We knew it was time when the Bobcats and steam shovels and Rent-a-Fence arrived. The dismantling of the Green Wall and the de facto green lawn at Main and Corcoran streets began in earnest today. Workers wearing white haz mat gear are spraying water on the site to keep down the dust (and mold and God knows what other airborne particles dating from the 19th century). This is where the City Center project, the 26-story skyscraper is going. Plus, Austin Lawrence Partners is erecting new, and reportedly, historically appropriate structures in place of the burned-out, roofless buildings. The company had planned to restore the facades, but once engineers got in there and figured out the brick is so weak that it crumbled in their hands, well, that idea went to the scrap heap. ALP told the City it will restore what it can, but that’s unlikely to be much.
Meanwhile, the view from the other side of the old Jack Tar motel shows a building under construction off Alley 26. Arthur Rogers of Eno Ventures is developing a small, two-story office building at 120 W. Morris St.