This is one of the tallest buildings in the world—roof height right now is 1,396 feet.
This is not like demolishing your backyard shed—They'd start from the top, like skinning a fish in reverse. They first seal it off.
The crews—tough bastards who work at dizzying heights—they build a cocoon around the top floors—Special scaffolding, akin to a metal cage—Protection from the elements as well since the wind is mean at that elevation. Inside they strip it bare.
Everything goes: walls, floors, pipes, wires. It is meticulous work—No explosives here. Too many damn buildings around.
Right up there in the sky—they operate these tiny excavators—not much more in size than your kitchen table.
With diamond wire saws, cut the concrete—Use torches to cut across steel. Hot work in cold air.
The real challenge is debris—Not something you could just toss down—Thus they build internal chutes, like the guts of the building, to move material down floor by floor.
Alternatively—they can employ those external hoists, specifically designed to handle weight. If the service elevator is still in use, some bits are cut small enough to fit in it.—Working floor by floor, the crews descend—Every level disappears, then the structural components vanish. The steel is cut into reasonable bits right there; the concrete gets crushed—Slow hard work—Might last two years or perhaps more. Expensive as hell; The buildings are too damn tall though—it will take as long as it takes.
The structure eventually shrinks, though, like seeing a time-lapse film backwards—Eventually They will expose the foundation, deep in Manhattan schist, when they reach ground level—That's bedrock, hard as hell.
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