The seven-story brick Savoy Apartments Hotel was notable as the first public building in Houston to have electricity. Built in 1906, the hotel became the tallest building in Houston.

The Savoy prospered at its 1616 Main Street downtown location for quite some time and a 17-story addition was built in 1966. However, the entire hotel finally went out of business in the late 1980s. Dwarfed by scores of taller, newer structures, the original seven-story building began to decay badly after many years of non-occupancy and neglect.

After closely monitoring the building’s condition, the City of Houston finally declared the building structurally unsound. City officials decreed that the building had to come down because it had become a safety hazard to pedestrians and to the city’s light rail line that Metro operates directly in front of it.

The building’s roof had caved in and the structure had begun to pull apart vertically due to a crack from the top to bottom of one wall. In the weeks before the demolition, pedestrians had reported bricks were falling from the decaying structure.

Cherry Demolition secured the contract to demolish the historic structure on Oct. 1, and immediately began its preparations for tackling the tricky project.

Cherry doesn’t often get to demolish structures as old as the Savoy, particularly ones that are built almost entirely of brick. The 103-year-old brick structure had no concrete or steel columns but instead was held together by bricks.

“It’s rare that we come across a building constructed like this in the Houston market,” said Mike Dokell, Division Manager for Cherry’s Commercial, Residential and Interior Division. “The building was not a good candidate for implosion for several reasons, and it needed to be taken down by an excavator.”

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The recycling roots of Houston’s Cherry Cos. began in 1952, when members of the Cherry family established a business to move homes intact from one location to another, addressing the re-use aspect of recycling from the start.

Over the course of the next six decades, the company started by Carl and Barbara Cherry and passed on to the next generation, has expanded into a number of recycling-related business sectors.

In 2009, Leonard Cherry, Carl and Barbara’s son, helps guide a family of companies that demolishes buildings, recycles a large percentage of the materials gener- ated and crushes large volumes of concrete and asphalt for customers throughout the South.

Rocketing Forward

The city of Houston has enjoyed the benefits of being a business hub for the energy and aerospace sectors, two industries that have boomed (although occasionally hitting a bust cycle) in the past several decades.

As the energy, petro-chemical and aerospace sectors brought new construction and development to Houston, the booming construction scene also entailed some demolition work. For the Cherry family, residential demolition was a logical next step for their company, followed by an increasing amount of commercial demolition work.

Carl and Barbara Cherry retired in 1985, and since then their four sons have taken different paths within the family’s business operations. Keith now owns and operates the house moving company and John runs a spin-off company focusing on asbestos abatement.

Leonard is the president of Cherry Cos. while Rick is a vice president with the company in charge of the industrial demolition division and safety programs. Cherry Cos. has grown to include several corporate divisions involved in a wide variety (though related) of sectors.

As of August 2009, the combined Cherry Cos. employs more than 200 people and by one industry estimate is one of the 10 largest demolition companies in the United States and one of the 23 largest in the world.

The scope of the company has changed dramatically since 1952, but Leonard says that a number of core philosophies have remained.

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SOURCE: Construction & Demolition Recycling

Houston-based Cherry Companies says it is now recycling tear-off residential composition asphalt shingles and using the ground product as roadbed material in the greater Houston area.

Cherry, a provider of demolition, deconstruction, dismantling and recycling services, says in a news release that it is now accepting “clean” residential composition asphalt shingles for recycling at its facility in Fresno, Texas. Cherry accepts used and manufacturing scrap shingles at no charge, and says it plans to open additional shingle recycling locations in Houston.

“By ‘clean,’ we mean that a load of shingles must not contain any wood, paper or other debris,” says Wesley Guidry, general manager of Cherry’s Portable Recycling Division. “However, we will accept metal flashing for recycling. And, we will supply trash bags and dumpsters for disposal of paper and debris generated from shingle job sites—all at no charge.”

Guidry says that Cherry will use grinders to process the shingles into material for use in roadbeds and as dust suppressant to be applied to crushed concrete roads.

“Shingles are a valuable resource and shouldn’t be tossed into landfills,” says Bill Turley, executive director of the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), Eola, Ill. “Because this type of residential shingle is 100 percent recyclable, transforming it into usable roadbed material is the right thing to do for the environment.”

According to the CMRA, approximately 11 million tons of scrap shingles are generated nationally each year. Of this total, the organization estimates that only 1 to 2 million tons of shingles are being recycled, with the remainder ending up in landfills.

Cherry already recycles more than 1 million tons of concrete and 40,000 tons of steel each year, according to the company.