BCB's David Sameshima visited Wrigley Field Friday and found many differences from his previous visit!
I arrived to see a lot of changes around the ballpark since my last visit on Tuesday. As I expected, there were a lot of fences up, and more still going up. There were crews working on the front facade. The two crews working along the lower portion were exposing the bricks that had been covered over. The one crew working above the marquee was removing panels to expose the framework that had been covered up. The two lower work crews were exposing bricks that have been covered over.Under the marquee, they were demolishing part of the concourse just inside of the main gate. Equipment and supplies were just outside of the main gate, blocking the view of the excavation work in front of the ticket windows along Clark Street that I had documented earlier this week.Most of the sidewalk along the Addison Street side of the ballpark has already been closed off. Only a small portion of the sidewalk is still open, in front of the ballpark. The CTA has already relocated the bus stop across the street to the west side of the intersection. There were also extra barricades stacked up in front of the ballpark. I suspect that these barricades will soon be positioned and completely block off the sidewalk in front of the ballpark.As I moved over to Sheffield Avenue, more fences were going up. The space in front of Gate Q was still open, so I took the opportunity to take as many photos as possible. I don't know if I will be able to photograph through this gate, if they do fence off this area.I then moved over to the main bleacher gate. This area had already been fenced off. I could still see that they were continuing with the demolition work that Al saw yesterday. This is the area just inside of the bleacher gate, where the "old" restrooms were located. This is one of the areas that was left intact even during the original 2005-2006 bleacher expansion project.The fence was not yet complete along the Waveland Avenue side. Waveland Avenue is completely closed off, at Seminary Avenue. The sidewalk is also closed off. On the other side, Waveland Avenue is closed off at Clifton Avenue. I do understand that this is only temporary. According to the alderman's email, Clifton will be blocked off, and not connect with Waveland. Clifton will effectively turn into a cul-de-sac, only accessible from the north, during the winter construction.The work gate at the corner of Waveland and Clark was open, so I took the opportunity to photograph the plaza building at ground level. Moving over to the Clark Street side, I noticed that they have removed panels along the upper level of the ballpark, to expose the framework underneath. This is similar to the framework that is now exposed above the marquee.For those planning a visit during this off season, I hope my photos illustrate how access to the ballpark will be limited, just like it was last winter. Depending on how the fences are arranged, I don't know if my method of using a monopod to hold the camera over the fence will work. Last year, I could stand along the Sheffield and Waveland Avenue sidewalks, to photograph the bleacher construction. This year, the fences will be along vehicular traffic on Clark Street, Addison Street, Sheffield Avenue and Waveland Ave. We'll just have to wait and see.Oh, I almost forgot. You will see that they have added two Toyota banners in the front of the ballpark, along the top of the upper deck.
No doubt, Toyota must have paid for a year-round sign when they had their logo and name added to the bottom of the marquee. With the marquee temporarily gone, these extra banners are a way for that agreement to be upheld.
We'll have at least one photoset here showing whatever work is going on over the weekend.