Most of the old Cole Middle School is still standing, but it just doesn't look the same. Maybe it's all the trees missing out front. Or maybe it's the concrete pedestals in neat lines across from the old entrance. Or maybe it's the piles of rubble out behind the gymnasium where three classrooms once stood.

The mixture of destruction and construction at Cole can leave anyone familiar with the building a little disoriented.

First, those trees. Several oak trees in front of the school, one reputed to be more than 100-years-old, were removed for the project. They had to come down, said Project Manager Ken Romeo, of Strategic Building Solutions, to make way for the classroom trailers that will be moved from their present location in back to the new concrete pedestals in front, where the trees once stood.

That will happen as soon as this week, said Romeo. A new hallway will connect the trailers to the main building. The trailers were installed six years ago, taking them beyond their usual life of three-to-five years. Like the rest of the old Cole, they need to last only long enough to see the new school completed.

From a distance, the gym still looks largely intact. But, on closer inspection, you can see where parts of it have been dismantled. So far, the bulk of the work has been taking place inside, where floor tiles with asbestos adhesive have needed extra attention during removal. According to Romeo, exterior demolition of the gym will begin as early as this week.

Behind the gym, the debris from classroom demolition is being sorted into different discard categories, as part of the green-building plan. In addition to the environmental benefits of sorting, it will cost less to dispose of the sorted materials. Periodically, someone sprays the debris with water, to keep the dust down.

A few lockers remain from what was the boys' locker room. Steel rebar curls off the building where the classrooms were pulled down like crazy spaghetti strands.

The site is a dreamscape for fans of Bob the Builder, with giant shovels, excavators, scissor lifts and backhoes. Needless to say, it's noisy and messy.

But, according to Principal Alexis Meyer, it's not so bad. "I've become immune to the noise," she said. Meyer works through the summer, so she will work through every phase of the two-year project.

Inside, there's work being done on some classrooms just to get the old building through the construction. All this work on a building that will be torn down in two years? Yes, said Romeo. It's cheaper than buying a school's worth of portable classrooms, he said.

One of the changes to the old building is in the cafeteria, where the windows are being reinforced with plastic so it can double as a gym. While that's a necessary addition, Peter Dion, a Cole physical education teacher, said that students will be outside for gym a lot.

A.F. Luci is doing the construction on this first phase of the middle school project. Work should be finished by Aug. 21, to give school officials time to prepare for the start of the new school year, said SBS's Romeo. Phase Two, construction of the new building, will go out to bid this fall.