November — the month where little happened. November had its share of destruction, but there wasn’t any construction to speak of. Actually, there wasn’t even much in the way of destruction until late in the month. All around a slow month.

They did manage to finish the three-sided scaffolding. West, North, East. But still none on the south side. Not sure why they’re leaving the south side alone right now. Maybe because of all the iron work that’s going on on the ground? That is the direction they’re expanding in, after all, and it’s also the only side of the hotel that currently goes all the way to the ground. The other three sides have a casino roof to build scaffolding on.

They soon put their scaffolding to good use as they started to rip apart the little triangle-shaped decorative thing (any architecture students in the audience know what that thing is called?) on the roof.

Folks were up on the scaffolding and on the roof hard at work smashing that thing. It was stripped down to nothing but the frame, leaving one to wonder whether it’s going away for good, or if it’s just going to be restuccoed.

After they were done, the skeleton of the triang-ly thing sat on the roof all alone. Only the one on the north side was decimated, though. The matching unit on the south remains untouched.

As if there weren’t enough huge gaping holes in the building yet, they needed to smash another one. This opening along Carson Street was cut right into the cinder blocks, presumably so it can become another entrance. The foundations they’ve poured suggest they’re going to be doing something with the current main entrance, seen to the right of the picture. So it makes sense they’ll want another way in.

The little openings you saw last month were shored up and reinforced, and then widened to make this big puppy.

But was that enough of a hole in the building? Oh, no. The workers picked November to start stripping the building of stucco. Here they are in the front, slowly peeling back the layers to expose the skeleton and some insulation. This job looks like it’s going to continue well into December, if they really are going to do the whole building.

Before they started ripping down the front of the building, they tried the technique out on the back to see how it looked. Here you can see the fruits of their labors. This weird outcropping in the back corner was the first area to get the stucco removed.

They tore off all the layers—outside wall, stucco, insulation, inside wall—and left the barest of metal frames behind. There’s a lot of this stuccoed wall on all sides of the casino, and if they’re going to be removing it all, I think December will turn out to be a mighty exciting month.

See you then!