It has been nearly 15 years since Vivian and I bid an emotional farewell to Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. That was the last of the 23 implosions we attended from 1997 to 2004. In the early days of the internet, there was not a lot of information to be found about building demolitions and implosions, so we created Phillyblast to share our adventures and photos.
Regional implosions slowed down after many of the old Philadelphia, Newark, and Baltimore housing projects were gone along with Veterans Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium. Both of our lives got busy with other things, and the site went dormant as we both moved on. I also relocated from the Philadelphia area to the Lehigh Valley.
Now that the upcoming demolition of a Lehigh Valley landmark is underway, we decided the time was right to revive Phillyblast. Martin Tower, the 21-story headquarters of the defunct Bethlehem Steel Corporation, has been a constant presence during our time living here. It is hard to imagine it being gone, but the decision was recently made to demolish it. We do not yet know if it will be an implosion or conventional demolition, but we have decided to cover it nonetheless because of its importance to the area.
This new version of the site is the first step towards a total site makeover that we have been considering doing since last year. I will be primarily handling the technical side of running this new site, while Vivian is doing the photography and videography. Time is of the essence though, so what you see now is an interim effort just to allow us to cover Martin Tower’s demolition. When the proverbial dust settles on that, we will continue to build the full new site. In the meantime, you can stroll down memory lane and visit the original site at http://legacy.phillyblast.com.
Here’s a look at what’s to come in Vivian’s first Martin Tower video: