#demolition

#demolition

Those structures are - or were - earthquake shacks, also known as earthquake cottages or refugee cottages. With the help of the Army, the city built the shacks in the wake of the 1906 earthquake, which left 225,000 San Franciscans without homes. They placed the tiny, one-room cottages in city parks, and residents whose homes had been destroyed paid $2 a month to live in them. At one point, more than 16,000 people lived in the shacks - approximately three for every 250-square-foot dwelling.

A massive 40-year-old art sculpture is being demolished in Battery Park City to make way for the controversial North/West Battery Park City Resiliency (NWBPCR) project. The sculpture, titled Upper Room, by artist Ned Smyth, is a 20-column court featuring an elongated table with inlaid chessboards. The colonnade recalls ancient architecture and offered a public reprieve for New Yorkers. Commissioned in 1986, it was Battery Park City's first public art piece.

The Star Market perched above the Massachusetts Turnpike in Newton abruptly closed Tuesday after health officials said demolition work inside the supermarket may have released asbestos, creating an "imminent health hazard." The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection notified the Newtown Health and Human Services Department of the situation on Tuesday. The health department ordered the store at 33 Austin St. to shut down around 4:30 p.m. the same day.

Avant Gardner LLC, the bankrupt owner of the Brooklyn club complex of the same name, has applied for a permit to demolish the Mirage venue, Brooklyn Paper reports. Having failed to secure reopening permits due to safety and technical issues, Avant Gardner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August and handed its assets to a lender. The demolition permit filing does not name the Mirage but seeks to demolish 32,000 square feet of a three-story temporary structure, which describes the Mirage build within Avant Gardner, Brooklyn Paper reports.

A vacant former youth center in East San Jose has been demolished more than a month after a fire halted plans for its restoration. Excavators knocked down what remained of the Mexican American Community Services Agency ( MACSA) building Saturday, breaking the hearts of community advocates who fought to save it. Trustees with the Alum Rock Union School District, which owns the property, previously approved demolishing the building in an emergency vote after the fire, pending a structural report on the damage.

It looks like Brooklyn Mirage is getting demolished. Avant Gardner, the parent company of the sprawling East Williamsburg music venue, filed a permit application on Friday to raze the multilevel complex. This is perhaps a fitting end to the saga that began earlier this year with a reported $30 million redesign, followed by permitting purgatory, and, eventually, bankruptcy. The application to raze the venue, which was first reported by the Real Deal, is looking to demo 32,000 square feet at an estimated cost of $1.5 million.

Fingal County Council approved the development plans earlier this year, but it was met with staunch opposition from locals

Green Street picked up the Williamsburg properties for $15.5 million late last year from the Franquinha family, against the apparent objections ofCrest's owner, Joseph Franquinha. Over the decades, the hardware store that was first started by Joseph's father and uncle had evolved with the neighborhood, from a place where handymen and artists living in converted lofts could get paint or new pipes to a destination for luxury-condo buyers looking for ZZ plants.

SAN JOSE A student housing complex could sprout on the site of the former Vung Tau restaurant after a developer paid just under $3 million for the East Santa Clara Street property, according to documents filed on Aug. 25 with the Santa Clara County Recorder's Office. Following its purchase of the former restaurant site at 535 East Santa Clara St. for $2.9 million, Tripalink Real Estate, acting through an affiliate, has proposed a 41-unit student housing development.

The last remnants of Demyan's Hofbrau in Stapleton were recently bulldozed for housing, ending a 172-year history that began with John Bechtel's brewery in 1853.