Today the saga of the Capper/Carrollsburg residential demolition neared its end, as the last building at 2nd and L (which stood partially demolished for most of December) was finally brought down, and one of the four buildings on the final block (bounded by 2nd, 3rd, K, and I) came down; a good portion of one of the other builidings was stripped away as well. I took a few photos of the changed landscape, even though it was an ugly day for pictures. Apparently sometime in January the demolition team will then move to 5th and K to demolish the old community center, at which point the only remnant of the entire 51-building old Capper/Carrollsburg will be Old Capper Seniors at 7th and M, which will itself be demolished once its residents are moved to Capper Seniors #1 and #2. (The city is eyeing that lot for possible baseball parking, even though it's eight blocks from the stadium, so I'm betting Old Capper Seniors will be gone by April 2008.) And then the wait will begin for the construction of the new Capitol Quarter townhomes (most likely to begin in Spring 2007) and the announcement of when any of the planned apartment buildings for the stretch between 2nd and 3rd will begin to move forward.

My Christmas present to you -- updated stadium construction photos, taken just this morning. Let the icon be your guide. Be sure to especially look at the photos I've included that show the progress in just the last three weeks, it's quite astounding how fast the steel is going in.

In Saturday's Post, two very positive articles written by Tom Boswell about the new baseball stadium. The first, "Nationals Owners to Dig Even Deeper" on A1: "The owners of the Washington Nationals plan to spend at least $30 million to improve the city-financed ballpark under construction on the Southeast waterfront, according to Mark Lerner, son of principal owner Ted Lerner. In addition, after the park opens, the Lerner family plans to spend 'millions more each season to develop the park's personality,' Mark Lerner said. Lerner said the family will improve the main scoreboard and 'get it to HDTV-quality,' double the size of the outfield restaurant and place "an LED display on top of it," and increase the size of the board that shows scores of other baseball games. Club level suites will get sliding-glass windows and bathrooms, Lerner said." The article also emphasizes that the construction continues to be on-time and on-budget, and proceeding at a lightning pace. The second piece, a column called "On the Waterfront, Hope Beginning to Spring Eternal," Boswell fairly gushes about the stadium's progress, its location, and its potential to be one of the best stadiums in baseball. He also takes some swipes at the naysayers who predicted that there was no way the stadium could be finished on time and on budget. (Alas, he may be a bit overly optimistic about grand sweeping views of the Capitol still being possible once surrounding buildings get built.) Check my Stadium Construction Gallery (which I promise to update once the holidays are past and/or it stops raining, whichever comes first) to see the progress as of early December and how the neighborhood has changed. And of course there's the official Stadium Webcam if you want to see up-to-the-minute images.

A quick tidbit: on Friday Dec. 15, Clark/Hunt/Smoot (and Clark Concrete Construction) placed the first concrete deck on the club level at the new Nationals ballpark--ahead of schedule. And the steel for the upper deck continues to go in at a steady clip. I'm sure the mild and dry December has helped the construction timetable quite nicely. You can look at my latest photos of the site, although they're now two weeks old, which is ancient given the speed of work down there. And there's the official Stadium Construction Webcam if you want up-to-the-minute views.

A correspondent tipped me off to a bunch of newly posted renderings of the Nationals Ballpark, one of which is a gorgeous fully detailed rendering of the stadium at night, as seen from the southeastern edge of the site (at 1st and Potomac). I've added this rendering and a couple of the new interior views to my stadium page; to see the additional interior views, visit the Nationals New Ballpark page on MLB.com. Note in the new external image that the new garages (not wrapped with development goodness) are depicted for the first time (albeit on the opposite side of the stadium!). And the retail offerings along 1st Street are also shown with a bit more detail.

From the Post: "It sounded like a nice idea: Use the District's new baseball stadium to showcase art, livening up the place with bronze statues, ornate entrance gates, even brightly colored tile mosaic staircases. The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities yesterday gave city officials a preview of its plans to beautify the future ballpark, until now a cold slab of concrete and glass being built in a former industrial area near the Anacostia River in Southeast. [...] In this case, though, the arts commission wasn't even appealing for funds. Director Tony Gittens told the Sports and Entertainment Commission that he set aside $2 million for the project from the arts commission's budget. No matter, responded John Ross, a senior analyst for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and member of the sports commission board. The D.C. Council's $611 million cost cap bans additional public spending -- and the arts commission is funded with public dollars, Ross explained. 'You'll have to go back to the council,' Ross said." But maybe it could at least be more fun fighting over art than parking garages....

Not exactly picture-perfect picture weather, but nonetheless I traipsed the perimeter of the stadium site today, and have posted 14 new photos in the Stadium Construction Gallery. On Friday Clark/Hunt/Smoot installed a second structural steel crane, so that steel can now be installed twice as fast over the next few months. Look for the views to begin changing even more dramatically....

Here's a few recent stories from some rather varied publications that reference Near Southeast in someway:

With the lovely weather, I've wandered out to take some photos around the Hood, and have posted a couple new ones here and there. First, I went to Anacostia Park and Poplar Point and took a bunch of new photos of the Near Southeast waterfront, and so now have my first shots of the stadium construction as seen from across the river. There's also now photos of the latest demolition at Capper/Carrollsburg (which also means two new entries on my Near SE's Demolished Buildings page), and a couple new shots of JPI's 70/100 I Street residential project (mainly showing the increasingly large hole in the ground). There's also a couple new photos on the Monument Realty/Half Street page as well as new additions and rejiggering (and a new waterfront shot) to the Ballpark District/More Photos page. Definitely look for the icon on these pages, because the additions are sprinkled throughout.