Perspectives on Dismantling

218 S. Prieur, a pefectly good house, met its fate today.

Here's what it used to look like, not long ago:

Salvage was underway as a lead up to demolition.

Here's another view of the workers dismantling the house from a different angle a bit earlier in the day:

Photo credit: Sandra Stokes

Top Lop and Move

Crews began destroying the top part of this fantastic home at 321 S. Galvez in the VA Footprint today - and they didn't seem to be doing much salvage on a house that has a good deal of architectural detailing that should fall within the Salvage Agreement (tons of quoins, for example, that were, like the window shown below, seemingly being tossed into the junk heap).

It was disheartening to see such a classic example of functional New Orleans design - occupied until recently - being mutilated.

Nevertheless, I am glad that Builders of Hope is working to move the bottom half of the house and rehabilitate it into a home.  It will not be the same, but it will certainly be a home with a story - one that is bittersweet, messy, and imperfect, but hopeful.  It will scream out "New Orleans" in its architectural makeup, down to its joists, but in a different way than the house that began to disappear today.

Here's what it looked like just the other day:

And so it goes.

Pecans

Several workers in the VA Footprint rounded out their day today by collecting nuts from one of the many mature trees across the site that will be chopped down to make way for the hospital.

A Small Step Inside Dixie Brewery

A few weeks ago, I was invited to witness laborers working under the owners of Dixie Brewery (who still own the building, from what I know) as they removed some of the elements of the tasting room, including giant beer keg structures, to prevent theft.

The front door of the brewery was destroyed at least a month ago, although the large, distinctive, metal gates are still in place.  I didn't go any farther into the building than the threshold, where Mike explained the measures.

Some VA designs show the tower of the hulking 1907 brewery building incorporated into a research facility, but ensuring that the building - which suffered significant damage during and after Katrina - is preserved in some fashion will require continued vigilance.