We hope this week will be the last week of demolition. the walls are gutted right to the brick and the ceiling has completely opened up, we’re looking for anything that could be salvaged but it looks like we need new everything, floors, drywall, windows.

The front oriel windows float off the end of the building.

This is something you don’t see often, 19th century engineering. Using a similar formula to a suspension bridge, the weight of the windows are supported by a long horizontal beam and to offset the sag, two beams are connected at an angled point and a metal spike is driven in the center.

Surprisingly enough this tactic was enough to hold the oriel windows for over a century, but after a lot of water damage and rot to the original beams this will have to all be replaced (budget buzzkill).

We would love to plaster over the brick walls instead of using drywall as it would add such a beautiful texture. We fell in love with white painted plaster after seeing it used countless times in buildings by Alvar Aalto. Unfortunately we have to keep in mind sound and insulation.

Peeling back the walls you can see some of the original details like the remnants of an old window.

Or this beautiful curved wall detail made with the building’s original plaster.

You can now see all the way from the back to the front.

These are the original ceilings which might look beautiful sprayed white but the pattern is very busy and distracting, plus having a clean drywall ceiling means hiding all of the wires used for lighting.

So many decisions to make!