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Huntington Avenue building loses face
By bostonzest on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 9:13am
Plunged to the ground: Decorative molding at the roof line of 337 Huntington Ave. Photographed after it fell off by Robert Beene. Compare to the Google Street View below.
WBZ traffic reports that a partial building collapse at 337 Huntington Ave. in Boston has closed the road and the Green line E trains near the Northeastern T-Stop.
A map of Northeastern University lists the building as a residence hall.
Channel 5 reports roofers were working on the building when part of the front collapsed.
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Update: E trains just slowing down now
Traffic reporter said trains are now just slowing down. No T-Alert posted on this one.
T Alerts
I just got this alert by email:
Green Line (E) Heath St.service is suspended between Copley Station and Northeastern due to Boston Police Activity on Huntington Avenue. Passengers desiring outbound service to Huntington Ave. must utilize shuttle bus service at Copley or use the Orange Line to Ruggles and Mass. Ave via Back Bay. Inbound Huntington Ave customers must utilize bus service at Ruggles St. into Boston. Expect significant service impacts. 7/13/2009 9:21 AM
It would be nice if the T told the truth for once.
Police Activity?!? Why not say 'building problem' instead? It's not like that description would panic passengers from using the T (which is supposedly the T's rationale for saying "medical emergency' instead of 'accident' or 'derailment').
I was there
We sat at Prudential for about 10 minutes, then the driver told us due to a construction collapse, the train would be stopping there, and we could go upstairs where a 39 was waiting (it wasn't; I walked; nice day). But as I was walking a train full of people finally crept out of the tunnel near Northeastern, right where all the firetrucks and police were.
I was on the 39 bus this
I was on the 39 bus this morning when it happened, and I saw several firetrucks racing past us to get to the building. Our bus got as far as the MFA before the driver told us that she was going to be rerouted so if we didn't want to get lost, we should get off there.
I walked past the building in question and it appeared that the decorative roofline was what collapsed onto the sidewalk.
ResHall
The building is a ResHall for Northeastern and has been evacuated.
The parapet wall above that
The parapet wall above that decorative cornice was removed a few weeks ago at the start of the roofing work. I have a bad feeling that structurally compromised the cornice. Why it took several weeks to collapses is maybe a result of all the recent wet weather. Without the parapet wall capping the top of the cornice, maybe water seeped behind the ornamental concrete slabs and caused them to separate from the front of the facade. Very lucky no one was walking by when that happened.
lucky indeed
An (un-scientific) poll of the NorthEastern Co-Op students in my office had more than 50% of them walking in front of the building within the last 24hours.
Anyone care to hazzard a guess on what's going thru the minds of NE administrators? My guess - "So, where the f*** is the scaffolding?".
Here are some more photos from Herald
Photos
Eugh, I lived there for a
Eugh, I lived there for a semester and it was falling apart on the inside...now the outside matches.