Thursday
Apr302009
04.30 New York City Building Collapse
This woke me up -- as I literally felt my building move.
I live on the corner of Church and Chambers in Tribeca, and this building (apparently abandoned), just fell down into Reade St. 5 helicopters and 10 fire engines later, I decided to head down and see if I was going to need to evacuate. Apparently, my building is fine.
These shots are completely original. I was the only person on the roof at the time (my building), and they shut off access soon afterwards. There was an empty parking lot next to the building that fell down, which is why you can see the side.
Reader Comments (30)
WHOA! That's insane. Let's face it though. You live in New York City. It was probably a brawl between a superhero and supervillian. Maybe it's a stunt for the release of Wolverine.
Seriously, I hope no one was hurt or killed.
Great pictures! Scary. FYI, your blog was just shown on a morning show in Toronto showing your pics.
Theres a rat in da kitchen wat Im a going to do? Theres a rat in the kitchen wat Im a going to do... Im a fiex dat rat is wat im a going to do Ima fiex dat rat!
I used to live at the Chambers between Broadway & Church and our office is down there. Is that Takahachi across the street?
Building was vacant. Don't think anyone was hurt.
NYTOnline has this link. Good pix.
Takahachi in on Duane St, silly! Great Chirashi lunch special. :) Glad no one was hurt...
That is crazy. Great pictures.
And I thought stones falling from pediments in Edinburgh was dramatic enough. A dusty cloud and panic ensues. How the trauma of 9/11 has changed the way New Yorkers interpret phenomena around them.
nytimes grabbed you: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/vacant-building-collapses-in-lower-manhattan/?hp
The chirashi special is exactly why I was asking. There are a couple buildings down there like that. Scary stuff.
Great pictures! Thank God no one was in the buidling. I wonder how many other old building are in danger of collapse--either from poor renovation or lack thereof.
To see a before shot..
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=69+Reade+Street,+new+york,+ny&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=Ea_5SeDjLoLItgez8uGmAw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1
If you are on a Mac, drag one of the pictures to your desktop. Open in Preview. Press cmd-I to open the Inspector window. Click on the More Info icon. Press the Locate button and it will open Google Maps where you can see a Street View panoramic image of the location.
To recap; Drag pic to desktop, double-click, cmd-I, More Info icon, Locate button.
great pictures. thank you for these
I want to see what the Security Cam pointing right at the building saw...
a group of friends and i just had dinner at a sushi place across the street last night. how random--it could have happened anytime! wow, such relief we weren't caught in that, and that people weren't hurt.
As Carole King once said, "I felt the earth move under my feet...I felt the sky (building) come tumbling down..."
Wow, that's crazy. But awesome pics!
Good thing you had Sagar & Little Bitch there to protect you.
Thanks for the photos. We used to live at 77 Reade St -- right on the west side of that parking lot. There was a big fire in that building in October 1986. They thought it was arson but it could never be proved.
Wow, those are some crazy shots! Though I'm surprised this doesn't happen all the time in NYC.. hehe
To Anon,
Screwdriver!
I live at 65 Reade St. I was startled by what I thought was an earth quake in NYC at 6 AM... After being woken up by my roommates running around in terror I realized I was still alive. The 5 of us decided to walk to the roof and see what was happening. REALLY .. I mean REALLY. HOLY SHIT!!! the building next to us has fallen. Is it time to move? I really don't know because I love my little place.
I cant go home tonight nor do I want to. So sleep well my close neighbor. I will see you soon!
Great Photos by the way!!!
You should have also take some picture where all the stores was gone for the whole day...If you would have some picture of them,,, All small buisness people can get their losses back .The small buisness depends on their daily base buisness ,,,therefore they should get their losses back.