A 14-story vacant office building adjacent to the Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit was recently demolished to make way for a 10-story parking structure for the renovated Book-Cadillac building and the Westin hotel. There will be condominiums on top of the parking structure, which will account for five additional stories. The parking structure and the Book-Cadillac will be connected with a bridge.

Approximately 121,800 square feet has been demolished. North American Dismantling Corp., of Lapeer, was the demolition contractor for the project. North American Dismantling removed approximately 1,800 tons of steel and 15,000 cubic yards of debris and rubble from the site.

North American Dismantling used three Bobcats with grapple buckets to strip out the interior of the building. A Manitowoc 4000W lattice-boom crawler crane with a 7,000-pound wrecking ball was used for the demolition.

"Once we got it down to a manageable level, we used a Cat 345 ultra-high-reach demolition machine with an MP20 multi-processor on it. We also used a Cat 385 excavator with a bucket on it," Jason Stegall, estimator/project manager for North American Dismantling Corp., said. North American Dismantling also used a JLG 150-foot lift on the project.

"The ultra-high-reach demolition machine is probably the latest and greatest for demolition. It's a great tool for this industry. It's great to be able to reach as high as this machine can reach, work in tight quarters, cut material such as iron and beams with precision, and pull things down in a safer manner."

Challenges on the project included working close to Michigan Avenue, the Book-Cadillac, and the building behind the project.

"The building behind us was only 20 feet from the side of our building. Our challenge there was, obviously, working in such tight quarters," Stegall said.