Demo-licious!

This is the scene at 2nd & Stewart. They're tearing down the parking garage, presumably to build condos. Good luck with that, guys. I parked my car here for over 10 years. It was a good operation at the time. It was convenient, the rates were reasonable and I knew all the guys who worked there. Then it got sold around 2006 or so to somebody who wanted to develop the property. All the guys working there got laid off, but the garage stayed open. The new owner contracted services out to United Parking who are owned by Diamond. They were terrible. In four months, my rates went up by $50. That's when I headed out for cheaper pastures. These days I don't have a car, which makes things much less complicated. But then again, it means I have to ride the bus a lot. That is not always pleasing. Anyhow, until the last few years, the garage was a good place to keep a car. Now it's not even a garage anymore.

You Know What Happens Next

This is the scene at 3rd & Cedar. These buildings used to be occupied by the Musicians' Union (may they all rot in hell) and a kung fu studio. But once that fence goes up, it means death for those structures. I believe that some kind of 17-story building is going up. Progress, people. Well, the ex-Musicians' Union (may they continue to rot in hell) building is quite ugly, so no great loss. You know, I'm pretty sure those were portable school classrooms that somebody got for cheap, because they sure were rickety. Anyhow, look for dramatic changes to take place on that corner. I do hope that the kung fu place found a new home. I mean, if they haven't, roving gangs of former fu students might further complicate Belltown life.

Gone!

Well, the boxy little half-block of buildings at 3rd & Battery is no more:


Martin Selig finally destroyed them in order to make room for Belltown's newest parking lot. Although I can see the economic advantage to having parking spaces that earn money as opposed to a bunch of storefronts that don't, I really don't think it had to come to this. But it did and that's that.

...And De-struction!

Well, it happened just like I said it would; Martin Selig's metal monster brigade is taking down that building ensemble at 3rd & Battery. And like a caring lover, they're doing it slowly. Turn on the Barry White, sweet people! Anyhow, here is a shot from last Friday:

They seem to be in no hurry at all. Here's what it looks like today:

Doesn't look like they've made any progress, no? Well, that's actually an optical illusion. Observe:

Yes, they've just scooped out all the guts. But they've done it lovingly and respectfully. And thus the building that used to house Exotique Imports meets its end.

What's next for the site? Well, way back a long time ago, I declared it a dead project. I stand by that. But why, oh why, you ask, did that nice, anonymous building cluster have to come down? It's simple; they wanted to turn the land into a parking lot. Martin Selig apparently owns the whole block, so half of it is going to be an office building with zero retail (the 4th & Battery Building) and the other half will consist of parking lot. Yeah, it doesn't happen very often in Belltown, but it does happen.

Demolition Update

Here's the yang to that yin.

They're slowly destroying the Recovery Cafe. It's a sturdy place, so it's taking a very long time. A while back, something like a week went by and you could barely see any progress. But now things are going a little faster. This is what it looked like two days ago:

Here's how things stand today:

Although everything is proceeding at a measured clip, it would have gone a lot faster if they'd just advertised the building on Craigslist as free to anybody who wanted to haul it away. It would have been gone weeks ago in a matter of hours. People would have been all over it with picks and crowbars knocking out huge blocks of concrete. It would have looked like a wheat field after a swarm of locusts had been through it. But hey, heavy equipment is another way of doing it.

The Destruction Continues!

I bet that when the Recovery Cafe is completely torn down, people will walk by and wonder aloud what it actually looked like WHILE they were tearing it down. That's the sort of thing I do. If you're also like that, here's what:

The reason why it's taking such a long time is that the place is built like a Nazi bunker - there's reinforced concrete everywhere and the first floor ceiling appears to be armor plated. Maybe the new design will be flimsier. Anyhow, that's how things stand (or don't stand) now. More pictures will follow, since they're becoming much easier to take.

Construction/Destruction Report

I'm trying to document the rise of the A.L. Humphrey House at 1st & Cedar. At this point, it's not very easy, since most of it has to do with the foundation. It's not very interesting stuff. But soon, the structure rise out of the former parking lot like... like... like some kind of rising thing. Thus far, work is going quickly and smoothly. Here are some pictures:

Here's the view from 1st Ave. (the Space Needle looks on disapprovingly) and this is a marginally better look from Cedar:

I know, it's difficult to tell exactly what's going on, but stuff is happening.

And of course, whenever I visit this site, I just have to take a picture of the crane. Presently, it's the only crane over Belltown since the one on top of the Escala has been removed. Only one crane? Who would have thought that it would come to this? Not me, that's for sure. Anyhow, here's the fabulous crane:


OK, so it's becoming clear that the Recovery Cafe is really getting demolished. I can hear it from the Rivoli. These are some pictures:

Here's the metal monster that's causing all the havoc.

It pulls down all sorts of stuff while a human waters it down. Once again, the sweet, sweet smell of wet rubble wafts around the block.


As the building slowly comes down, things get easier to photograph. Gosh, how convenient for me! And once everything's down, it's going to get built back up - only with twice as many floors as before! The only thing that concerns me now is whether they're getting a crane. I'm strongly pro-crane, so I hope that a four-story building warrants one. Let's have us another crane over Belltown!

Destruction Update

I have no idea what they're trying to do to the former/future Recovery Cafe at 2nd & Bell. I stopped by last week and asked one of the orange vests on the job whether they were going to bring down the whole building and start over. He said yes. So why all the care? Bring in the dynamite and start blasting already!

I took these pictures last week, but it looks more or less the same. By the way, it's really hard to take pictures of the place due to all the trees and trucks and such, so this pair of pics doesn't portray the scope of the action very well. But it does show some rubble. That's enough to make everybody cheer, isn't it? Observe:

There! On the roof! It's a mini metal monster! Run! OK, so they're taking down the building, yet it's strong enough to support a small metal monster. What gives? Like I said, dynamite is the answer.

This is a larger metal monster working in the back. And there, ladies and gentlemen, is your rubble. (Hold for applause) I'll go down and take some more photos, but they probably won't be any better than these. It's a remarkably unphotogenic worksite.

And De-struction!

The manual phase of the Recovery Cafe's demolition is over. Now the metal monsters have moved in to speed things up. That's too bad. I was really hoping they were going to be taking it all down by hand. Hey, it's possible; there's a lot of cheap labor out there (including myself). Why rent a metal monster when you can hire 20 guys (I wish I was one of them!) to vent their anguish with sledgehammers and crowbars? Well, obviously they've gone in another direction. Here's what gives:

There's a metal monster breaking through walls in the back while a guy keeps the dust down with a hose. So everything smells like wet rubble. Yum! And the whole operation is pretty noisy. In the last hour or so, they've brought in an excavator to take on the 2nd floor. That's always fun to watch. I will keep you posted as they take more chunks off the place.

More Destruction, Please

The demolition work on the Recovery Cafe building continues. It's interesting how they're doing it. Instead of bringing in heavy equipment to push and claw it all down in a hurry, they seem to be doing it all by hand. How 19th century! It hearkens back to a time when gangs of stevedores used to unload ships one sack of grain at a time. It was pretty admirable, as is this venture; going in there with sledgehammers and swinging at every single object is the way I want to live life. Here's what it looks like:


Yeah, it's not as beauteous as yesterday's sunset, but I'm interested in how this neighborhood transforms itself - because it's always in a state of transformation.

Demolition Derby!

Well, it's been a long time coming. The building's been empty for a while and it's been attracting graffiti and whatnot, but something is finally happening. The Recovery Cafe's former two-story headquarters at 2nd & Bell is being demolished in order to build a new, shiny four-story command center. For the time being, the program that provides food service job training has moved down the street to 2nd & Stewart, where FareStart used to be located. As you might recall, FareStart also provides food service job training. All I can tell you about them at their former location is that I once went in there and ordered a sandwich. The place was completely empty and I was starving. I placed my order with the only guy in there and he proceeded to go in the back, make himself a sandwich, eat it and then he made mine. I sat there in complete disbelief. It took more than half an hour. I would have canceled my order, but I was ready to eat my own arm and I firmly believed that my sandwich was forthcoming at any moment. The worst thing about all this was that the sandwich was actually terrible; the bread was stale and this sandwich-eating dingus put alfalfa sprouts on it. Yuck! OK, so that was my first and last time there. FareStart has since moved to 7th & Virginia in the Denny Neutral Zone (DNZ). I really don't feel the need to pay them a visit. As for the Recovery Cafe, I'm hoping that their new operation will be more open to the public and more deli-oriented. Belltown has precious few delis for some reason. Yes, those that are here are stellar (especially the Buffalo Deli), but there are so few of them. If there is a retail operation, I hope that it's superior to that of FareStart from yesteryear.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to keep track of the daily demolition of the building as best I can. Here's what it looked like yesterday evening:

OK, so there's a lot more destruction to come. Stay tuned.