The Face Of Downtown Tyler Is Changing Quickly Time-Lapse Proves It

One thing that is constant in this world is change. Change is happening now, and downtown Tyler's face is looking different already. Progress is happening, in what seems to be near lightning speed on the new Smith County Courthouse project in downtown Tyler.

Smith County leaders had been working for more than two decades asking voters to approve a measure to replace the current Smith County Courthouse, which the county had outgrown and in the fall of 2022 voters narrowly approved a bond measure to construct a new courthouse and demolish the current one and turning it into a public park space.

Now that construction is near completion on the new multi-level parking garage on the northeast side of downtown Tyler, demolition is underway on the site where the new courthouse will be constructed.

There is a time-lapse camera perched high atop the current Smith County Courthouse facing East onto the site of the new courthouse and it is filming progress, beginning with the demolition phase.

It's amazing to see just how quickly things are progressing. Check out the video from the Smith County Facebook page supplied by Hoar Construction, LLC.

One thing that caught my attention in the demolition video is the tree in the lower right of the image. Now, I had no idea there wasn't a roof on, what I believe was, the New York Store much less a tree growing inside the store! The facade of the building had been hiding a pretty large tree, but in just a few seconds it was ripped from its roots by a piece of construction equipment.

Once complete, the new Smith County Courthouse will blend traditional with modern, the old with the new, and the past with the present and the future. We'll continue to watch the progress being made through this time-lapse video feed.