Southfield Skyscraper’s Demolition Felt Miles Away (video)
(Crystal Proxmire, video by Amy Probst, Dec. 14, 2014)
At 8:30am Sunday a rumble like thunder was felt at least five miles away from 9 Mile and Northwestern Highway, where a 17-story building was demolished by implosion. North Park Plaza was built 42years ago.
Oakland Community College bought the building earlier this year at a foreclosure auction, and decided it was beyond repair and needed to come down. An online auction was held to give someone the right to push the button to set off the explosions, with the winner pledging $15,000 towards the school.
Amy Probst came out to watch, and record, the explosions. “Bye-bye crappy 70s office building I worked in during my era of nightmare secretary jobs. Good riddance,” she wrote on Facebook.
The noise from the demolition left many on Facebook wondering what was going on, with people in Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge and Royal Oak reporting the thunder-like noise.