BUILDING FACADE COLLAPSES IN MANHATTAN AT 8TH AND 14TH STREET

[swag]

Source: Business Insider

A building facade has collapsed at 8th Ave and 14th Street in Manhattan, according to FDNY and other sources.

No one is trapped inside, according to USEmergAlerts.

The front of the 92 8th Ave has fallen off, according to this picture from Meg Robertson on twitter:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/major-building-collapse-in-manhattan-at-8th-and-14th-street-2012-10#ixzz2AjTAf3vg


Edit: Updated photo at the link. Looks like the facade came down: not a total collapse.




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/major-building-collapse-in-manhattan-at-8th-and-14th-street-2012-10

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Updated to reflect rapidly changing story. Thank goodness it's not as bad as first thought.

[truthisfreedom]

1. I wonder if water washed away the foundation?

Good luck, people!

[AngryOldDem]

6. If that's true, then how many more buildings are at risk?

Especially older ones?

Here's hoping everyone gets out okay.

I can't get my head around what's going on there right now.

[DollarBillHines]

11. The facade pulled away.

pic at link

[NYC_SKP]

31. Architect here. The answer is "no".

It appears that the brick facade simply peeled off from the rest of the building.

It's amazing that so many of the early tenement buildings still stand.

My apartment on Houston Street on the lower east side was 11 feet wide, one wall (the wall adjacent to the center stairwell) was fully three inches lower than the other exterior masonry wall, due to shrinkage of the wood internal structure.

Anything on the floor rolled or flowed to that side of the apartment.

[Monk06]

37. Interesting. I would have thought the facade was a bearing wall. Apparently not. It must have been

well built to lose the facade and still be standing. I doubt that it has a steel super structure given that it has only four stories, so even more remarkable.

[NYC_SKP]

38. That building appears to be on a typical NYC 25' wide lot.

And usually the ceiling and floor joists span the masonry walls at the property lines, parallel to the sidewalk.

Thus, the loads fall on the side walls and not on the facade wall, which has to support itself but not load from the joists or beam except, in some cases, at mid-span.

[freedom fighter jh]

35. More Likely Wind Sucked Away the Facade

A fluid in motion is under less pressure than the stationary fluid around it. If there was already a lot of wind from the hurricane, it would have been pulling on the facade (because of its low pressure) from the outside with higher-pressure (stationary) air pushing from inside the building. It's for this reason that when a hurricane shatters windows the pieces always fly outward, not inward. It's just that this time the wind took half the building's facade, not just its windows.

Must be a powerful wind in New York now.

[sakabatou]

2. I hope the people in those building are alright

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Omigod.

That is horrifying.

The loss of innocent life is unspeakably terrible.

[dumbledork]

4. Controlled demolition no doubt! n/t

...

[jberryhill]

5. Here we go...

[Purveyor]

7. Picture of the damage?

[slackmaster]

12. I'm going to take a wild guess that water pooled up on the roof and the weight collapsed it

I've seen it happen more than once.

[frazzled]

8. Wow, that's just on the block where I used to work

Well, I'm talking decades and decades ago, in the 1970. I pray the people inside are okay!

PS: When I worked in that neighborhood, I witnessed another tragedy. Sitting at my desk, typing away (on a typewriter!), I noticed something go by outside, in my peripheral vision. I stood up to look out, and to my complete shock and horror saw a body fallen through the roof, several floors below, of the building next door (then an A & P supermarket). I will never forget the shock and anxiety I felt that day. It almost happened in slow motion: seeing something, sensing it was a person, then looking to confirm the horror.

PPS: I'm seeing that building is on 8th Ave. My building was just around the corner, on 14th Street, near 8th.

[Tuesday_Morning]

9. There's a photo at the link

Looks like just the facade of the building has fallen off.

[Happyhippychick]

10. It's a building FACADE, still bad but not as bad as a whole building

[frazzled]

18. Yes just confirmed it was facade (link)

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/building-facade-collapses-in-nyc-before-hurricane-sandy

A building located at 92 8th Ave. in Manhattan has suffered a collapsed front facade and falling debris in advance of the landfall of Hurricane Sandy, a New York Fire Department spokesperson confirmed in a phone interview with TPM.

FDNY had no reported injuries at the time of the interview with TPM and 25 units were on the scene clearing debris and checking to see if anyone was hurt.

[southernyankeebelle]

13. I was wondering how the buildings were going to do with the wind.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. That is wind

Wow.

[yardwork]

15. Please edit your OP. The source has edited their headline. It's not a major building.

[DURHAM D]

16. Wow - how strange.

It was the facade, not the whole building,

[WilliamPitt]

17. Major?

CONTROLLED DEMOLITION WHAAARGARBLE

Grip, get thyself.

[HereSince1628]

19. Looks like the front facade broke loose...all those years, all that decomposition...

of mortar on a ~100 year old building...

[progressivebydesign]

20. The building looks like it's still standing. the front came down, though.

scary. Not a major building. Hope everyone is okay. But the building is still there...

[slackmaster]

28. The front fell off

[luv_mykatz]

39. I have seen this video before....

it is one of THE FUNNIEST videos I've ever seen.

And, yes, politicians are the same everywhere...

Thank you for posting this.

[defacto7]

21. This is terrible

But I wouldn't call it a major building. I would call it a building. If that's a major building, what would you call larger buildings? Maybe they are calling it a major collapse OF a building. Not well reported by the newspaper.

[redqueen]

29. They want clicks.

Our media is irresponsible at best.

[redqueen]

22. OMG that headline scared the crap out of me!

The facade is bad enough, but still.... Whew.

[Beacool]

23. It looks like the facade broke away from the rest of the bldg.

Some of these old buildings are poorly maintained. We are getting pummeled in this area. My power went out for 2 hours. It just came back a few minutes ago. Hopefully it'll stay on.

[slackmaster]

24. I'm glad it turned out to be just the facade and not the entire building

[swag]

27. I posted the original headline as prescribed by the forum rules.

When the facts of the story changed and the article on the link changed, I amended them.

Your accusation against me is unfounded.

Get a grip.

[progressivebydesign]

30. Whoa cowboy!! the original link SAYS building collapse. It was wrong but reported that way.

People on twitter are still tweeting that a MAJOR building collapsed, and finally they're being corrected. But don't hate on the OP. If you look at the Business Insider link, that is what is written there.

[LiberalElite]

33. NY1.com reports it was due to wind. (can't get link) -

I feel sorry for the people who lived there now displaced.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Yup

Posted that above...

[JackRiddler]

36. Oh come on people...

Half of the front wall of a small brownstone in New York fell off, harming no one. Bet the building was rickety and this could have also happened without the storm.

[davidpdx]

40. Wow, extremely lucky no one got hurt

On the bright side the rent which was $4,400 a month will be going down.