After part of the Cromwell Recreation Center collapsed into the harbor yesterday afternoon, it's unclear if the building will be saved. The Parks Department says some of the 1938 structure, which sits on a pier, can be saved, but the the FDNY said the part of the front of the center "is in imminent state of collapse" and engineers are planning a "controlled demolition" of the front of the building. The Staten Island Advance reports, "It already had shifted five and a half inches in the first two hours following the arrival of emergency responders."
Firefighters initially responded to a smaller collapse at the pier, but then a second one occurred when they were about to check it out; a resident said, "I heard them banging, and all of a sudden, ‘Get out!’ and that’s when they ran like hell." The Advance also has video of the collapse—it's pretty crazy:
| Pier collaspe |
The center had been closed last month, to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation and stabilization project; luckily no one was working on the building at the time. Angry residents say the city had ignored it too long, one lamenting, "I just feel terrible that a vintage building like that should be ruined because the city doesn’t give a damn."
