PHOTOS: Demolition begins at the site of the Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

A welder removes a piece of one of the cranes in preparation of the demolition of the main Hard Rock Hotel collapse site in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, May 26, 2020. The crane was impaled into N. Rampart Street after the two cranes were dynamited last year. The cranes were leaning and would have liked fallen on their own if not dynamited / imploded. Workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. Photo by Matthew Hinton

PHOTOS: Demolition begins at the site of the Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

by Matthew Hinton | May 27, 2020

Crews began the daunting task for demolishing the remnants of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse on May 15. The collapse happened in Oct. 2019, killing three workers. The bodies of two of them, Quinnyon Wimberly and Jose Ponce Arreola, are still trapped inside the collapse site.

Construction workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. The site is supposed to begin the final demolition process this week. Photo taken in New Orleans, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Photo by Matthew Hinton

The building at 1022 Iberville was a former U.S. Post Office and crews are beginning demolition of the building in preparation for the demolition of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site in New Orleans, Friday, May 15, 2020. Workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. Photo by Matthew Hinton

One of the cranes from the Hard Rock Hotel site has impaled N. Rampart Street after the cranes were imploded last year. The cranes were leaning and would have liked fallen on their own. Construction workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. The site is supposed to begin the final demolition process this week. Photo taken in New Orleans, Monday, May 11, 2020. Photo by Matthew Hinton

One of the cranes from the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site has come to rest on the building after in was dynamited last year. The cranes were leaning and would have liked fallen on their own and possible damaged building nearby like the Saenger Theatre. Construction workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. The site is supposed to begin the final demolition soon. Photo taken in New Orleans, La. Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Photo by Matthew Hinton

The building at 1027 Canal, adjacent to the Hard Rock Hotel, is the former Alamo Theater that opened in 1908. Next to it is the former No Name Theater at 1019-25 Canal that was later the Choctaw Club and later the W.T. Grant Co. building that opened in the early 1900s. In the proposed demolition of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site these two historic buildings are also slated for demolition. Workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. The site is supposed to begin the final demolition process this week. Photo taken in New Orleans, Monday, May 11, 2020. Photo by Matthew Hinton

The building at 1022 Iberville is a former U.S. Post Office. In the proposed demolition of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site this building is also slated for demolition. Workers Anthony Bubba Magrette, Jose Ponce Arreola, and Quinnyon Q Wimberly, lost their lives in the partial collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel construction site on October 12, 2019. The bodies of Arreola and Wimberly have yet to be recovered from the collapse site. The site is supposed to begin the final demolition process this week. Photo taken in New Orleans, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Photo by Matthew Hinton

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Matthew Hinton

Matthew Hinton is a New Orleans area freelance photographer whose work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best of Photojournalism Awards in 2014 and 2016, and by numerous awards from the Press Club of New Orleans, including the Hal Ledet President's Print Photography Award, the highest honor the Press Club can bestow upon a photographer.
Matthew Hinton has previously been a staff photographer at both of the daily newspapers in New Orleans. His work has appeared nationally and internationally through freelance work with the Associated Press and AFP, Agence France-Presse.

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