The developing West Edge has been one hell of a spectator show. Just two blocks west of the Plaza, the soon-to-be hotel, retail space, advertising museum, and office building has attracted many pedestrians to marvel at the 80-foot-deep crater. Cranes down at the bottom barely peek out from a hole that will one day hold a 1,000-car parking garage. A parade of 16,500 dump trucks has rumbled up the steep dirt incline to Roanoke Parkway, hauling away 201,000 cubic yards of rock and earth. The hole itself looks like some kind of engineering marvel: Massive wooden slats run across its limestone sides as if holding back the earth from imminent collapse. Workers have just begun to pour concrete for the complex, which was designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie and will house the Bernstein-Rein ad agency. But the best part of this show? The explosion! Back on April 4, rocks and debris accidentally showered onlookers who were watching as crews detonated dynamite embedded in the limestone. One woman had to get stitches after a golf-ball-sized rock knocked her in the head, but no one was seriously injured in a blast that was powerful enough to shake buildings blocks away. Now that's entertainment.
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