Views of "The Monarch"

Most of my photos of the condo/senior center project at 400 East Front Street have been taken from a vantage point near the existing Senior Center at 305 East Front Street. On Sunday, I took a walk to East Second Street for the rear view. I wanted to see how the roof garden space was shaping up, among other things.

The building is sort of U-shaped, with the roof garden planned to be over a parking area. There will be more parking on a lot on the East Second Street side. Here you can see balconies on the east side of the building.

The west side is at the left in this photo. On both East Front and East Second, fencing extends over the sidewalk to the street. I had to shoot the pictures through the chain links.

From either side, one can look straight through the ground floor where the senior center will be. So far, the space does not appear to be divided into the many rooms that are planned for the center.

Each of the 63 condos will have its own "Magic-pak" heating/cooling unit. I only saw one closed-off space and could not tell whether a unit was actually installed in it.

This structure in the shadow of the new building is one of about 15 free-standing historic buildings around the city. It had been an architect's office, but no sign was in front on Sunday.

Construction at the new building is behind stated schedules and representatives of Dornoch Plainfield LLC were to be meeting with the mayor this month to discuss progress. According to the city's construction official, the building permit was issued last October. Terms of the developer's agreement allow two years for completion, placing the deadline at October 2009.

--Bernice Paglia