Blowing up or just knocking down a structure can be toxic and not cost-effective. Taking longer to carefully dismantle them and sorting the materials for recycling/reuse/sale seems to be worth it.
This building in Saint-Denis, France, just North of Paris, has been subsidized housing since the 1950s. It took about a decade to get everyone rehoused and since April of 2014, it is coming apart bit by bit. The huge Cité Saint-Remy is being slowly dismantled and rebuilt. This is quite a stable neighborhood, and many of those around me were born and raised here.
Digital video recording, comments and annotations copyright 2014 Lisa B. Falour, B.S., M.B.A.
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