Date And Time For Lake Charles Capital One Tower To Be Demolished

ital One Tower is scheduled for demolition on September 7, 2024, at 8 am. I know I'm not the only one when I say, I sure hate to see it go. It was such a beautiful building, inside and out. I wish there was a way the city could've refurbished it and turned it into a hotel/convention center/upscale condo living, with a restaurant and a few shops. However, if any of that were possible it would have been done I imagine.

Sadly, the decision was to demo the iconic Lake Charles building that once brought beauty to the downtown area. The Lake Charles skyline will be forever lost once it's gone. At this point, there's been little to no word about what will replace it, if anything. I worked on the 20th floor while in college for a lawyer's office and banked with both the original Hibernia Bank and Capital One Bank. I even had a safety deposit box, which was located a the very base of the building. I remember it looked like Fort Knots with iron walls and doors that 100 sticks of dynamite couldn't damage.

Lloyd Jones Brewer Associates of Houston designed the 22-story tower with 400,000 square feet of space on a four-acre lot. The layout included a suspended bridge for pedestrians that was attached to a parking garage across the street. The construction crews F. Miller and Sons of Lake Charles and Houston's Miner-Dederick broke ground on the project in January 1982 and the tower opened in 1983. The cost was an estimated $45 million.

Heavily damaged by Hurricane Laura in 2020 the tower's owner Hertz Investment Group filed a 140 million lawsuit against its insurer Zurich American Insurance. The fate of the tower was left hanging in the balance with Hertz facing millions of dollars in repairs. The lawsuit would drag on for four years. Mayor Nic Hunter said of the ongoing legal battle,

"The best case scenario is to see the “iconic building rehabilitated. The worst case scenario was for the building to remain in its current form for an extended period with no end in sight.”

Everyone, including myself, is wondering what is going to happen with all that glass. Most residents want to have some of the glass from the tower to save as a memento. Local artists like Candice Alexander Art Studio, have already begun creating beautiful works of art with the tower's glass! See and purchase her gorgeous artwork on her social media sites including Facebook. She is amazing!

DEMO DAY AND HOW TO WATCH SAFELY

Is she talented or what? Well, the countdown has begun. the City of Lake Charles was left with the decision to tear the building down. Lloyd D Nabors Demolition, LLC out of Dallas was given the task. Tentatively, the legendary building is scheduled to be brought to rubble at 8 am on September 7, 2024.

Watch for updates on this story! An announcement was made on the safest way to watch the tower implosion (controlled demolition with explosives that makes a building collapse.) Click HERE to see what city officials recommend about watching the Lake Charles landmark come down.

When the tower is gone, it will leave an empty space in the hearts of many and a giant hole in the Lake Charles skyline. I pass by the tower on my way to and from work and have taken pictures of the building every other day to show how the demolition process has been going.  Here's a look at some of the images I've taken as the iconic building has been slowly taken apart and prepared for implosion on Saturday 7, 2024.