The Inn at Temple Square no longer looks like the cozy Victorian-style getaway that once drew celebrities and honeymooners from around the world.

Crews have made significant progress on the inn's demolition. Viewed from nearby office towers, it has become a pockmarked shell of what it once was. And that means everything is going according to plan.

The inn is the first building to come down as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes way for City Creek Center, a 20-acre mixed-use development planned to take the place of the Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls. The inn was built in 1931 as the Hotel Temple Square. It was renovated 16 years ago and reopened as the Inn at Temple Square.

Piles of bricks, concrete, copper and steel clutter the ground around the building and keep growing as crews work through all kinds of weather, six days a week. Most of that rubble — 18,000 tons, or 85 percent of the building — will be recycled, even though that makes the process about 15 percent costlier, City Creek Center spokesman Dave Smith said.

The building has been coming down from the inside out since the church received its demolition permit from Salt Lake City on Nov. 6. The most dramatic part is still to come — a giant claw will pull the shell of the building down in about a week to 10 days, Smith said.

Meanwhile, crews with Okland Construction, which is handling all the work on the Crossroads block, say the inn is the project's toughest building to tear down because they are working in a confined space, and the masonry has been difficult to manage.

Next to come down will be the Crossroads parking structure, likely in January. Demolition will move roughly east across the block, ending with the implosion of the Key Bank Tower, probably sometime in summer 2007, Smith said.

He said the Key Bank Tower is the only building that is expected to require implosion, although it is possible the historic Deseret/First Security building will be imploded if the church decides to tear it down.

That building's demolition was initially part of the plans, but the church is rethinking that idea in the wake of public calls for it to be saved. Smith said he doesn't expect a decision to be made on the Deseret building's fate until after the new year.

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