Today workers are tearing huge chunks of the failing facade brick off the Metropolitan building. We found this out by hearing and feeling the crashes as five-foot chunks of loose brick and mortar were being scrapped off the eastern side of the Met.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...t/IMG_1325.jpg
Scraping away

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...t/IMG_1326.jpg
Big chunk falls

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...t/IMG_1335.jpg
Smaller chunk falls

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...t/IMG_1337.jpg
Where the stuff is hitting in the alley

Sorry for the quality, but the windows are filthy and the angle is poor. I work in the Hartz building [[Detroit Beer Co on first floor) and I have a sad, front-row seat on this action.

The guy in the bucket removed all the stuff that had fallen and been caught by the debris screens up there, so this looks planned.

This is either the beginning of the end or stabilization for the start of the renewal of the building, but from what I've heard, the Met isn't in good enough shape to warrant a serious look in preservation/re-use.