Moment tallest building in Kentucky's capital comes crashing down in amazing video footage

Fiona Simpson12 March 2018

The tallest building in Kentucky's capital city came crashing down in a controlled implosion yesterday in front of thousands of onlookers who were forced to scurry away to avoid a huge dust cloud that formed afterwards.

The demolition of the 28-story Capital Plaza Tower will make way for a new modern five-story office building and its 1,100-spot car park. The tower opened in 1972 as a state office building and closed in 2016.

Republican Matt Bevin did not push the ceremonial plunger to start the demolition. Instead, he auctioned off that right on eBay, with all proceeds going to a charity started by his wife.

The #WeAreKY Foundation supports the state's foster children.

It has no paid staff, and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission said it is not a conflict for Bevin to raise money for charity this way.

"It's amazing that even as we are here to see a building come down, the dollars that are being generated in some measure from this are helping to build families up," Bevin told the crowd shortly before the demolition.

Dust billows into the sky in the aftermath of the demolition
AP

The winning bid of $15,000 came from a Shelbyville resident, A.J. Stivers, who owns a company that provides on-site vision and hearing exams at schools across Kentucky.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT