Boom Demolition on Boren
posted by on February 24 at 16:30 PM
The Northcliffe Apartments have stood vacant for the last four years, according to a neighbor standing at Boren Ave and Seneca St yesterday afternoon. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” she said, holding her camera phone. But it was news to me. I’d just ran off the bus because the driver announced we had to take “a detour to avoid a building demolition.”
Virginia Mason Hospital is expanding. The existing wings have some seismic instability problems, the hospital says, so its razing the Northcliffe to make room for a new wing. Fair enough. But, still, the Northcliffe is a stately brick gentleman of a building and he was being torn down, so I was like, “Aww.”
But then out came The Claw—a gigantic articulated arm with a massive steel pincher that can crush brick. And I was like, “Hells, yes, tear that sucker down!”
More demolition porn and a rendering of the new building after the jump.
In the massive FAQ about the hospital expansion, the shortest section is titled, “Rodent Control Mitigation.” All it says is this: “Rodent extermination will be carried out prior to demolition.”
It did smell kinda weird.
I just like the crashing of brick.
That bay-window frame fell the wrong direction, into the street, and crushed a panel of chain-link fence. Awesome.
The demolition crews took a break and I had stuff to do, so I left. When I came back this afternoon, the mighty Northcliffe had been reduced to this pile of rubble.
After the thrill subsided of brick walls falling from sky, I was bummed again. What a loss. RIP, Northcliffe Apartments. Hello, seismically-sound hospital wing.
What a beautiful old building.
That said, if they were able to take it down that fast, it wasn't going to be too seismically stable.
I would not have wanted to weather an earthquake in it.
It was sad to see a pretty brick building go down, but the neighborhood has smelled of rotting things and mold ever since they took the windows out of the building several months ago, so I'm glad at least the smell will be gone.
Brick buildings hold up pretty well in Earthquakes. Seattle has a number of buildings that have already been through a number of shakers.
Another sad part of this story is the loss of affordable housing stock.
Fucking evil. Virginia Mason, rot in hell. Build your shit somewhere else. That building should have been saved.
that's why i love seattle so much. as long as you include parking and main level retail, tear that old shit down.
Where should VM be building, if not there?
I'd blame condo developers and City Hall for loss of affordable housing long before I'd blame the hospital.
If I remember correctly, way back when, this building used to house nursing students when VM had its own nursing school. It's sad to see an old building go, but it's a long time coming. I've worked at VM and the place is a crammed shoe box. They're overdue for an expansion and have to go somewhere, I guess.
Well, at least it's not yet another new condo project or a conversion.
That place was a total crackhouse 10 years ago.
Love Virginia Mason - they have saved my life several times.
World class medical resource center - much expertise in five or six major medical areas.
Let's hope they are maxing out height and under ground parking for the future - and then will limit expansion by tear downs.
Completely rebuilt - that building would have been GREAT medium priced housing - how little we plan anything.
While I am very pro-old building, I'm not seeing any reinforced concrete being pulled down in those pictures. Which is why they were able to take it down so fast.
That building could have been a disaster.
That building should have been saved. Wanna know what could have been demolished instead? The parking lot between VM and Town Hall. Replace it with a larger underground garage and build up. Save housing in the process.
John I'm glad Virginia Mason saved your life. Their misdiagnosing my appendicitis twice resulted in my system going septic and my almost losing my life. Since they didn't remove my appendix when they "drained" me, I got appendicitis again 6 months later. They charged me $75000 for their malpractice. I was hospitalized 4 years later as a result of the episode, and I'm still suffering complications now nine years later. I would never recommend that anyone go to Virginia Mason, especially not their overcrowded emergency room where they have people triaged on stretchers in the hallway.
Trevor - sorry to hear the negative story.
My recent problems are heart and diabetes. And in those fields, for me, they have been excellent.
Years ago, the almost killer was serious hep.
Trevor @ 12 -
Did you sue? Seems like you had an open-and-shut case, by your description.
BTW, ERs all over the place are overcrowded:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-emergency9feb09,1,5278651.story
Whoa. I used to live there in 95. I loved it, we could play music as loud as we wanted, that was the beauty of these old buildings, not like today.
OMG! this is the building I was talking about on a different comment. We'll I guess if it stood the 2001 (was it?) earth quake?.. well no I know these old buildings may not be so safe, but there are ways to reinforce them. I guess if this baby was a celebrity like UW's Suzallo Library, someone would come up with the money to fix it.
The seismic upgrade on Suzallo is awesome by the way :)
Somehow though, these old buildings have a charm that most of new generation condos are missing... It's our consumerist generation.
OMG! this is the building I was talking about on a different comment. We'll I guess if it stood the 2001 (was it?) earth quake?.. well no I know these old buildings may not be so safe, but there are ways to reinforce them. I guess if this baby was a celebrity like UW's Suzallo Library, someone would come up with the money to fix it.
The seismic upgrade on Suzallo is awesome by the way :)
Somehow though, these old buildings have a charm that most of new generation condos are missing...
This was a great old building and it makes me SICK to hear that it was torn down. God help us.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).