Former EDS campus in Plano imploded to make way for new $1.3 billion AT&T headquarters
On Sunday morning, many people wondered what the loud boom they heard in Plano was.
Crews imploded the former Electronic Data Systems, or EDS, campus to make room for the new 54-acre, $1.3 billion AT&T global headquarters near Plano's Legacy West shopping and dining district.
AT&T's president announced earlier this year that the headquarters would move from downtown Dallas to Plano, where 10,000 employees will work.
"I didn't think I was going to get emotional," said Shelley Davis, a former EDS employee. "I got teared up because it's just a lot to see it all come down."
She worked for the company for 23 years and appeared in a video from the 1990s, when computers were big, and the camaraderie was even bigger.
"We worked hard. We worked a lot of late hours, so I spent a lot of time in that building," Davis said. "We did a lot of good for the world about bringing technology."
A pile of rubble is all that's left of the building that housed memories for so many people.
"It's very sad. This was home. This was a family," said Lisa Halfmann, a former EDS employee. "It's hard to explain because the culture was so different than any other company. We really were there for each other."
Also watching the demolition was Judy Schilling, who worked for EDS from 1984 to 2009.
"It's more to pay our respect to what those floors and doors and everything meant to us, she said. "I was an event planner, so I toured the meeting space before it opened in 93."
She met Ross Perot in the building during the 25th anniversary of the Iran rescue. The late billionaire opened the EDS campus in the early 90s.
It anchored the creation of the Legacy Business Park and is credited with sparking Plano's rise as a Fortune 500 destination.
Dorothy Johnson and Christina Wenzel watched the historic building along Parkwood Boulevard turn into a cloud of smoke.
"We just work down the street. We drive by every day," Johnson said. "We've been watching them kind of tear away at the building, and I just happened to get on Facebook yesterday, and it was like one of the first articles that popped up that it was today. I called her {Wenzel] and I'm like, 'Oh my god, we've got to go!'"
"It's on my bucket list," said Wenzel. "That's an extra check mark on it. I'm so glad you [Davis] found the article. I'm so glad you called me. My alarm went off this morning, so I came out, and we're just, we're really excited."
Six-year-old Catalina Ortiz brought her baby doll, "Pumpkin," to watch the implosion.
"He wanted to come out," she said. "It goes all the way in the sky, and it comes back down!"
The building and the recollections behind it are no more than mangled metal now, but the feeling behind it remains.
"I'm going to take a little of the building back home with me because it's all over my face," said Davis.
AT&T's new headquarters are expected to open in the second half of 2028.
