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.
It’s Curtains for Most of Admiral’s Row [Brownstoner]
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]
It’s quite clear from all of P Heights comments (if you look back in his history) that he is associated with, and likely works for, the Navy Yard Corporation.
The Navy Yard Corporation saw the success of the Fairway in Red Hook and banking on the political impotence of the poor people in the neighborhood saw a way to make money by tearing down these buildings situated in a very automobile accessible area.
This building’s collapse says nothing about the structural integrity of the others. This building suffered very significant damage in a major fire.
Also – I have walked by these buildings several times a week for the past 10 years. I have been to Flushing ave. WHatver so it’s 45 feet away, I was makeing a point.
Yes this building has deteriorated but so have they all. There are plenty of phots of the exteriors of the other buildings showing how their windows have fallen out over the past several years too. For many years there was a pack of wild dogs that lived on the site – I am sure that that didn’t help things and that they didn’t exclusively cause damage to Quarters C. Photos of specific elements of the interiors may look nice, but that tells you nothing of the buildings actual condition. Are you seriously comparing your understanding of the building having looked at some photos of Flickr to my understanding – having actually been inside all of these buildings?
Even after today’s collapse? Have you not learned the lesson? The people who say these buildings are falling down in front of our eyes are right. They’ve been inside and seen the actuall buildings. They are not making judgements based on flickr.
Seriously Streber – that stupid conspiracy theory innuendo just makes you look like an ass. WHat do you mean to imply? Why don’t you just say it outright. You are accusing me of having some sort of financial stake in this.
I don’t.
My motivation is that I think that, as hearbreaking as it may be, everyone has to grow up and admit that they dropped the ball on this one and it’s too late. The feds let this thing get too far gone and then they Navy Yard gets blamed for being the only ones with the balls to actually admit it and call it like they see it. My motivation is that it bothers me to see and hear people who don’t know what they’re talking about chastise those who do. My motivation is that I don’t want to see public money go towards some disneyworld version of preservation when it could actually go towards much more worthy projects. Take that $50 million and spend it on the hospital or the surgeon’s house – buildings that are actually savable and could wind up becoming a beautiful back lot for steiner studios and contribute to both the culture and economy of Brooklyn.
Isn’t that enough motivation for you?
100 feet away? Have you ever even been to Flushing Avenue?
Somehow the windows lasted from 1966-2008… and in the last year they all fell out.
I’ve been going past these buildings every day for the last 8 years. This particular building has been deteriorating MUCH quicker than the others since the fire.
There’s lots of pictures from inside these buildings. Some of the ones that haven’t suffered major fires are in pretty good shape.
What’s your motivation P Heights?
I’ll tell you mine. These buildings are an amazing aesthetic asset to the neighborhood.
What’s your motivation?
Streber – this is not the only building to have many of its windows gone. You are juding only by what you cans see of one facade from 100 feet away. If you were able to go inside or see the other facades you’d see that the other buildings are not much better off.
All of you people who are saying that the facade was falling off after the fire are not being very accurate. The buildings are brick buildings whith a thin layer of plaster over the front. The fire (or the water, really) caused the plaster to come off. WHile this certainly looks striking, the plaster has no actual structural value. The reason this building fell (and the reason the others will soon) is becuase of the giant gaping holes in the roof that let in rain and snow. The cycle of freezing and defrosting has systematically rotted away the wood joists and other structural elements over the years. This building is not the only one with holes in the roof. The timber shed has a hole so big that a tree is actuallty growing through it.
I don’t want to sound like a cheerleader for historic buildings falling down. I actually love historic buildings and understand the romantic impulses that these buildings have stirred up in alot of people.
But what has always bothered me about this issue is that people who have no idea about what’s actually going inside these buildings have made comments about how sure they are that the buildings can be saved and that the Navy Yard was overstating their state of decay. It always had a ring of “truthines” to it. I want it to be true, therefore it’s true.
So what I am cheerleading for today is the emergence of the actual truth. These buildings are in a very serious state of decay. Rebuilding them will be very expensive and, in the end, you will just be building replicas that look like these buildngs but are 95% new structures. 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.
To further illustrate the accelerated deterioration this _particular_ building had been experiencing….
A pic from November 2008:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmechanic/3048778062/
And then a pic from April 2009:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomvu/3433805927/
Notice that in 6 months all of the upstairs windows are gone? (particularly the upper-right one?)
Here’s a pic of that building from 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/callalillie/3000048/
This picture, taken of this building probably a year or so after it suffered a major fire, gives a hint at the damage this building suffered during the fire.
You can clearly see this buildings facade and roof damage.
A building with no roof after 4 or 5 years… sure, something is going to happen. Similarly, a store collapsed just a few blocks away on Cumberland and Park a few years back when the adjacent building was left without a roof for a few years. Also that historic building on Clark street in BH left without a roof…
Again, this building’s lack of structural integrity has no bearing on the others.
I had actually commented several times to one of my neighbors about how this particular building seemed to be deteriorating exponentially faster than the others since the fire. It genuinely appeared as if people had been in the building kicking out windows and walls.
Still up on my high horse Jon. You’ve been up on yours on this issue for a couple of years now, So I don’t think it’s fair for you to ask me to come down after only a couple of minutes. I’ll make you a deal, though. When you get down, I’ll get down.
I think you’re having some trouble with your cut and paste function because I didn’t see an apology anywhere in your post.
Your comment about it being about cost is true for this house too. Andrew Kimball is 100% right. If they had wanted to, the Navy Yard could have spent millions of dollars rebuild Quarters C before it collapsed on itself. Hell, if they wanted to spend even more money, they could even still rebuild it now that it’s collapsed. But even you would admit that that would be a waste of money now. The problem is that you think that the others are in such better condition. Yes this one had a fire a few years back. But i’ll tell you, I’ve been in all the buildings since after the fire, and they were all in such bad shape that you couldn’t tell which one had the fire.
The reason the fire contributed to the collapse of this building was not because of the fire itself, but from the water damage from soaking the building to put out the fire. The thing is, none of these buildings is watertight. They all have significant holes in their roofs and get soaked evertime it rains and snows. The additional soaking from putting out the fire may have made it the first to go, but the others are not too far behind.
What will it take for you to admit that these buildings are so far gone that it’s just not worth it?