Monday, August 10, 2009

Tear Down

I passed here just in time to capture the last standing wall as it was being torn down. This pile of rubble is the old Bekins Storage Building that faced Central Avenue for many, many years. You can't tell from these pictures, but the building was at least 6 stories tall.
They were using two big hoses spraying water in an effort to keep the dust down. It wasn’t working very well. You could see the dust cloud a half mile down the road.
It will be interesting to see what happens to this space after the rubble is cleared away.

8 comments:

Mo said...

Yes keep us posted on the new development.

Julie ScottsdaleDailyPhoto.com said...

quite a capture. I can hear the demolition through your photos

Judy said...

Another landmark bites the dust. Lucky that you went by there when you did,

Laurie Allee said...

WOW! There's something scary, yet satisfying about demolition. What a capture!

Anonymous said...

I wonder where all the rubble went? I am guessing some landfill. I wonder what ever happened to recycling bricks and cement blocks and cornices and things like elegant woodwork.

When I was growing up there was a company that did this. They recycled everything inside a building and eventually sold it. They even took the nails out of wood.

Our fine old school which was quite large was demolished and it was torn down and hauled to the dump and each room contained all the furniture the students had been using. Amazing waste.

Debbie Courson Smith said...

Keep us posted on what becomes of the soon-to-be-vacant spot.

Yuri Artibise said...

This SUCKS! While not strictly a classic, I always thought that the storage building would make some cool lofts… but instead of $5 for a padlock to solve the problem at hand, they probably spent $50K to demo it. And the art store was a great local resource. If a strip mall or low destiny offices go up there, put me on suicide watch! Meanwhile I bet it’s another 5 years before anything is built there, and in the meantime, central Phoenix is left with another dusty lot.

Scott said...

That dust cloud is actually a misting system that is starting to be used as an extra precaution to prevent dust. It works really well but is mistaken for dust.