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June 22, 2009

Four-Story Building on Myrtle Collapses

The four-story, white-brick building at 493 Myrtle Avenue that housed the Vesper bar on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors collapsed to the ground yesterday afternoon at around 2 p.m. According to The Local, which has a detailed account of the incident, 14 people lived in the building but none of them were seriously injured; a girl who lived next door had to be rescued by the Fire Department. The Times also reported that the Department of Buildings issued vacate orders for six buildings on the block while officials evaluate their structural condition. An official cause has not been determined, but the building had received a violation in May for a large visible crack in its eastern wall; the owner blames facade work at the building next door. In an interview on Clinton Hill Blog, an eyewitness describes the collapse as "kinda gradual" and says that the Fire Department was already on hand before the entire building was reduced to rubble. There's a great photo set here. Update: We've posted a photo of the building pre-collapse in this post. Another Update: Tish James' blog is trying to raise money for a girl who lived at 491 Myrtle and now needs clothes for her graduation on Thursday.
Building Collapse on Myrtle [NYT/Local] GMAP
4-Story Brooklyn Building Under Repair Collapses [NY Times]
Apartment Building Crashes Down [NY Post]
Building Collapse in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, Injures 4 [NY Daily News]
Eyewitness Account of the Collapse [Clinton Hill Blog]
Photo by Geralyn Shukwit

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Comments

Is this it, What???

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 22, 2009 9:04 AM

I'm sure either Robert Scarano, Arthur Wood, or Shahn Andersen are somehow responsible for the collapse of this building. :P

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at June 22, 2009 9:13 AM

i saw this all over the news and they kept trying to get the owner of the building to answer questions. the landlord seemed mad shady. great that no one was seriously hurt and my heart goes out to the families who lived there who are now homeless because of landlord greed and incompetent safety precautions of the department of buildings.

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 22, 2009 9:22 AM

mr b why are you letting the local steal your thunder? you should be covering these stories if they happen on the weekend too!!! are you just a blogger or are you a journalist?

Posted by: randolph at June 22, 2009 9:25 AM

i mean look at their posting for this- timely updates, youtube footage imbedded....wtf? you are getting beaten here mr b.

Posted by: randolph at June 22, 2009 9:28 AM

Mr. B is a blognalist.

Posted by: tybur6 at June 22, 2009 9:29 AM

Whilst getting juice from the fridge this morning I saw the newscopter hovering...never a good sign.

I saw footage of the landlord being interviewed, couldn't make a call on how I felt. Cracks, vertical cracks, though, my God, those poor people.

Posted by: infinitejester at June 22, 2009 9:31 AM

um why would someone want to work 7 days a week randi? do you know how unhealthy that is?

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 22, 2009 9:32 AM

randolph thanks for telling me what's on the (I literally just couldn't even remember the name of it, seriously), I never read it so I wouldn't know.

Posted by: infinitejester at June 22, 2009 9:32 AM

about the bar vesper that was on the ground level:

"It had a nice jukebox and lately was patronized largely by youngish hipsters including Pratt students."

hmmmmm. dirty hipster, care to clarify?

Posted by: randolph at June 22, 2009 9:34 AM

he has employees, rob.

Posted by: randolph at June 22, 2009 9:40 AM

According to the owner the city inspector gave him the greenlight to allow the residence to remain while fix the wall crack that lead to the collapse. So until further information I will wait throwing some one under the bus.

Posted by: crimsonson at June 22, 2009 9:46 AM

there are quite a number of buildings in the brownstone neighborhoods at the verge of collapse. people think these buildings are indestructible when actually they are pretty fragile. When they were built the concept of modern footings and foundations had not been developed so these buildings just sit on the ground. This building had subsidence issues as so many do. The heavy rain probably caused the soil to get mushy and the bearing wall moved an inch too far, bringing all the joists down.
Now the City is over-compensating and evacuating the entire row of builings and may even tear them down for no real reason other than to show the press that they are capable of taking decisive action. Hopefully they will let the tenants remove their pets and portable property before demolishing the rest of the row.

Posted by: sam at June 22, 2009 9:58 AM

How long before someone starts whining about the type of buildings that are going to go up in their place? You know, the usual bitchin' and complaining. Does anyone want to start a pool?

Posted by: LimestoneKid at June 22, 2009 10:12 AM

sam, awesome point. I am observing how the previous few generation's decisions on best construction practice are sooo outmoded now. In some cases it was a function of the availlable technology, in other cases it's a function of being cheap and quick.

Which reminds me how good it is the blog watches out for quality homebuilding.

Posted by: infinitejester at June 22, 2009 10:15 AM

"Hopefully they will let the tenants remove their pets and portable property before demolishing the rest of the row. "

what an inane comment Sam

Posted by: doldrums at June 22, 2009 10:18 AM

wait a second????? This was a tun of the century row-house made of brick and stone by 'artisans' who lovingly constructed their buildings to last centuries....not one of these shady fly by night modern developers with their chepo steel beams and Sheetrock and poured concrete - how could this have happened?

Posted by: fsrg at June 22, 2009 10:23 AM

frsq - I think you're confusing the white brick place that fell down with the places next door, which didn't. Perhaps a before picture would shed more light.

Posted by: dittoburg at June 22, 2009 10:30 AM

dittoburg - no I beleive that 491 was built at the same time as the others - it just had the windows changed and was painted white at some point.

Posted by: fsrg at June 22, 2009 10:34 AM

I mean 493

Posted by: fsrg at June 22, 2009 10:34 AM

fsrq - there's a before picture now at the top of the blog.

Posted by: Arkady at June 22, 2009 10:35 AM

doldrums, you should not make the assumption that the department of buildings will let tenants back into the adjacent building to retrieve possessions. As awful as it sounds, if they believe there is a real emergency, and if the media spotlight is turned on, they can be pretty ruthless. Allowing people back in to pick-up belongings and find hiding cats undermines the case that the building has to be taken down immediately. Assuming that the owner will sue the city for unrightful taking, they need to keep an eye on the lawsuit and the media, the tenants come last. You have not been around much if you think such things don't happen, or perhaps you are just rude and like to call people inane.

Posted by: sam at June 22, 2009 10:35 AM

i was inspecting closely the rubble, and you can totally see peoples personal things strewn about. how embarrassing would it be to have ones porn collection out on display for the world to see and not be able retrieve it? sam makes a good point, they should be allowed to go salvage what they can before looters do.

*rob*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at June 22, 2009 11:31 AM

"Leave the pets, take the porn."

Posted by: jawbreaker at June 22, 2009 11:39 AM

rob you are so fucking clueless sometimes. do you really think that if all you stuff and your home was just destroyed rendering you homeless you would be worried that people see your porn collection? retard asshat plusa of the day.

Posted by: randolph at June 22, 2009 12:32 PM

The collapsed building is hardly the same as the well constructed turn of the century buildings to the left of it. The facade was not original, if indeed the entire building was not put up much later than the ones beside it. That much is very obvious from the photo pre collapse.

Posted by: bxgrl at June 22, 2009 12:44 PM

I think he lot next door was covered with tar or concrete.

Posted by: werner at June 22, 2009 2:42 PM

6/21 never forget !

Posted by: Xander Crews at June 22, 2009 3:28 PM

I spent many a long night drinking at the Gardens (before it became vesper). It is too bad a part Pratt history has fallen.

Posted by: Pragonetti at June 22, 2009 4:48 PM