One big white building in Walnut Creek coming down; another going up

Oh, the cycle of life. Things begin, they have their middle, and then they end.

The eight-story white building at the corner of Newell Avenue and South Main Street, which once housed Security Pacific Bank founded by U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, is coming down. (Maybe like his political career? We'll find out later today!)

Wrecking crews will be at work dismantling the 58,000-square-foot building through Thanksgiving. Also coming down: the retail strip containing the 7-Eleven. Traffic will be challenging in that area, with several areas around that intersection closed, including  southbound Main Street, closed between Broadway Plaza and Newell Avenue.

In place of this odd piece of Walnut Creek history, which hung a peace sign in the groovy 70s, will rise a four-story, 128,575-square-foot building with 49 condominiums, retail space and promenade along Las Trampas Creek.

Meanwhile, construction crews have very much broken ground on the new and controversial 66,000-square foot sanctuary for the Saranap-based religious organization, Sufism Reoriented.  There is now a rock-quarry-sized hole sitting amid the three-acre property along Boulevard Way.  The hole will make room for the two-thirds portion of the building that will go underground. The project displeased a fair number of neighbors who made their objections loud and clear during the extensive environmental review process. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted in February to let Sufism build the project.

"We respect the fact that some neighbors opposed the project for numerous reasons," the organization says on its website. "It is our hope that when our sanctuary is completed and the new trees and landscaping are mature, all our neighbors will find our new sanctuary and its open gardens a welcome addition to the neighborhood."