Big Bang -- Demolition Of Waldorf Goes Awry, Flinging Debris Out Of Bounds -- Site Cleared For Trade Center

Demolition of a downtown hotel went slightly awry yesterday morning, and debris from the implosion crashed into a street below, damaging a movie complex, trolley lines and streetlights.

No one was injured in the collapse of the Waldorf Towers, built in 1906 at Seventh Avenue and Pike Street.

Police cordoned off 11 blocks around the building, and hundreds of people gathered to watch the implosion at 9:05 a.m. yesterday. The building was imploded to make room for the expansion of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The Waldorf was rigged by Engineered Demolition of Hayden, Idaho, to collapse within its site - about one-sixth of a block in size - after detonation of 175 explosives.

"The fourth floor buckled out," said Doug Hazelrigs, construction manager for R.C. Hedreen of Seattle, which oversaw the project. "The fourth and sixth floors were cabled to buckle in."

Chunks of concrete, wood and other material broke windows and tore through the sidewalk canopy at the Cineplex Odeon and Gameworks complex. Cineplex boarded up its windows, and workers said the theater would open in the evening.

A tractor-trailer that was parked at the Odeon to absorb some of the impact of the blast was damaged, according to the Seattle Fire Department. Two trees on Pike Street were uprooted.

Both streets had to be cleared of debris. Overhead power lines for electric buses on Pike were knocked down; two streetlights and a traffic signal were wrecked.

The implosion saved about three weeks in clearing the site for a five-star hotel with 550 rooms and a 990-space parking garage.

Elderly and low-income residents who lived at the Waldorf have been relocated to subsidized housing.