Dallas' ‘Leaning Tower' Could Take ‘Several Days, or Weeks' to Come Down

We are officially in the final days for the "Leaning Tower of Dallas." However, there may be more final days than initially anticipated.

A demolition team will work throughout the week to bring the remainder of the building down until it is short enough to bring in a "high-reach excavator," according to De La Vega Development.

The developers added that demolition could even take weeks -- after the first estimate was two to three days. The demolition was further delayed Wednesday due to high winds.

After the building failed to fully implode, a crane and wrecking ball were brought in Monday to knock down the remainder of the former Affiliated Computer Services building in the 2800 block of North Haskell Avenue.

The wrecking ball began to chip away at the building at about 10 a.m., but many watching were nonplussed by both the size of the ball and the lack of damage done; each blow seemed to dislodge only dust instead of bricks, proving that knocking a building down with a small 5,600-pound ball can be a tedious process.

Satterwhite added that the size of the wrecking ball was dictated by a number of factors outlined in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's code for mechanical demolition, specifically with regard to the size of the crane, the boom and strength of the line holding the wrecking ball.

'Leaning Tower' a Social Media Sensation

Hundreds of people gathered over the weekend at a makeshift park to snap selfies and poses with the unlikely landmark in its final hours before demolition.

"When I said I was going to be doing this I didn’t think I'd be doing it for hours," said Dallas resident Sammy Samuelson.

"Start to finish, watched them get after it with a jackhammer -- didn’t work. Now they got this tiny ball out here. C'mon, get a bigger ball," said Brooks Ruhman who lives nearby.

The building was supposed to have been imploded completely Feb. 16 to make way for a The Central, a new 27-acre mixed-use project by De La Vega Development.

James Ford said the photos made his day.

“This came along and it gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a shot,” Ford said.

There were dogs, babies, couples, kids and Rick Herrick, who just celebrated his 77th birthday and said the tower is fun for all ages.

“It’s just not often you see a leaning tower in Dallas," he said. "We have our own leaning tower here. This is a once-in-a-lifetime sight."

Gary Boersma visited Dallas — and the tilting tower — with his wife and friends.

They’re in town from Las Vegas, and it was their first stop.

“It’s pretty impressive. Being from Vegas, we get a lot of implosions there, but we’ve never seen one come halfway down,” he said.

The president and CEO of De La Vega Development, which is building The Central, encouraged people to send photos, paintings, sketches and more to The Central's Instagram account. Some will be selected to appear in a future gallery space at the development.

The full statement from Artemio De La Vega is below.

"We are delighted to see Dallasites capturing the Leaning Tower of Dallas, the future site of The Central, through a diverse range of mediums and we want to celebrate these artistic expressions. Share your artwork of “The Leaning Tower of Dallas” — be it paintings, sketches, photography, or even a LEGO sculpture — by tagging The Central's Instagram, @DiscoverTheCentral, and the official hashtag, #LeaningTowerofDallas, for a chance to see your work in one of The Central's future gallery spaces."

NBC 5's Meredith Yeomans, Yona Gavino, Chris Blake, Brian Roth, Eline de Bruijn, Claire Cardona and Frank Heinz contributed to this report.