A recent City inspection, one of several completed since Big Daddy’s closed two years ago, showed the landmark drive-in on Auburn Way South in ghastly shape.

Such ghastly shape Dana Hinman, director of administration for the City of Auburn said Tuesday, it can’t be saved.

The upshot is that the drive-in’s long, fabled lookout over Auburn Way South is about over.

“I guess maybe in month or so, we will tear down the Big Daddy’s site and the Herr Lumber building, while keeping three bays there that the Parks, Arts and Recreation Department is using for storage,” Hinman said.

Two vacant houses at the site will fall as well. And when that is done, the City will start in earnest on its refurbishing of the Les Gove Campus.

“We will rescue the Big Daddy’s sign and likely turn it into some piece of public art or gateway to that overall Herr Property,” Hinman said.

Hinman said the City will keep the blue poles under Big Daddy’s canopy and the radios attached to those poles. The City intends to keep the roofing structure above that. Ultimately, the plan is to turn the site into a commemorative drive-in for car shows and the like.

“Our plan is to have something in by Good Ol’ Days in August that is usable in some way, shape or form,” Hinman said.

The City’s arts department is already working with artists to decide what to do with the Big Daddy’s sign.

“That barrel-shaped sign is the big, significant visual for that space, and we want to maintain it in some way shape or form, whether that means taking it all the way down to whatever’s inside of it and rebuilding something, or doing some sort of memory art around it,” said Hinman.

Although the overall plan for Les Gove Park is loose and flexible at this stage, a number of key strategies are likely to guide what eventually happens there.

Strategy one calls for a series of design changes to set the park apart from Auburn Way South and 12th Street, to “make it pop,” starting with a vegetated edge running down the block past the Auburn Youth Resources complex and expanding closer to the Auburn Library and 12th Street South.

Related suggestions call for a mural on the wall of the Auburn Youth Resources building, overlaid with project art and public announcements, and for reimagining the old Big Daddy’s restaurant building to allow the greenness of the park to reach all the way to Auburn Way South.

Another key principle calls for “Constructing the Crescent.” That is, having arrived at the park by car, foot, bus or bike, the main circulation route is the reimagined Deal’s Way, which creates an intuitive, direct pedestrian connection between the parking, all areas and buildings of the campus, and the nearby neighborhoods.

The plan makes the main pathway through the park “special” with interesting paving elements and rhythmic lighting. The main connections between buildings, gathering areas and parking are lit at night with glowing down lights to avoid light pollution affecting homes to the east.