Implosion!
Methodist Diagnostic Hospital at bottom-left [exterior], courtesy Google Maps. [Note: The image has been updated to include the actual hospital; GMaps unhelpfully pointed to the wrong building.] The parking lot at center top-right is now the site of the enormous Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza tower, the largest construction project underway in Houston, which dwarfs Sid Richardson College to its west…and all the other medical buildings, too. [Yahoo’s map is slightly more recent and less Escheresque.]
This came across the internal rice.general newsgroup: (emphasis mine, spelling errors theirs)
On Sunday morning June 25, at approximately 7:00 am, the old Diagnostic Hospital at 6448 Fannin, which is immediately across Main Street from Rice between entrances 4 and 5 (detention pond area), will be demolished by implosion. Both Main Street and Fannin Street auto and pedestrian traffic will be stopped between University Drive on the south and McGreggor Drive on the north starting Sunday morning about 6:15 and not reopened until the all clear is given about 8:00. Additionally, no persons will be allowed within 500 feet of the demolition site, including the Rice detention pond and track stadium area, during that time period.
The implosion will be a series of quick explosive bursts from within the building followed by the rumbling sound of the building falling. Depending on the wind that morning, a portion of the expected dust cloud will drift over the Southeast portion of the Rice campus. Immediately after the implosion and the all clear is given, contractor crews will begin sweeping streets and parking lots, and using water trucks to wash off affected vegetation. Rice maintenance crews will be available Sunday morning to address any specific issues that may relate to our campus.
[Update 6/25: this did, in fact, happen.]