Suspended in a haze of smoke

Fires burning off in the east cast a sickly shadow over the site of the proposed UMC today. Charity Hospital, still vacant, was barely visible off in the distance through the smoke.  As a friend agreed this morning, the acrid lungfuls are appropo for New Orleans - there's always a tinge of the apocalypse in the air.

The churned remnants of S. Johnson Street sat in the heat.

Dust from equipment on the site added to the thick air.

At the old Grand Palace Hotel, workers had the wooden cover off the entry to the former parking structure.

The sooty air lingered in the French Quarter.

It hung like a pall over the tombs of St. Louis #2 Cemetery, visible below the elevated expressway that may yet disappear.  The roofs of the Iberville Projects are visible as well - many of the buildings will soon be demolished under a redevelopment proposal put forward by HANO and Pres Kabacoff's HRI, likely under a federally funded "Choice Neighborhoods Grant."

In the Shadow of the Grand Palace

Yesterday's announcement that the State of Louisiana will be pursuing demolition of the former Grand Palace Hotel (known by various other names through time) in the 1700 block of Canal Street coincided with a growing concern by members of at least one group that works with New Orleans' famed historic cemeteries.

It's my understanding that one local group will be soon be sending a letter to various developing parties expressing concerns about potential vibration-based damage to the historic tombs in St. Louis #2 Cemetery, which is just over a block away from the looming Grand Palace Hotel structure (see image above).  The cemetery opened in the early 1800s.

The tombs in plat 3, the part of the cemetery closest to the demolition, are typically taller "apartment" tombs - with multiple stacked tombs in one edifice.  Some are in poor, fragile condition.  That particular part of the cemetery also contains more African American tombs than other parts, from what I've been told.

Vibrations from pile driving in the proposed UMC Footprint are also a concern.

NOTE: Despite this Fox8 report noting that a demolition contract will be signed this week for the Grand Palace Hotel, I've been informed that the contract has not yet been signed because bids have not even been submitted.  I've also been told that the state's contractors are planning some additional monitoring for the cemeteries.

Fishy [Updated]

A pre-bid conference will be held today at the Jacobs trailer on Palmyra Street in the LSU Footprint, per this notice in yesterday's Times-Picayune.

Interestingly, it calls for bids for the demolition of the "Pallas Hotel" - no, that's not a Greek hotel somewhere out there. It's a reference to what was most recently the Grand Palace Hotel, the giant building at S. Claiborne and Canal which, instead of being repurposed, is being torn down.

I'll let you decide why the address was not listed...****UPDATED: See note below.

And hopefully someone else can determine whether the notice was adequate.

And the sheer amount of tons that will have to be torn down and carted away...makes me wonder all the more about how contracts for all the debris played into the selection of the hospital sites.

I'll also note that at a recent meeting with New Orleans members of Save Our Cemeteries, there are still some very serious concerns about the potential vibration impacts on the fragile, historic St. Louis #2 Cemetery, which starts just over one block away from the Grand Palace Hotel.

ADDED: The building was called the "Pallas Suited Hotel" back in the 1980s.