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The building has been gutted and demolition on the main structure is
about to begin. Here you can see how simple the construction is-- the
"ceiling" is actually the bottom of the concrete roof deck, and the
"walls" are just windows that run from the roof to the floor.
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With the windows removed, all that's left are the roof and some support
columns (not visible here are the elevator shaft and the chimneys for
the twin incinerators). The "Bobcat" on the roof is removing the asphalt
roofing material.
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Here you can see how thin the concrete roof was. To the left you can
see where the windows mounted to the roof.
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Here the roof has been removed up to the main support beams (over the
bridge area), along with the first two rows of columns. The row of
orange barrels to the right marks where the first row of columns was
(just outside the building). Scaffolding supports the roof beams while
the concrete is broken away from between them.
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The roof has been removed from between the main support beams, and
additional scaffolding supports them from the sides. The columns have
been broken through at the top, so the beams are supported entirely by
the scaffolding. This was taken at Hinsdale, where brickwork for the new
building had already started.
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Back at Lake Forest, this is a rare view of the empty terrace and bridge
deck without any construction junk in the way. Again, the orange barrel
on the right marks where the first row of columns was. When the new
building is built, this entire area will be indoors (including all of
the original outdoor terrace area).
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Because the original outdoor terraces will be under the new building,
a small outdoor terrace area was added. This shows the footings in
place.
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At Hinsdale, for some reason the ground was dug away from the basement
walls. My guess is that this was done to correct a drainage problem
in the parking lot. Again, you can see the footings for the new
terrace area to the left.
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