What happened to the piano store?

When we moved here in January, there was a piano store two storefronts away from Tek's daycare building. It's one of many sites within a few blocks of where we live that has gone under construction in the short time we've been here. It seems that the store has been converted to a combination living quarters and, bizarrely, branch office of the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper.

It's been pretty interesting watching the construction methods (and the way it all spills out into the narrow street, blocking traffic and creating various safety hazards). Sadly, the nicely paved golmok 골목 (alley) running alongside the store and leading to our office suffered a bit as a result of the construction. The paving stones were pulled up to install underground pipes, and were reset quite poorly. (You can see video of how nice the alley used to look on this post.)

After gutting the inside and removing most of the outside walls, new walls were built of roughly set bricks (right) and then mudded over (left).

One reason they had to make new walls was that the old piano store had a giant doorway, large enough for pianos to fit through. They wanted a normal narrow doorway (center):

Note also the pile of dirt right in the middle of a narrow street.

Here's a mini excavator digging up the paving stones in our alley, next to the store (which is on the left in this photo). Note the old blue tile roof.

I don't know exactly what this layer is, or why it is scored in squares.

After that, styrofoam boards were glued and then screwed onto the building, and then painted over with bumpy fake stucco. By the way, that little door leads to a squat toilet accessible only from the outside. The door is raised because the bathroom floor is raised; that's typically done so that the toilet can be set into the floor.

This seemed really weird to me, but an architect reader of this blog pointed out that this is a known construction technique, also used in dry climates in the States like Southern California. ("Styrofoam under fake stucco is called Dryvit (manufacturer) or STO (manufacturer) or EIFS (exterior insulation and finish system).")

In this photo you can clearly see the styrofoam under the stucco finish:

Then they built this elaborate framework on the roof. At first I got excited, thinking that they were going to install solar panels.

But it turned out that they were just building a new roof atop the old one. Guess that's easier than repairing or replacing.

And here's the near-finished look of the new place.

The sign is up, and nice copper gutters and downspouts. And some steps and a ramp blocking the sidewalk.

Sign reads: 중앙일보 (JoongAng Daily)

This is apparently a neighborhood newspaper distribution center, and possibly a small office for accepting local ads.