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…
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
I mean 493
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.
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.
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?
“Hopefully they will let the tenants remove their pets and portable property before demolishing the rest of the row. ”
what an inane comment Sam
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.
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?
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.
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.