Since 1990, more than 2.5 million apartments renting for less than $800 per month have been demolished, upgraded into luxury condos or converted into hotels or offices.
So, too, were the dramatic and traumatic events of his childhood during the second world war: the family home was burned out in one air raid and the house they then moved into was partially demolished in another.
Then, after half an hour or so – yes, this film demands commitment, concentration and utter capitulation – the pace and visual intensity picks up, as some transfixing footage of derelict housing estates being demolished feeds into urban scenes of traffic, shown in either slow motion or rapid timelapse.
I ducked down a narrow alleyway of preserved shikumen houses, little stone-arched dwellings that were once ubiquitous in Shanghai but have now largely been demolished, and into the South Xizang Road bird and flower market, the air a thick fug of cigarette smoke and animals.
You only develop as a club in the league," Pardew reflects at the club's New Forest training ground which is soon to be demolished and rebuilt into the most eco-friendly in the country – Cortese being heavily into environmentalism.
Too costly to maintain, the buildings were demolished or converted into apartments, stores or museums.
Tempelhof is also protected by historic preservation laws, which means that it can't simply be demolished or turned into a shopping mall.
Many of the closes have been completely or partially demolished, others gentrified into offices, posh flats, and craft shops: Mary King's Close was simply buried.
