What’s been described as a “selective” demolition of UDC’s tallest building won’t begin until at least December, the manager of the DC Archives project told ANC 3F on Tuesday.
At a June ANC meeting, Brad King of the DC Department of General Services had predicted a September start date for a painstaking deconstruction process very much unlike a Vegas casino-style implosion. He also said the timing depended on DGS work with UDC on a structural rehabilitation of the university’s parking garage, which partially sits beneath Building 41.
At the Sept. 15 ANC 3F meeting, King said the garage work “has caused quite a delay for the archives side of the project,” and that will push Building 41’s demolition to December.
“Hopefully the beginning of the month,” he said.
The garage upgrades are a necessary step, King explained in June. Structural deficiencies were discovered during last year’s archives project hiatus and needed to be addressed before demolition could begin.
The new archives structure to be built in Building 41’s place also needs strong supports so it can bear the immense weight of District government documents and artifacts dating back to the late 1700s.
DC State Archivist Lopez Matthews said in 2023 that the UDC building could not be repurposed “because it would collapse under the weight of the records.”
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