Saving face

Facade retention was the name of the game for Wrecking Corp of America when it demolished the historic Luzon apartment building on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC.

The existing five storey brick facade will be retained and used as the facade for a luxury condominium after it is shored and severed from the rest of the structure to be demolished.

The apartment building, dating from 1896, is one of only a dozen such buildings remaining in the city from the 1875-1899 period, and was added to the USA's National Register of Historic Places in 1994 but has been vacant for a number of years.