Two bills of Near Southeast interest passed their first readings at today's city council meeting, on the consent agenda, no less. (Consent agenda = no discussion or bickering! Yay!) First was Bill 17-0448, which authorizes the closing of the public alley on Square 696 (bounded by Half, First, I, and K), and which had been interesting mainly for the affordable housing trust fund contribution discrepancy that came up during the bill's hearing a few weeks ago, when the developers noted that they expected their contribution to be in the neighborhood of $900,000 and the Office of Planning determined the required sum be closer to $8 million. Apparently the final bill calls for a $1.1 million contribution, which council chairman Vincent Gray said is the largest trust fund contribution ever as the result of an alley closing. The developers also have agreed to create a 20-foot-wide pedestrian right-of-way through the middle of the block to allow for easy access from I Street to the planned public plaza on K Street, though apparently DDOT requested that this right-of-way be upgradable for "motorized access" in the future if necessary. This alley closing will allow DRI Development to move forward with their plans for 800,000 square feet of office space in three buildings with 37,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. There've been noises that the first construction on the site could begin in the summer of 2008, but nothing official has been announced. (The last tenants on the block, in the cab garage at First and K, are expected to move out in February when their lease expires.)

The city's Approved Building Permits Feed tells us that yesterday three permits were approved for the construction of temporary parking lots on three blocks within the Capper/Carrollsburg footprint: Squares 767 and 768, which are cleared lots between Second and Third and I and L (just to the east of what-may-someday-become-Canal Park), and Square 882 between L and M and west of Seventh, where the old Capper Seniors building is in the midst of coming down. This doesn't necessarily mean that construction will start tomorrow (I don't know if the contracts that were advertised a few months back have been awarded yet), but it does mean that what is sometimes the biggest hurdle to construction in the city has already been passed.

Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to take photos of the neighborhood, given that traffic is close to nonexistent. (Great weather helped, too.) The showy construction work has now slowed down at 70/100 I, Onyx on First, and 100 M, so after this update I'm now going to scale back the updates to those project pages (and their expanded photo archives). Demolition continues at old Capper Seniors, though not much happened to the building itself in the past week as work appeared to focus on clearing the ground of the debris from the initial work. And 55 M continues along, though it's hard right now to get a feel for the progress from ground level (beyond the festive steel beams along M Street), which is why having the webcam is so handy.

I've added some quick photos this morning showing the demolition progress at both old Capper Seniors and 1345 South Capitol Street, which you can see all at once here (though they really benefit from being paired with their before-and-afters, as seen on the project pages and in the expanded Capper Seniors photo archive). The South Capitol Street photos were hurried and ended up being incomplete after yet another run-in with the ballpark's Hired Badge Harry, who screamed at me incessantly for daring to even stand on the curb on the east side of South Capitol Street at O Street while trying to take pictures of the 1345 site, and with my having no interest in getting any closer to the ballpark site behind me. Once I moved a half-inch forward into the gutter, at the mercy of three lanes of high-speed traffic, I was then no longer Public Enemy #1.

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....