with signs and facade removed, 1928 cedar hotel cleared for demolition

only a few short months ago wreckers stripped the facade and courtyard neon signs from the cedar hotel. being at the right place at the right time, we managed to secure the signs and prevent them being scrapped in a nearby dumpster. weeks later, the ornamental white glazed terra cotta facade, replete with polychromatic columns, anthemions, rosettes and roofline grotesques containing bare bulb incandescent light sockets, along with the patterned face brick was systematically removed or "skinned" from the hotel to be transplanted onto the building that will replace it.

on sunday i was photographing the esquire theater for a post i'm writing about how we secured both the horizontal and vertical marquee signs (the former has since been repurposed as "wall art" by a major tenant occupying the same building). the larger and more impressive vertical sign was rebuilt in the 1980's by the white way sign company, and both narrowly missed being ripped off the building after the city deemed it "structurally unsound." fortunately, the iconic oak street sign was brought back to life in a symbolic gesture to the art deco theater that once resided there.

after visiting this site, and with only a little light to spare in the day, i managed to make it over to the cedar hotel to document what has been a rather slow and painful death. with the facade removed and carted off to storage, they spared no time in ripping apart the remainder of the hotel. by next week, the building will have taken its last breath, leaving behind an empty lot with scattered remains of its former self. the excavation could prove interesting, however. i have not reviewed sanborn insurance maps to determine what stood there before, but perhaps this could became another "case study" if buried artifacts are unearthed.

update: 5-30-2016: the architectural rendering below offers a glimpse of the viceroy hotel (under construction) with the historic white glazed terra cotta facade reincorporated at street level.