A number of you noticed when I posted some of David Sameshima's photos a couple of weeks ago that the inner wall near the right-field corner had been taken down (or came down on its own). Mike Bojanowski's observation at the time:
It seemed obvious that the inner wall in the right-field corner was in especially poor shape, as was the double gate. It didn't surprise me to see them both come down. It had occurred to me during demo that they were having particular trouble with that section.
Thanks to BCBer Neighborfan, who has a particular interest in building permits and the like, we now know that the Cubs have applied for a permit to replace that section of the wall -- and more, according to the wording on this permit application:
EVALUATION AND RESTORATION OF 100 FT-LONG SECTION OF THE EXISTING BRICK OUTFIELD WALL IN RIGHT FIELD.
Last offseason, the Cubs replaced a section of the left-field inner wall and it was clear that eventually, the entire inner wall was going to have to be rebuilt. 77 years after construction and many years' worth of ivy growth on the wall had made it start to crumble. You can clearly see where this work was done in this photo David took on December 17:
Originally, I had thought they might do all the wall replacement along with the bleacher reconstruction this offseason, but that likely would have made the project too large and given the delays they've already had, it's probably a good thing they didn't do it. The permit says that Landmark review has been "denied," but I can't imagine that approval won't be given. This is the same type of work that was done on that portion of the left-field wall (shown above) last year.
So now, 100 feet worth of the inner wall in right field will be restored. That's quite a bit more footage than you see in the photo at the top of this post, but I'm guessing they figure that as long as they have to replace that short section in the corner, they might as well go ahead and do another section as well.