During the five minutes it was sunny this afternoon, I managed to get some updated photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors, where the work is still concentrated on the western side of the building. Within the past day or two the wrecking ball has sliced a hole in the main portion of the building, leaving the old southwest wing standing alone and temporarily making the tower into two buildings. Soon they'll be starting on the still-bricked elevator shaft in the center of the building on the north side. (I wouldn't park my car too close to there for the next few days.) Check the Expanded Project Archive if you want more angles of the progress, though they didn't all get updated today. And remember to click on the icon to see all the photos in the archive from a vantage point--the progression of shots looking south at the building from across L Street are pretty intriguing. They've gotten a lot done in eight days....

Word has just come out from DDOT that there will be lane closures on the Douglass Bridge this weekend, weather permitting: "Two inbound lanes on the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 17 until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 18. [and] Two inbound lanes on the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 17 until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 18." The advisory also says that the outbound sidewalk will now be closed for repair, and the the inbound sidewalk will now be opened to pedestrians and bicycles, which makes me really happy because now I'll finally get back some of my photo perches that have been inaccessible since late June.

The draft agenda for tomorrow's (Nov. 15) monthly meeting of the Commission on Fine Arts indicates that there will be a presentation of a revised design for Diamond Teague Park. The city initially brought the park in front of the CFA back in September, where according to the meeting's minutes the design was met with a number of concerns about its "fussy and timid" small-scale design when compared to the grand scope of the ballpark across the street; it was described as "overly focused on small elements that are conceptually inappropriate within the large-scale context." (And I'm not sure that the landscape architect's response that the grand staircase of the ballpark should be reduced in size in order for it to better relate to this new smaller park was the best reply.) A post-meeting letter from the CFA after the meeting outlined the revisions the commission was seeking.

A few weeks ago, I wrote both here and in the Post about how three historic call boxes along First Street (at L, N, and O) went missing in early October. Voice of the Hill has followed up with DDOT, and apparently two of the three were removed and put into storage for protection until the streetscape improvements along First Street are completed early next year. The whereabouts of the third box are unknown. The piece also gives more background on Cultural Tourism DC's efforts to restore the call boxes throughout the city, and how the Earth Conservations Corps is planning to repaint about 40 boxes in Southwest and Southeast.

While still recovering from yesterday's media-event-propelled onslaught, I have enough energy to point you to today's Examiner story that provides more detail on how it came to pass that the Pope will be appearing at Nationals Park. (The archbishop called the Lerners.) This is actually a Nationals event, not one of the city's eight yearly allowed uses of the stadium.

BEST STUFF FIRST: The link to my photos from today's media event, which was getting lost in the avalanche below. Plus, for the most rabid of stadium-watchers, I've added two stitched-together panoramas showing the view from behind home base looking out, and the view from the outfield restaurant looking in, sized very large so you can more easily see the details of the ballpark. If you don't have a broadband connection, grab some coffee while waiting for them to load. (And beneath them are three similar panoramas from Sept. 1--a little different!)

Word has just arrived from someone with a front-row seat that demolition has now begun at 1345 South Capitol, across the street from the ballpark. Glad I got those final pictures yesterday! I'll get shots of the rubble in the next day or so. A blurb in Friday's Washington Business Journal print edition said that the excavation marking the beginning of construction on the new residential building planned on this site should start in December.

I reported on this rumor a few weeks ago, and apparently it's true, according to the Post: "Pope Benedict XVI will visit Washington and New York in April, the first papal visit to the United States since 1999 and the current pope's eighth foreign journey since becoming head of the Catholic Church in April, 2005. [...] The pope will arrive on April 15, and visit the White House the next day, according to the schedule released by the Vatican. On April 17 he will celebrate Mass at the new Nationals baseball stadium and meet later that day at Catholic University with leaders of Catholic colleges and universities from throughout the country." On April 20 he'll be at Yankee Stadium, I guess to make sure that both the American League and National League are covered. Here's the press release from the Catholic News Service on the announcement.

It started innocently enough. On Sunday morning, when I woke up to find such a brilliant sunny day, I decided to go take a new batch of photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors to replace the dreary ones from Saturday. Then I started moving away a few blocks, to catch more distant views of the building. Then I decided that there were a bunch of locations where 70/100 I and Onyx on First were changing the skyline that I hadn't captured. Then I realized that it had been a long time since I had taken a complete set of photos of the western side of South Capitol Street at O and P streets, to show the changes since the demolition of the viaduct and all the streetscape improvements. And then of course, while I was there, I had to take a set of shots of the ballpark's western facade. Then there were more shots needed of the changes along M Street thanks to 55 M and 100 M. By the time I was done, I had a ridiculous number of new images up on the site, which you can see all on one page; you can also see most of them paired with past shots by clicking on the "Photo Archive Before-and-Afters" links at the top of that page, like the "South Capitol Street Makeover", which shows the new photos from both sides of the street (along with some older angles I didn't update). After a while they all run together, I know. But they make for some spiffy before-and-afters!