JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The letters on the Wells Fargo building were successfully removed from the downtown Jacksonville skyscraper Sunday morning.
A helicopter glided across the skyline before reaching the top of the building — with gear hanging down, a crew connected each letter to the helicopter.
“The work has to be perfect,” Walton Kinney, owner of Southeastern Lighting Solutions and co-owner of High Angle Services, said. “Otherwise somebody can die, and we don’t want that.”
Within a couple of minutes, the “O” was hooked up and heading back to where the helicopter took off.
“A successful day looks like what you’re seeing right now blue sky, not too much wind not too much impediment from pedestrians or people in the water so we’re having a pretty good day right now,” Kinney said.
The over 1,500-pound letters rested up about 35 stories for 13 years.
Kinney said he was there when they were installed and is now tasked with bringing them down.
“We try and really work as quickly as we can. To get a building like this ready for decomp takes about 2 1/2 to three weeks,” Kinney said.
Once the letters were removed, they were taken to Lot S, which is across the street from Maxwell House. That’s where the letters were dropped off before the crew went back to do it all again.
One by one, 20 letters were pulled from the side of the building. The project left an outline of what used to be a part of the downtown skyline which now looks a bit different.
The letters will be stripped of the lights and cut to fit on the back of a semi.
From there, they will be recycled while the crew cleans up the side of the building.