In March, I posted a piece on the demolition of a 1982 building designed by noted Denver architect William Muchow. The now empty lot, at 990 Bannock Street, will serve as a staging area for another building being constructed at West 10thAvenue and Acoma Street.
For several weeks, it became a ritual of swinging by there to take photos of the process, first the chain link fence going up, the demolition company hanging up its sign, then bit by bit the building being gnawed away. The building fought; it was pretty sturdy. But eventually, it was all down.
Apparently the demo crew decided to just, well, hurry things up and knock down the remaining building section. It does speed up the process by not taking it down bit by bit. This quickie demo was on a Saturday morning, and as one would assume, people were just out and about in the Golden Triangle. No one was hurt, but there was dust flying everywhere and who knows what was in there.
The city was not happy to hear about this, eventually being notified after the fact. Officials have suspended the license of the demo company (Alpine), and the license of one of its employees. They have appealed the suspension – that’s a lot of money to lose for a busy demolition company.
I learned this yesterday evening when I sat down to watch Next on 9News. Considering how many buildings are continually being demolished in Denver and the metro area, it’s time to think about this. It’s not just how much has been lost, but how cavalier the process can become.
Here’s a link to the 9News video and story. The photo at the top of this post was taken in early March 2019; the photo at the bottom is part of the 9News story.
Chandler in Denver 