ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With the demolition of the Pulse nightclub building set for Wednesday morning, city leaders gave an update Tuesday on how the process will take place.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Crews are scheduled to arrive\u00a0around 7 a.m. Wednesday at the Pulse site to begin the\u00a0process of\u00a0removing\u00a0the building\u00a0<\/p>\n
At about 9 a.m.,\u00a0construction crews will begin a controlled dismantling sequence of the exterior structure and continue until completion, which is estimated to be about noon\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0entire\u00a0clearing\u00a0process is expected to take several weeks and includes the removal\u00a0of the Pulse building,\u00a0the adjacent\u00a0building\u00a0and any other\u00a0structures within the fence\u00a0to clear the site\u00a0
For families and survivors who choose to be present to witness the demolition Wednesday, grief counselors will be available on site. For safety reasons, there will be a marked area where they can stand a safe distance away from the demolition<\/p>\n
The efforts led by the city of Orlando aim to preserve the memory of those killed or affected by the Pulse tragedy in June 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s unfortunate that we had to step in, but I think it was our role to step in and complete the task,\u201d Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.<\/p>\n
Crews will be on-site at around 7 a.m. to start the process. First, they will wet the building to reduce the amount of dust created, and demolition will begin at around 9 a.m. It is set to be completed about noon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not a big building, and it’s block that you can take down with the equipment you see behind me. So, they’ll do it strategically and start from one corner and work,” Dyer said. “Now there will be a pile of rubble that is left there that won’t be cleared, but the actual demolition itself can be accomplished pretty quickly,” Dyer said.<\/p>\n
The clearing process is expected to take several weeks, including the removal of the Pulse building, the adjacent building and any other structures within the fence to clear the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the city had a 30% design meeting. Last week, the Pulse sign was taken down and stored securely with a number of other artifacts that will be incorporated into the permanent memorial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gomez Construction and Borrelli + Partners are currently transforming the conceptual vision developed by the\u202fPulse\u202fMemorial\u202fAdvisory Committee (PMAC),\u202fcomprised\u202fof victims\u2019 families,\u202fsurvivors\u202fand community members,\u202finto a detailed, buildable\u202fdesign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dyer said the design of the memorial has been guided by people with a direct tie to the Pulse tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn’t been a city design or a city process,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s been a process that’s been driven by a committee that was, either survivors or family members or somebody that had something to do with Pulse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u202fdesign-build team will continue advancing architectural, structural and landscape components through the next phases of development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the demolition moves forward, Belinnette Ocasio-Capo, sister of Pulse victim Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, said she has mixed feelings knowing the building will no longer be there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been waiting for 10 years for even our opinion to matter at some point, so I really do hope, I hope this is something that actually represents each one of the victims,\u201d Ocasio-Capo said. \u201cThat was my go-to point, you know, to express how I feel. It’s the only time I actually get sentimental about the situation. So now it’s going to be a very weird experience going over there. I feel that it’s not there anymore, you know, where he was actually last alive. So it’s like a bittersweet moment.”<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Capo said once the memorial is complete, she hopes to visit it with her children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’ll be heartbreaking. But it’ll be nice to see them get to know who their uncle was, what happened that night,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know, something that symbolizes who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dyer said he hopes once the permanent memorial is complete it can bring peace to those affected by the tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know it won’t bring complete closure, but we hope that it’ll bring some peace of mind and give us a place that we can come and think about and remember the victims and give a place for families to come and be at peace,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor said the 60% design meeting will be held in May, with construction set to begin in September. The goal is having the permanent memorial ready by Summer 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For families and survivors who choose to be present to witness the demolition Wednesday, grief counselors will be available on site. For safety reasons, there will be a marked area where they can stand a safe distance away from the demolition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0With the demolition of the Pulse nightclub building set for Wednesday morning, city leaders gave an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,4318,3140,274,770,2287,766,115,772,1335,139,141,140,16956,278,835],"class_list":["post-195629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-local-politics","tag-massiel-leyva","tag-news","tag-on-air-ticker-article","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}