Candlestick Park Demolition: Stunning Photos of the Stadium's Final Moments

Photos via Patricia Chang
From the outside, Candlestick Park still stands proud, looking ready to host another epic 49ers battle. But inside, the demolition of the 55-year-old park has begun, with seats torn out and strewn across the old playing field and jackhammers getting ready to move in. There will be no implosion or wrecking balls for Candlestick. Lennar Urban, the developer that now owns the site, initially planned to blow the stadium up but scrapped that idea after concerns over dangerous dust clouds and asbestos. To reduce dust, crews will dismantle the stadium piece by piece over the next three months with machinery that will spray down the pieces with water as it goes along.

In the next few days, eight to ten big pieces of heavy crushing equipment will move into Candlestick to start the real work of pulling down the concrete stadium. The work will be precise demolition, according to site manager Jermaine Smith, which is why there will be no wrecking balls crashing into the stadium's walls.

Once Candlestick has come down, work will begin on the site's new life. A 500,000-square-foot outdoor mall spearheaded by Lennar Urban and development partner Macerich will rise on the site and will be part of the $1 billion of new investment and infrastructure scheduled for Candlestick over the next four years. The community will be called Candlestick Point and will include thousands of new homes, hundreds of acres of new parks, new office space, and a hotel.

· Candlestick Is Being Demolished Right This Very Second [Curbed SF]
· Urban Outlet Will Anchor New Development at Candlestick Point [Curbed SF]
· Mega Development and Housing Approved for Candlestick Site [Curbed SF]
· Previous Coverage of Candlestick [Curbed SF]

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490 Jamestown Ave., San Francisco, CA 94124