March 6th, 1999, and thousands of area residents braved what our photojournalist, Alex Dunbar, calls the coldest day he can remember to watch the historic Midtown Plaza come down.

In its day, it had been the Smith Corona Typewriter Factory, part of what put Syracuse on the industrial map but, those days ended in 1960 as Smith Corona moved to Cortland and Syracuse was left to find a new use for the big building.

Renamed Midtown Plaza, it was the first home to OCC. There were doctors, and other offices. The Red Cross ran its blood services here, and Meltzer's Deli brought many lunch goers from all over downtown. But, times were not good to the old structure.

So, in early 1998 the Common Council voted to demolish the now-eyesore. Syracuse got money for the job from the Environmental Bond Act, because the building was full of toxins and, that made for quite a scare when it all caught fire that summer. Firefighters were worried they were breathing in PCBs, asbestos and more.

So, in the middle of a March snowstorm, Bianchi Trison rigged explosives in the building and the demolition was quite a show. The dust had not even settled when people were asking, what next for the site.

And now, ten years almost to the day, the site is looking to a new life, hopefully about to make more history as a youth site,  the Center for Excellence.