A reader sends a couple photos of “what will soon no longer be a nice understated commercial building” at 315 W. Alabama, just south of the Westmoreland Historic District west of Midtown:
I watched the remodel work inside going on for a while and was a little shocked to see the brick facade receiving prep work to be refaced in stucco. You can see the nice bit of decorative garland in the process of being knocked off by the end of today.
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What a waste to destroy a simple building with a new cladding system that will fail in the next 5 years. Any idea what the plans are for this?
Photos: Swamplot inbox
It would be nice to know who’s doing this also.
It’s not like it’s hard to restore existing brickwork. It isn’t expensive.
Does anybody know if the structure actually had the brick exposed in use prior to it having the current painted exterior. There is a relatively quick technique to remove paint from brick exteriors safely and it used for historic buildings all the time.
I work very near this building. It’s roof was knocked in during Ike by the a/c units. The tenants moved out soon after. The interior has been gutted. The weird plywood layer wrapped around the top of the building (now covered in black material) covers a 3-4′ diameter original medallion over the entrance that is no longer visible. It was right where your close up shot was taken. The roof line followed the medallion, sort of Alamo/mission like. Now it is a boring box. It is curious that they are ruining what was a true vintage facade and turning it into a phoney baloney stucco something. KJB – The bricks have been painted for many years. By the way, there is a newly formed/forming Historical Society by the property owners in this area. I wonder if they have gotten involved in this?
If you google earth the address (77006) and select the street view, you can see the ‘before’ look of the building. I forgot about the rest of the detail. That plywood went up months ago.
That’s where my question came from about the painted bricks. I could see the existing building (prior to Ike). Google gives a good view of the front of the building.