Breezy!

You know, it's with a certain amount of sadness that I bid goodbye to summer. True, it got off to a lousy start. June was depressing and most of July was a complete write-off. For once, August was the star of the summer show. That doesn't happen very often. But now, it seems that it's just about time to bid farewell to my shorts. Don't worry, I'll be wearing pants. That's still a few days away, though. Although the semi-sweltering weather is over, I hope we can look forward to more blustery days like today. If I recall correctly, last November was storm-city. It was as close as this lousy town gets to real weather. I hope that's the case this year, too. I much prefer heavier weather to gray and drizzle.

Anyhow, I was strolling by the McGuire today and notice that some of their netting had come loose and was flapping in the breeze. This was the scene:

OK, I'm not the most observant person in the world, but I swear to God that the place has gotten shorter by about two stories. Well, so much for my picture-a-day of the McGuire shrinking down to nothingness.

The Latest Photos from the Front...

...in the war on the McGuire:


It looks like the metal monsters are finally beginning to win.

Now That's Some Destruction!

Well, the demolition of the McGuire's parking garage has been progressing at a snail's pace, but it seems to have picked up quite a bit over the last few days. Here's what it looked like yesterday:

Pardon the lousy trees getting in the way and all. But as you can see, it's almost all gone. The main tower will take weeks, even months to bring down. As one reader noted in a previous post, the poor folks living close by are in for many, many months of noise from this project and the subsequent reconstruction of the building. With the housing/apartment market as it is, I'm not sure whether they're planning to build something else there immediately or not. I mean, look at the lot where the former Speakeasy stood. Granted, it's a smaller parcel of land, but it's been vacant for 10 years now. So the McGuire's lot may just lay fallow for a couple of years while its owners rehearse the proper way to build a building. This time no screwups, guys. Thanks.

Lies!

Last week this cop told me that they were gonna take down the McGuire's garage in a day. Well, here it is many days later and there's still a garage. Observe:

It's like one-third gone. OK, so it's gonna take some time. But that doesn't excuse the cop from lying to me. At this rate, the garage won't be done for another two weeks. OK, so even though the cop lied to me, it should be pretty cool to witness the big tower come down. That's gonna take some time.

See You in Hell, McGuire's Garage!

Well, for those of you who have an emotional attachment to the McGuire's parking garage, I have some sad news for you: it's apparently going to be demolished tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. That was quick and decisive! One of the cops on the scene told me they were going to take the place down floor-by-floor. Of course, the main tower will take a lot more effort. Lord knows how long that'll take, but according to this cop, the garage will only take a day. Decisive! Here are some other photos of this future vacant lot:



Pay your respects while you can!

It Begins

Well, if you were wondering what the heck was going on at the McGuire, here's the scoop: it's being gutted to prepare for demolition. How exciting! As I've discussed here in the past, I'm almost positive that there won't be an implosion, but instead just a slow dismantling that will eventually bring the building down. Me, I'm planning on documenting it day-by-day once it gets started in earnest. For the moment, they only appear to be working on the area under the parking garage. Here are a few pictures that only partially tell the tale:


Anyhow, it's beginning, but it hasn't become interesting yet.

In Case You Haven't Noticed

The McGuire is still there, but with a difference:


That's a demolition notice. Within a year or so, it'll be gutted and transformed into a lovely vacant lot. In the meantime, I have a suggestion. If it's still standing around Halloween time, they should make it into a haunted house. It could be fantastically scary! One can also hope.

In Case You Were Wondering...

The McGuire is still there. But this time next year, it'll probably be gone. Speaking of still-there-but-going-away, there are still quite a few Zeb tags around, but I find them rapidly disappearing.

Someday, all traces of this douchebag will be gone. That's a day we can all look forward to.

McGuire DEATHWATCH - 2

Doesn't this poor building look dejected? Well, if a bunch of puny humans were gonna tear me down, I'd be pretty upset. But since those same puny humans didn't build me legs so that I could run away, I guess I'd be resigned to my fate. Hence the look of dejection. By the time I get back from my "vacation," the McGuire will be emptier and even more forlorn-looking. Heck, they may even take down that stupid scaffold during my absence. Come to think of it, though, that may be the only thing holding the building up. I mean, they said it would eventually experience structural failure. What if instead of "eventually," they really meant "immediately?" Yeah, I'd want to have as much support as possible, even if the scaffold provides no real stability. Well, either way, I bid the McGuire a fond farewell. I hope it's still standing when I get back, because I'm eager to document its incremental demise. DEATHWATCH will continue in June.

McGuire DEATHWATCH - 1

The scaffold is still there, but it is none of our concern. We're solely interested in the demise of this unfortunate building. The dwarf army which formerly toiled on its slopes has been discharged. They are heading to their homeland to graze their flocks and serenade their womenfolk. The tenant evacuation has only just started. It will continue for the next few months. I wonder what it will be like for the last person to leave. I've always had an Omega Man fantasy, so that's why I'm curious. After it's vacated, they'll call in the goblins to strip the structure of its valuables and then the end will come. I'm pretty sure they're not going to implode it, although it would be spectacular. There are too many other buildings standing too near to it. Even though demolition engineers take pride in their focus and accuracy (I've seen all that stuff on Discovery), I'm afraid that the explosion needed to bring this baby down will do terrible damage to the surrounding structures. The only alternative is to take it down piece by piece. I think this presents a great opportunity to document the McGuire as it steadily disappears from existence. Heck, I might even start a separate blog for the occasion. So that's how things stand for now.

The McGuire Makes the Times' Front Page!

More fallout from the unfortunate decision. The story is here. It gives a good rundown of who is suing whom. I'm pretty sure this is just the tip of the lawsuit iceberg.

The McGuire Is Coming Down!

You know, last week on this crappy blog, I did my usual snarky McGuire Scaffold-Watch and I jokingly wrote that they should just tear the place down and start over. Well, how prophetic! That's just what's going to happen. All tenants are being encouraged to move out by summer with monetary incentives, then the entire building will be gutted and demolished sometime next winter. By my reckoning, the 25-story, $31 million McGuire will be the largest and costliest building demolition in Belltown history.

So how did we get to this point? I mean, other new-ish buildings have had scaffolds around them, most notably Seattle Heights at 2600 2nd Ave. and the nearby Belltown Court. The latter was encased for something like three years and for one of those, it was wrapped in plastic. But both of these buildings shed their scaffolds and are now leading productive lives - Belltown Court in particular. It is home to many wonderful restaurants and the Macrina Bakery. What made the powers at the McGuire decide to pack it in? Well, among its many problems, the one that proved fatal is the corrosion of its post-tension cable design. As the cables continue to corrode, the building's structural integrity will fail. At least that's my understanding of it. The official explanation is here. And so the McGuire's nine years of existence will come to an end this winter. It's tough to believe that a building that's practically new (compared to the one I live in) can be so substantially flawed. And the supreme irony here is that the McGuire is co-owned by the Carpenters' Union. I know that carpenters aren't structural engineers or architects, but you'd think they would at least know a good building from a bad one. Well, they've got one of the worst.

You know, I've derided the McGuire a lot in the past, but this is really a terrible situation. Yes, hundreds of people are being forced to move, but the real sad stories are the retailers who have worked to build businesses, particularly the Quint Eby Salon and the Local Vine. I'm sure the Fedex Office Store (formerly Kinko's) will land on its feet. I just hope it stays in the neighborhood. So that's it - everybody loses. I'm sure there will be years of lawsuits that follow in the wake of this debacle. For all tenants of the McGuire, you have my supreme sympathy. And to everyone involved in its structural design and materials procurement, why do you guys still have jobs?

From now on McGuire Scaffold-Watch will become McGuire Deathwatch. I will update as to the method of the demolition when it becomes public. I'm hoping for an implosion. How about you? Me, I'm just hoping that the next building to go up there - whatever its size - will stand more than a paltry nine years. But the housing market being what it is, it might spend years as a vacant lot.

(Cross-posted at the P-I Blog)

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 51

What's the deal? They said we were going to have this class 3 kill-storm, with wind and rain and assorted other stuff. That's why I went out yesterday in the gloomy morning to take these pictures of the McGuire and Security House. But today, it's quite nice; the sun is shining and the winds are calm. Where the hell's the stormy weather, people? I thought I'd be trapped in my apartment by foul weather like I was at the end of last week. That was some pretty blustery stuff. The last I heard, this storm was supposed to be worse than that. Yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to it. So I say bring it on, weather gods. Belltown can take it. None of our facades will fall onto poor, unsuspecting pedestrians this time. Of course, the burbs will be yelling for mercy when/if this storm hits. They always do. Excessive damage is the price they pay living in for verdant landscapes. We don't have such troubles here, with our intentional trees and plentiful concrete. Anyhow, I'm ready for this storm to show. Where is it? Anyhow, as you can see, the McGuire's scaffold still stands, blah, blah, blah.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 50

Still very much there. The dwarf army is still hard at work. And there's still no end in sight. I'm willing to bet real money that when I come back in June, it will be there - to welcome me back. Jeez, in the time the scaffold has been up, they could have torn down the McGuire and rebuilt it minus all the crappy defects. But that would probably be impractical. If it wasn't for the defects, it would have no personality at all. Anyhow, let's hope that today's pending windstorm doesn't blow any unfortunate dwarf from his perch on the McGuire's slopes.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 49

Here's also a new-ish way to look at the McGuire. I almost got hit by a car getting it. People driving on Wall St. are so unsympathetic to the Scaffold Watch. If they knew just how important this was to the community and indeed the entire city, they'd let me take care of business wherever I pleased. But alas, things are not that way. Not only has the Scaffold Watch become something of mockery of itself (and remember, it started off as mockery - wrap your brains around THAT, sweet people), but drivers don't like it when you stand in the middle of the street to take a picture. Life is funny that way - not funny ha-ha, but funny-tragic. So as you can see, the scaffold, she still stands, gleaming and defiant. The dwarf army was hard at work on the building's slopes. They're always working hard. It's part of their culture. That's why they will never finish the job. They love hard work so much that they won't allow it to end. Here is a prediction: after returning from my trip, both scaffolds will still be there. I am certain of this.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 48

Well, lookee there! That tree is taller than the Space Needle. Gosh, that sure deflates my civic pride. However, it's not taller than the McGuire, which as usual was source of bustling activity this week. Every time I've walked by, the dwarf army has been making all kinds of noise. What does this mean? Well, if past performance is any indication, then nothing. They've made noise for the last year and the scaffold is still there. You know, if they focused the efforts of the entire army on just one thing a day, I bet they would have been done months ago. Instead, various dwarfs grind this over here and scrape that over there. The pace of work slows to a crawl. Of course, I don't understand the nature of the work at all, but I don't need to. I'm a blogger, and as such, my job is to criticize without understanding. Hooray for blogging!

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 47

When I walked by yesterday, there was activity aplenty. The dwarf army was swarming all over the building, making all kinds of noise with their small grinders and hammers and whatnot. All of this means nothing. This scaffold has been up for over a year (I started documenting it about two months after they built it) and most weeks, the dwarfs are all over it and such, but it will remain. Forever. The dwarf army needs something to do and the building is seriously flawed. It works out perfectly. Long after human beings have vanished from the face of the Earth, that scaffold will still be there.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 46

Also no Space Needle with this photo. I wanted to get away from my two main angles, so I took this shot from 3rd Avenue. The Space Needle was directly in back of me, if you must know. Yes, there was a lot of activity here, too. But it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. There were also poor players strutting and fretting their hour upon the stage. It really doesn't matter. The dwarf army can deafen the entire neighborhood with their toiling-noise, but the scaffold will remain. It will be there for next year's snows and the year after that's burning hail. It's never going away, because it's the only thing holding the McGuire together.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 45

Lookee there! The light pole is taller than the Space Needle! Why isn't that the symbol of our precious city?? By the way, the McGuire's scaffold is still there. The dwarf army continues its loud working ways. They weren't as loud as the metal slicing brigade at the Security House, but you could still hear them blocks away. I compliment them on their efforts to make the McGuire less ugly and defective, but once the scaffold comes off - if it ever does - the building will merely be less defective. I don't remember too well what it looked like without that sheath of metal tubing around it, but I seem to recall that it was quite non-beautiful. All the dwarf-work will probably not change it in any significant way.

McGuire Scaffold-Watch! Week: ???? + 44

The Space Needle is really tough to feature in conjunction with the McGuire. It's a matter of getting above and to the side of it. In future weeks, I might find a way to do it, but for now, just imagine the Needle being out of the picture, three or so inches to the right. OK, so big surprise, the scaffold is still there. When I dropped by to take this picture, there was a lot of activity. The dwarf army was working hard. Or if not that, at least they were making a lot of noise. There was even a dwarf foreman going up in one of those elevator-things, if you look closely. None of this really means anything, because they've been making noise and going up in that elevator-thing for almost a year now and the job continues. It would be kind of nice to know what they were trying to achieve. But then again, it would take the element of mystery out of the work and who wants that? Not me, that's for sure.