Knock down, drag out

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Andrew Laurimore likes to knock things over. Big things. Like the old D.C. Convention Center. Mr. Laurimore, 48, is a superintendent for Wrecking Corporation of America. The Alexandria company has stripped bare, cut up and prepared the old center for a series of explosions tomorrow that, if everything goes according to plan, will collapse it into a flat pile of rubble.

And then he will clean up the mess -- about 10,000 tons of structural steel and 50,000 cubic yards of concrete.

"Once it hits the ground, that's really the start of the job," says Mr. Laurimore, wearing a hard hat and a flannel shirt.

It will be the first such demolition in the District in 30 years, a 20-second spectacle preceded by 21/2 months of preparation. It will be followed by more than six months of cleanup at the site -- in Northwest between New York Avenue and H Street, and Ninth and 11th streets.

Mr. Laurimore and his boss, Terry Anderson, executive vice president of the company, are responsible for wrecking the building, which spans four square blocks in the middle of a busy commercial district. Demolition Dynamics, a Tennessee company, is subcontracting with Wrecking Corporation of America to set and detonate the explosives.

"This is actually a very unique job. [Wrecking and demolition companies] have not shot a building in Washington since 1974," says 53-year-old Mr. Anderson, using industry jargon for an implosion.

The $6 million to $7 million project will clear the way for a new development that includes housing, office, retail and cultural uses.

But Mr. Laurimore isn't concerned with what's going up. He's busy with the hulking, beige box that must come down.

Mr. Laurimore's crew of about 35 men already have worked on the project for more than two months.

"We cleaned the whole structure out and got rid of all the trash -- anything that would burn. And we took out some cinder-block walls to allow it all to sit down," he says from inside the abandoned center's cavernous halls.