People will gather on campus at 11 a.m. Nov. 22 to watch the implosion of 40-year-old Huey P. Long Hall in the fourth and final residence-hall demolition this year. To commemorate Long Hall, the University is creating the Huey P. Long Hall Endowed Memorial Scholarship that will be awarded to a campus resident. To fund the scholarship, raffle tickets will be sold for $10 each until the morning of the implosion. At 10:30 a.m., a winner will be picked at random.
The winner, if present, will push the button that will set off explosives, demolishing the tallest building in Thibodaux with help from Lloyd D. Nabors Demolition Inc. of Hutchins, Texas, and Dykon Demolition Inc. of Tulsa, Okla.
The winner will also receive a hard hat with the words, “I blew up Long Hall” on it.
People are welcome to watch the demolition on campus, but they must stay outside a 1,000-foot perimeter around the building.
Roads will be open to traffic before and after the demolition. Vehicles parked in parking lots near La Maison du Bayou, Long Hall and residence halls B and C will be towed.
Residents of these apartments and halls are advised to evacuate before and during the event, Craig Jaccuzzo, director of University Police, said.
The event will include a jazz funeral band, which will play during the implosion, and food and drinks inside the stadium.
“It’s a fun occasion,” Mike Davis, assistant vice president for administration, said. “It’s saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new into the future of the University while raising money for a good cause.”
Long Hall served as a men’s residence hall since its construction in 1967.
The University decided to implode the eight-story facility rather than renovate it.
The building’s extensive problems made a restoration expensive and nearly impossible.
Structural issues include outdated showers and bathrooms, deteriorated mechanical systems and frequent water leaks, Mike Davis said.
“Long Hall has a very bad reputation of being not a great place to live,” Davis said. “There is nothing you can do to renovate that building to make it livable as a residence hall.”
The high occupancy rates on campus have almost filled Calecas and Babington residence halls, which were only supposed to house overflow residents. With a need for new housing, the University is looking to replace Long Hall with a new residence hall within the next few years, Davis said.
“The demand will be there for new housing,” Davis said. “It’s a symbol of the growth spurt the University is undergoing at this time.
