Well the day Downtown has waited almost 20 years for has finally come. Today work began on the renovation of the Steel Building a.k.a the Fontius Building. Construction fencing is now up and the shuttle stop there at the corner of 16th & Welton is now temporarily closed. They are wasting no time! I happened to be walking by when they were removing the Fontius letters from the 16th Street side of the building.

There was definitely a feeling of excitement and relief watching them remove the big cursive F! Also cool was seeing all of the other letters from the sign laying on the 16th Street Mall. They have already started tearing off the 60’s era vernacular awning that always has seemed out of place on the facade as well.

They are working fast. Since I started this blog entry this morning, they have made even more progress by taking down all of the other signs on the 16th street side and might even complete the demolition of that awning by the end of today! With the Denver Wig Shop sign removed you can see the old Cook’s sign from when they had their sporting goods store there. Also gone is the Kenmark Shaw’s Jewelry neon sign.

Renovation work will continue from now until July of 2008. This is such a pivotal corner in Downtown and I cannot wait until it is restored to its former glory. It will be so nice to have the building activated and maintained as it deserves to be. I am curious as to who the new tenants will be - especially the ground floor retailers. Congratulations to Shames-Makovsky Realty Company the new owners of the building on this historic day!