BATON ROUGE – Demolition began Thursday on Kirby Smith Hall, marking the beginning of the end of the nearly 60-year-old dormitory.

Plans originally called for imploding the 13-story building, but university officials decided to take it down floor by floor instead.

The university decided in October of 2018 to demolish rundown dorms built in the 1960s. The list also included Herget, Miller, McVoy, Acadiana and Broussard.

LSU said more than 20,000 students lived in Kirby Smith since it opened in 1967. Students last lived there in 2021.

The university built new dorms to replace Kirby Smith three years ago. Once demolition is done, the land will be turned into green space.