12:13 PM: Demolition of the former Fire Station 32 is finally under way, six months after we reported that the project to rebuild FS32 is nine years behind the schedule in the original plan for the voter-approved 2003 Fire Levy. The new station, to be built at the same 38th SW/SW Alaska site, will look like this:

(From Fire Station 32 “schematic design” packet dated August 2013, by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)
Until the new station is ready, temporary Station 32 remains on the site of a future city park on 40th SW between Alaska and Edmunds. Among the equipment based there is Ladder 11, which we spotted driving by its former home while we stopped for our photos this morning:
The project is budgeted at $18.6 million. Construction is supposed to last about a year.
3:14 PM: We went back to check on the progress, and the crew was having a tough time knocking down the tower, even using a piece of debris as something of a battering ram.
As of 3 pm, it appeared they were stopping down for the day, but we’re going back to doublecheck.
12:35 PM FRIDAY: We went by the site three times this morning. No activity spotted during visits one and two – then, when we went back an hour after #2, the tower was down.
FRIDAY EVENING: Some of the building is still standing; the photo above this line was taken looking over the fence on SW Alaska, after the crew finished for the day.
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