Admirals Row House Collapses from Water Damage
[nggallery id=”33365″ template=galleryview] One of the ten former officers residences along Flushing Avenue known as Admirals Row began collapsing from water damage yesterday, and the fire department was brought in for safety reasons to finish the job. Luckily for those concerned with preserving the group of historic structures, the house affected was Building C, which…
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One of the ten former officers residences along Flushing Avenue known as Admirals Row began collapsing from water damage yesterday, and the fire department was brought in for safety reasons to finish the job. Luckily for those concerned with preserving the group of historic structures, the house affected was Building C, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently reported “does not appear to retain historic integrity to the historic significance of the BNY.” (You can see a pre-collapse photo of Building C here—it’s the one on the right.) Here’s what happened: A pedestrian walking down Flushing Avenue in the late afternoon called the Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters saying that is looked like pieces of Building C had fallen. BNYDC called the Feds, DOB and FDNY. When they got down there they discovered that almost the entire building had detached from the facade and collapsed; DOB determined that the remaining facade itself did not pose enough of a safety risk to take it down. FDNY also determined that there had not been any homeless people in the structure at the time of collapse. The collapse is certainly a reminder that, however many buildings ultimately get slated for preservation, it’s time to get some resolution.
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Ugly Politics May Trump Reason in Admiral’s Row Saga [Brownstoner]
Admiral’s Row: Up Close and Personal [Brownstoner]
MAS Floats Plans to Preserve Admiral’s Row & Build Market [Brownstoner]
Public Hearing on Admiral’s Row Held Last Night [Brownstoner]
Pratties Have ‘Cake-and-Eat-It’ Design for Admiral’s Row [Brownstoner]
Guard Starts Talks ‘To Come Up With Alternatives’ For Row [Brownstoner]
James Opens Door to (Partial) Admiral’s Row Preservation [Brownstoner]
Officers’ Row Supermarket Not Happening Anytime Soon [Brownstoner]
Admiral’s Row: Feds Must ‘Consider’ Preservation [Brownstoner]
Admiral’s Row: “Extremely High Level of Historic Integrity” [Brownstoner]
Officers’ Row: Let’s Have Our Cake and Eat It Too [Brownstoner]
Officers’ Row Preservation Coming to a Contentious Head [Brownstoner]
For Officer’s Row, Supermarket All But Certain [Brownstoner]
Streber – like I said – I don’t work for the navy yard. Once again, repeating the lie that i work for the navy yard doesn’t make it true. Also as you might recall, thei fire happened at night around 7PM i believe. Not really during working hours, so that whole premise that one would only see the fire if they were working at the navy yard is false. How many times do i have to catch you in basic falsehoods before you realize that you are making yourself look like an idiot.
Also, I don’t know what you’re talking about regarding me not using my knowledge of the fire when i talk about the collapse. Go back an re-read this thread. I’ve continually said that although this building had a fire, and the water damage from that fire probably moved things along, it does not mean that the difference in building conditions is signficant, since all of the other buildings have also been subject to being soaked by the elements for the past several decades. You need to work on your reading comprehension kid.
Also the suggestion to leave the building alone is idiotic. What purpose would it serve? So that you can have a romantic moment as you walk by them everyday> What happens when the next one that collpases causes one of those very large trees in the front yards to tip over and fall into flushing and kills someone? Or when the next building catches fire and it’s not so easily controlled and spreads to other navy yard buildings and causes millions of dollars of property damage? Only an idiot would value their own aesthetic enjoyment over other people’s safety. Also – if these buildings are left to rot then this valuable land is not put into use creating jobs and serving the neighboring community. It’s nice that you have a job and have services near where you live – why would you deny that to the people who live near this building?
It’s also surprising that P Heights has intimate knowledge of the fire in this building, but fails to mention it when he uses the collapse of this building as evidence for the condition of the others.
“I actually stood on flushing avenue that cold january day and watched the NYFD put out the fire in that building. DId you? I doubt it.”
No, I didn’t… because I don’t work at the Navy Yard. But I do recall how amazing the building looked later in the day after all of the water had turned to icicles and the building
looked like a big ice castle.
I would think the substantial water and ice damage could have also contributed to this building’s accelerated deterioration.
If no-one has any profit motive, and they are too expensive to repair, why not simply leave them be?
But the important piece remains. The state of this building in no way reflects the state of the others. This building was damaged by a fire.
The tree growing through the roof may be holding up the building.
Sam – you’re probably right. There’s a big hole in the roof with a tree growing through it. Also one of the walls that you can’t see from the street is seriously buckling. Many of the bricks have delaminated (fallen off) and are sitting in a big pile between the building and Quarters K. But for some weird reason, this is one of the buildings that the Feds identified to be saved. I understand that this building was originally a timber shed, but was used in the 70’s by the kids who lived with their families in these houses as their own personal ice skating rink. Very cool.
I do not work for the navy yard corporation. I’ve explictly said that beofre and I’ll repeat. Also, as I’ve said before, I do know some of those folks and have talked to them about the site extensively. I’ve also been lucky enough to go inside the buildings.
Your comment about Fairway is stupid, espcially since this notion of putting a supermarket on this site goes back to the mid 90’s, well before fairway developed. The poor people in this neighborhood are actually in favor of this supermarket. Any money the navy yard makes does not go and make anyone rich – they are a non profit entity whose mission is to manage the navy yard. Anymoney they make would get poured into rebuilding the infrastructure in the yard and replacing roofs and windows in other buildings that still have some economic life in them. Please tell me why that is a bad thing.
I actually stood on flushing avenue that cold january day and watched the NYFD put out the fire in that building. DId you? I doubt it. So once again you are relying on your second or third hand knowledge instead of my firsthand knowledge.Calling it a major fire is disingenuous. It was only on the top floor of the building and was out in a couple of hours. No doubt the fire accelerated the detrioration somewhat, but not significantly. I’m telling you that walking around quarters c and any of the others around a year ago, you’d be hard pressed to tell which had the fire (except for the peeling plaster).
You can repeat that canard about how much worse this building was than the others as many times as you want, but again – it’s truthiness. Repeating in every post doesn’t make it true. This building collapse is an excellent indicator of the general state of almost all of these buildings.
one down and ten to go for the Army National Guard.
this site has become an experiment on how long historic houses can be allowed to rot before collapsing. I say the next one comes down in under a month, the long brick building will be next.
“No one has proposed a viable use for the rebuilt buildings anyway, and no one has identified a source to subsidize the tremendous cost. We live in a world of limited resources for important things like preservation and therefore we all have to perform a sort of triage. These are not the buildings to spend money on. There are more worthwhile historic buildings in Brooklyn. Hell, there are more worthwhile historic buildings in the Navy Yard.”
Makes sense.
The fact finding is complete and the memorandum of agreement written. The last delay is the three month (I think) period given to the BNYDC to determine if it can find developers willing to build the supermarket and new industrial building AND restore Building B and the Timber Shed.
Some of the comments above make me think it is worth repeating (and repeating and repeating) that BNYDC has not had and continues to not have site control. The neglect of the buildings should not be pinned on them.