20 April 2011

Storm Hits Race Street

Uprooted street tree
 


Roof and masonry wall blown off above 3CDC's new offices. This renovation was just completed and the damage looks pretty severe. The roof structure was old, but parts of the 4th floor were removed to make lofts and the structure altered in the renovation. There was insulation all over Republic Street, and it looked like a lot of water got in and reached the occupied areas on the first floor. I'm sure someone will have better photos.
 


Lots of slate was blown off Nast Trinity Church, it was all over the sidewalk
 

4 comments:

Randy Simes said...

I'm really surprised that 3CDC's new building on Race Street suffered that much damage. It makes me wonder about the quality of work done to renovate that structure. I know the storm was strong, but still, this much damage should not happen to a recently renovated structure.

Given the storm's intensity, I'm also surprised that the church at 14th & Race didn't come down entirely. That building has been in a very bad way since it got struck by lightening the other year, and with stabilization efforts taking place now I thought that it may have been potentially more vulnerable.

prolix21 said...

Yeah, for something so recently renovated it's a bit concerning. I'm over in Mottainai and I haven't found any damage to our building. Sounded like the roof was going to come off though.

VisuaLingual said...

Randy, I think you're referring to St. Paulus at 15th and Race. If so, I'm wondering about it as well. I know stabilization work was ongoing, but it seems like quite a vulnerable structure [more so, I would have thought, than the newly rehabbed 3CDC building at 14th and Race!].

CityKin said...

A couple thoughts:

I think the engineer or architect missed something on the 3CDC renovation. After all the building had stood undamaged for 125 years with no roof damage, so something was done incorrectly in the renovation.

The other thing to notice is that the building that lost it's roof was 5 stories, which means it sticks up higher than the neighboring buildings and catches the wind more.

St Paulus wa not struck by lightning, but looked burned because of the old dark wool that was left exposed after hurricane Ile blew off the top level of the tower enclosure. But I noticed that they recently installed a perimeter bond beam at the top of the sanctuary wall and anchored the new trusses to it. A bond beam is basically a reinforced concrete beam that ties everything together and stiffens the structure. Plus the remaining tower is very solid masonry.