Last month, we told you that the old Shirt Corner buildings at 3rd & Market would be demolished. This represented a significant change of course from the original plan for this site, which was to retain and restore the original historic buildings. But structural defects, previously hidden behind drywall, made the demolition of these buildings a sad necessity.
You may have heard a couple of weeks ago that part of the corner building collpased into the street during demolition efforts. When we heard about that, we suspected demolition efforts were still progressing at the site. But when we passed by yesterday, we discovered that the demolition efforts are finished.
It's not like we didn't know it was coming, it's not like we've never seen a vacant lot before. But seeing this parcel, which previously had so much character, sit empty, left us feeling cold about the whole thing. Sure, in the next year a new building will rise here and a new CVS will provide neighbors more convenient access to shampoo, prescriptions, and overpriced ice cream. The building, developed by Alterra Property Group, will probably look something like this:
The rendering above incorporated the old buildings into the project. Will a revised project, constructed from the ground up, be able to capture the same feel as the old buildings we've lost? Unfortunately, we will never know.