Out With The Old

Last March, on St. Patrick’s day, I posted this about the festive green beer drinkers that could be seen standing in line waiting to enter an Irish Pub across street from where I work. If you see that post, there are a few pictures included. Make a mental note of key reference points.

Why? Because that Pub is no longer standing. In fact everything that stood on that corner has now been torn down to make room for a new three story bank building. And I’ve taken some pictures to guide you through the process. It was a good distraction for me while all the other nonsense at work was otherwise making life at the office fairly dreary.

 This first image shows the demolition well under way, and in fact the pub is already gone.  A person in the blue cherry picker would cut beams with a torch, then the backhoe pulled sections down one at time. Everything was then seperated and sorted into bins on the rear part of the lot; aluminum, steel, concrete, and landfill materials. Note the parking garage in the background. The next picture was taken from the edge of the top deck.

It was extremely cold on top of the parking garage, and the creaky old elevator smelled like urine. But we ( 2 co-workers and I) were determined to get some pictures from a different vantage point. All other shots were taken from my office building, the grey/mirrored glass one on the right.

This was taken seconds after dropping a section of the second floor. What you are missing is the sound and vibrations that could be felt everywhere in our office when they dropped large sections like this.

In this one, much of the structure is down and they have started to uncover the basement. This building was a bank, built in the 60’s. The amount of steel and concrete was impressive.  If you look closely at this one, you can see the door on the safe, just next to the backhoe. The safe is actually two stories, with the other half being in the basement.

This one shows almost everything complete, except the safe. Only half of that is removed. It took the better part of a week to remove all of it. They hit it repeatedly with a wrecking ball, barely making any noticeable damage. If you blow this one up you’ll see all the re-bar in it’s walls. Also the doors were so heavy that the backhoe almost tipped over picking one of them up.  

When we returned from the holidays, everything was done. Nothing has happened since. This picture was taken yesterday. We are hoping construction will start soon. But with the enonomy the way it is, we are wondering if perhaps everything is now on hold.  Let’s hope not.

If you’re interested, one of my coworkers found a great link where you can read about the history of these buildings, complete with photos taken inside the abandoned structures, not long before demolition. Check it out here.

And what will become of the St Patrick’s day revellers? No worries, another bar just around the corner has suddenly changed its menu and sprouted an Irish name.