The 1985 building of the Gazette is demolished on Thursday, March 7, 2013, in downtown Cedar Rapids. The Gazette building has been purchased by developer Steve Emerson, and while the 1923 building, which faces 5th Street SE, will be leased by the Gazette, the 1985 building is being demolished to make way for parking for tenants of Emerson's building at 600 Third Ave SE. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

It’s been months since we worked in the 1985 building of the Gazette. Since the Gazette buildings were sold to developer Steve Emerson (here’s the story on the sale and plans for the site), our photo studio has been relocated to the basement of the KCRG building and for a couple years now we’ve had our photo desk in the newsroom. (The Gazette is actually three buildings; the Gazette will lease back the 1923 building for use by its Fusionfarm Marketing Services, and our combined Gazette/KCRG newsroom will move into the KCRG building.) Still, even though we knew demolition would start this week it was a bit of a shock to drive into work today and see the old studio and lab exposed. In the photo above, the studio is the far left space on the second floor. The black tiled walls seen below are from our lab. The Gazette photo staff has covered our share of demolitions in the wake of the flood and clearing the way for the medical mall, but it certainly is different to cover the demolition of part of your own building.

(Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

(Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)