Politics & Government
Washington Building Demolition Set for Mid-May
Morris County will replace structure with a urban "pocket park" on corner of Washington Street and Schuyler Place.
Demolition of the Washington Building is expected to begin in a few weeks, the Morris County Board of Freeholders were told Wednesday.
County engineer Stephen Hammond said the county accepted a low bid of $693,737 from LVI Demolition Services Inc. to take down the 50-year-old brick structure at the corner of Washington Street and Schuyler Place in Morristown. Work is expected to begoin in mid-May, he said. The county is expected to construct
Hammond told the Morristown Planning Board last month that plans for an “urban green space," or "pocket park" call for retaining a 2-to-3-foot wall along Washington Street to separate the park from the sidewalk, and a line of shrubs on Washington Street, Schuyler Place and along the parking lot, plus several trees edging the parking lot facing Schuyler.
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Hammond said that Desmond Lloyd, owner of on Washington Street, asked that a wall between the Washington Building and his café be removed, which the county will do. In its place will be a dense row of evergreens to act as a screen for restaurant patrons. The park will include four benches and grassy areas, Hammond said. Lloyd told the planning board there are plans to make improvements to the café’s wall that will be exposed by the demolition.
Hammond told the freeholders that visitors to that part of town near the and office complex can expect traffic and pedestrian disruptions during the demolition. The county’s parking lot on Schuyler Place will be used as a staging area during the demolition, he said.
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The Washington Building was first used as an office building, but mostly recently for storage. The county has created new storage facilities in the former Central Avenue Complex, once a part of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital at The Central Park of Morris County in Parsippany. A 2006 study of the Washington Building determined that it would cost more to rehabilitate the structure than tear it down.
The project is being partly funded through a $297,000 federal grant that must be used by September.
