frost-designed life insurance building's massive carved limestone columns toppled down in a matter of hours

on a calm afternoon, only myself and the wreckers were present as the humongous carved limestone columns proudly gracing the facade of the charles sumner frost-designed public life insurance building (1921) were quickly turned to a crumbling heap. the clunky, menacing clam bucket attached to the boom of a crane did the wrecking-- the sound of the bucket's teeth as it tore into the carved limestone reminded me of fingernails running across a chalkboard. within a matter of hours, the remarkably intact and well-preserved neoclassical insurance building facade was reduced to a pile of broken fragments resting lifelessly on the barricaded sidewalk amid the twisted structural steel beams, like flies caught in a web.

with the ionic capitals plucked off, the towering segmented columns were left to topple with a simple nudge from the bucket. this of course, all happened long after the massive rondel and deeply incised name plaque had already suffered the same fate. for these heavily carved early 20th century solid stone segments to be smashed and carted off to the landfill leaves me speechless. especially considering the sheer impressiveness of their size, in a day and age when there seems to be a greater appreciation for reclamation and a sensitivity toward preservation, it is mind-boggling that no one prevented this.

instead, i stood there alone, watching in dismay as the facade of another historically important building was destroyed within a few short hours. i must admit i was a little disappointed that no one else showed up to document its death. not even a cellphone image from a passerby. instead, the wrecking went relatively unwitnessed, treated as a mundane event.

the last thing i have on my hands is time -- on an afternoon with two separate salvages and a business to run -- but still i made the time to document the carnage in case no one else was there to do so. i believe the images captured are powerful even without words, and send a strong message that even buildings of this scale, bearing such impressive architectural detail, are not immune to being demolished. it's disturbing on many levels, and the fact that the demolition was missed by preservation organizations makes me seriously wonder what they are doing with their time.

they, in particular, are responsible for calling attention to the loss of buildings like the one documented here. i can only take on so much, and i feel the absence of support from organizations that i would expect to work in tandem with. this was a big fail for preservation groups, especially since at least one found out about this building's untimely demise through a shared post of my pictures on facebook, when demolition was already in progress.