A falling wall temporarily halted renovations at 315 Main St. in downtown Little Rock.
Perhaps you knew about the mishap that brought a temporary halt to renovations of the upper floors of the 315 Main St. project in downtown Little Rock.
A sizable chunk of brickwork from the fifth floor tumbled to earth and crushed the cab of the concrete pumper truck in the alley. No one was injured.
Manly Roberts, owner of Little Rock’s AMR Construction, said the work to strengthen the bones of the 110-plus-year-old building exposed a hidden problem in the brick exterior.
“We were pouring some concrete between a wall and an existing brick veneer,” said Roberts, whose firm is overseeing the job. “Some of the brick was soft and weak and didn’t hold up like the engineer thought it would.
“That’s part of dealing with old buildings. Luckily, it was something we were watching.”
The process went well with the lower floors. Once a workaround solution is completed for the top floor, a new roof will be put on the building.
Floors two through five are slated to be transformed into loft apartments as advocated by developer Scott Reed. The ground floor of the Gus Blass Wholesale Building was most recently home to Montego Café.
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