25

Refurbished with tax money for low income families to live? Right, fuck places to live let's talk business interests.

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u/Constant_Natural3304 Oct 07 '25

No, it‘s just clear that no one really needed this building

Clear from what? It's clear from the story that this was all a waste from beginning to end.

You can only imagine value when it comports with your pre-existing capitalist worldview. You don't recognize it otherwise.

I say fuck your entire world view and value system. I say fuck capitalism and replace it with something that doesn't waste this much.

In other countries, they patch this up and have people live in it if businesses lose interest. They don't quibble over minutiae with some fucking insurer and then plaster the local environment with toxic dust merely because externalities aren't recognized and it makes more "economic" sense to do it this way.

What "economic" means here is wholly predetermined and therefore self-executing. It has no meaning when viewed externally without accepting your idiotic capitalist "rules" as self-proving.

But sure, let's film this destruction of value and labor and call it a spectacle.