Of late, we've told you about a couple of projects near 11th & Chestnut. Most recently, we told you about plans to renovate a building just south of Chestnut which has been home to Baum's for many decades. And it's impossible to miss the ongoing construction work on the western side of the block, which will eventually mean the addition of 115 apartments and a bunch of new retail space (holding a Bed Bath and Beyond maybe?). 1106 Chestnut St. sits in between those two projects and the sight of it makes us sad. We're not so much sad because of what it looks like, but it's more that it looked amazing not so long ago.
It's hard to tell exactly what was going on from the grany Google Street View photo, but it looks like the previous facade was granite and it featured a collection of Deco details. Now the brick underneath is exposed, and all evidence of the old facade is gone but for the firring strips that likely held it up in the first place. So what happened?
We reached out to L&I and apparently the old facade collapsed back in April. They issued a "Make Safe" permit five days later, but a collection of violations are still open on the property. According to L&I, they'll soon move forward in equity court to compel the property owners to make the necessary repairs.
Unfortunately, we don't imagine those repairs will involve restoring the facade to its previous state. Hopefully we're wrong, but the optimism isn't flowing for this one.