Jokes aside, Loizeaux clan says structure presents big challenge

Friday, March 24, 2000

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

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When blowing up buildings is the family trade, it helps to have a long fuse.

After all, people will joke about how business must be booming.

They will praise your dynamite personality.

And they will ask if you plan to do anything constructive with your life.

"I've heard them all -- and more," chuckled Jack Loizeaux, 85, who has used explosives to raze thousands of buildings as founder of Controlled Demolition Inc., the company that will implode the Kingdome early Sunday morning.

But Loizeaux, who retired from Maryland-based CDI in 1984, has not seen a structure that made him wince -- until he saw the Dome.

"The Kingdome -- that's one thing I would not have touched with a 10-foot pole," he said. "It's just so big and it's so different from anything we've done.

"It takes a lot of courage and a lot of thought, which the boys, of course, have given it."

The boys are his sons -- Mark, 52, and Doug, 49, the president and vice president, respectively, of CDI. They both learned the business at their father's elbow.

Stacey, Mark's 29-year-old daughter, has been setting explosives this week in preparation for the blast. And "Daddy Jack" Loizeaux, who flew in from Baltimore, is raring to pitch in.

"If they ask me," he said.

So Sunday in Seattle is shaping up as a reunion for the implosion world's equivalent of the von Trapp family. The sound of music for the Loizeauxs' ears will be a boom and crash of Kingdome concrete -- followed by -- they hope -- the hoots and claps of onlookers who have seen a successful operation.

"CDI's expertise is cerebral," said Mike Taylor, executive director of the National Association of Demolition Contractors, a trade group that represents 800 demolition companies in the United States and Canada. "They design the work. They make sure the building falls where it should."

There are between 1,200 and 1,500 demolition companies, forming a $3 billion business in annual gross sales. But only a few of those companies focus primarily on implosions, and those that do tend to be family-oriented concerns.

Taylor called implosion companies "the last of the great American rugged entrepreneurs."

CDI has imploded more than 7,000 buildings across the world, including the Mendes Caldeira Building in Brazil, a 361-foot concrete structure.

CDI also has taken out buildings with precision, including a six-story medical building in Fort Worth, Texas, that was successfully imploded in February within feet of a hospital emergency room and neonatal unit.

And the company has even seen a dome, though one smaller than Seattle's -- the wood and steel Arena complex in St. Louis last year.

But the Loizeauxs say they face one of their biggest hurdles with the Kingdome -- and the engineering world is watching.

The Kingdome is so sturdy that some believe it could have stood for 1,000 years. Its 9-acre roof, one of the largest of its kind in the world, is shaped like an arch, giving it enduring strength. The stadium has rib arches that press against one another and are held by a compression ring at the top. And the area where the base of the roof meets supporting side columns is a tension ring that packs 8.8 million pounds of pressure.

"In terms of complexity," Mark Loizeaux said, "the Kingdome is it."

But Jack Loizeaux's eldest son is confident the Dome can be weakened with explosives -- and brought down in its footpath. And he wants to do it with maximum safety.

"Just as I taught him to," his father said proudly.

Jack Loizeaux began heading down the path of controlled destruction as a student at the University of Georgia's forestry school in the mid-1930s.

One day, a visitor named Mr. Johnson came to class. Mr. Johnson, who worked for the DuPont Co., planned to fix a nearby river that was doglegged and ruining a forest nursery.

"He was going to straighten out the river," Jack Loizeaux recalled. "He blasted it with explosives. And that caught my attention."

The young student was amazed by the power that small amounts of explosives could pack in a matter of seconds. After graduation, he helped build airplanes. He then drilled and blasted rock. And soon thereafter, he got a job with the city of Baltimore, where he was responsible for removing tree stumps.

He did not forget Mr. Johnson.

"I used dynamite," he said. "And I went from trees to rock. And from rocks to chimneys, and finally to structures. I never dreamed it would go so far."

Jack Loizeaux leveled his first big building, an apartment complex, in Washington, D.C., in the late 1950s.

It came down after the third try.

"You learn more from your mistakes," he said, "than your successes."

In 1960, he incorporated CDI as company, and never looked back.

His sons are amazed by what their father has done to change an industry -- making commonplace the safe application of explosives for razing structures.

"Stay small, stay sharp, stay safe" has been his motto.

Doug Loizeaux takes after his father: He is gregarious, has a passing resemblance to Robert Redford and loves to talk about movies such as "Mars Attacks," which features a real building CDI took down.

Mark Loizeaux is cerebral -- a sharp businessman who often looks up at buildings and wonders aloud what it will take to bring it down. Walking through the Kingdome parking lot one afternoon, he gazed up at the Smith Tower and smiled.

Stacey Loizeaux said that falling in her father's footsteps was a no-brainer. The work, she said, is exciting.

"They all complement each other," Jack Loizeaux said.

Although CDI has completed many successful implosions across the world, the company is not without controversy. During the 1998 implosion of the J.L. Hudson Building in Detroit, the People Mover elevated rail system sustained damage.

The rail system was within 30 feet of the falling building, and damage exceeded $4 million.

"Yes, there was a problem in Detroit," Doug Loizeaux said. "But if you put it in perspective, we took down a 40-something-story building 15 feet from the People Mover. And we are human."

Jack Loizeaux said he is a little nervous heading into Sunday's Kingdome implosion. Part of his jitters stems from the genius of another Jack -- Jack Christiansen, the Dome's lead structural engineer, whose design has been credited for making the stadium so strong.

"I'd really like to meet that man," Jack Loizeaux said. "I never understood why they are taking the Kingdome down."

Christiansen is too upset to talk about the Dome.

But Jack Loizeaux is also nervous for the most universal of reasons -- he's a dad.

"I'm a little concerned for my sons, but they know what they are doing."

After the Kingdome is imploded, the family that blows up buildings together will meet together in Las Vegas.

On March 30, Jack Loizeaux will receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Demolition Contractors.

But first things first -- the Kingdome.

Before CDI pushes the button, Jack Loizeaux will do what he always does. Pray.

"I give the good Lord a lot of the credit," he said. "He's turned the gravity on. We might need some extra gravity on Sunday."