Open bar

Busted concrete and twisted rebar litter the foreground while an employee of American Demolition Corp., Elgin, Ill., uses a torch Wednesday while razing a building in the 600 block of North Milwaukee Street in Milwaukee. The demolition phase is expected to take several more weeks and helps clear the way for the new Milwaukee Marriott, a 205-room, $54 million hotel that will be a mix of new construction and renovations to existing buildings on the site. The project is a joint venture between C.D. Smith Construction Inc., Fond du Lac, and KBS Construction Inc., Madison, and is expected to be complete in mid-2013. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)