A building nobody loved imploded Saturday morning. The old Washington Convention Center, situated between New York Avenue, H, Ninth and 11th streets in Northwest, is no more. Well not exactly. Though the majority of the center and most of its New York Avenue facade fell in on itself, the H Street facade remains standing. This DCist took a quick walk-around Saturday night to gawk at the post-destruction and snapped this photo from 11th Street (We aren’t sure if the blast pushed the street lamp off its base or if it was already like that.). Roof trusses are collapsed inward, bricks litter the closed-off sidewalks. The giant loading dock doors on New York Avenue open up to fractured concrete and clear sky. It looks like, almost, a truck-bombed building in Baghdad, just a few blocks from the White House. There is still a lot of demolition to get done. (On an interesting side note, the implosion was used to test first responder communication transmissions as part of a government program to improve search and rescue techniques.)

But if you could tell from the glee on Mayor Anthony Williams’ face when he pressed the detonation device (as this washingtonpost.com video shows), the destruction is marking the start of an exciting period for downtown’s redevelopment. And everyone was in agreement that the old Convention Center had to go. There weren’t any city councilmembers playing the role of Tom Wolfe, trying to declare that the old, outdated and unremarkable building had any sort of architectural significance.

While what exactly is going to be eventually built on the site of the old building is still up in the air, city leaders have promised that it will be of some urban significance. There has been talk of moving the central library there or using it for museum space. Regardless if a destination landmark is situated there, this site will have some sort of mixed-use development and civic space. We hope that what ever takes shape on the site is planned well, as the site has the potential to transform a few important corridors downtown.