Unwelcome visitor to 1515 (Wurlitzer building)

Early Monday morning a piece of the Wurlitzer building came off and fell through the roof of the building that houses DetroitYes' favorite downtown coffee shop, 1515 Broadway. The chunk fell through the roof, bounced off the floor and exited through the plate glass window on the second floor and landed on the sidewalk. I'm heading over there to talk to Danny at 1515 [[both the shop and Danny apparently undamaged) about the deal [[and take a pic of the window, but I though that you would like to hear about it first.

Be careful walking by the Wurlitzer... and the Metropolitan...

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Originally Posted by DetroitScooter

Early Monday morning a piece of the Wurlitzer building came off and fell through the roof of the building that houses DetroitYes' favorite downtown coffee shop, 1515 Broadway. The chunk fell through the roof, bounced off the floor and exited through the plate glass window on the second floor and landed on the sidewalk. I'm heading over there to talk to Danny at 1515 [[both the shop and Danny apparently undamaged) about the deal [[and take a pic of the window, but I though that you would like to hear about it first.

Be careful walking by the Wurlitzer... and the Metropolitan...

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The Metropolitan has netting over the facade now... sounds like the Wurlitzer needs it too.

Wasn't there a little theatre at 1515 Broadway once?

There still is a little theater. Very nice, too!

Man...no! my favorite coffee shop!! Glad to here Danny is okay. Hope the owner wasn't upstairs when that happened.

As beautiful as it is, the Wurl really needs to come down. Unless there is some way to save it, of course.

Here's an opportunity to start a fashion fad. Hardhats sporting a big Old English D. They'd sell like hotcakes!

Bounced off the floor and through a plate glass window? Really?
Glad no one was hurt.

I love 1515... this isn't going to be the end of them right???

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Originally Posted by Jimaz

Here's an opportunity to start a fashion fad. Hardhats sporting a big Old English D. They'd sell like hotcakes!

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LOL... Jimaz... one would have thought the same for "Imported to Detroit" T-Shirts... hardhat manufacturers would have to be very careful how they make that old "D"....

Detroiturbex does some great reporting on the Wurlitzer situation. I don't understand how a piece of stone this large with such a small overhang can fall without it being pushed off. Actually, it looks like two or three sections of stone were pushed off the roof judeging from the other pictures. Regardless, the facade of this building needs to be secured.

http://detroiturbex.com/content/special/wurlitzer/

Really is a shame. I love the Wurl...but it looks like its time to part ways.

I don't quite get how people can say this without performing an Engineering study on the building. A facade is not structural. When a brick or bricks are damaged on your 50 year old house, do you tear the whole house down? Bricks falling off a building does not mean the solid steel and concrete structure is damaged unless you are have a professional report indicating otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Planner3357

Really is a shame. I love the Wurl...but it looks like its time to part ways.

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Originally Posted by rjlj

I don't quite get how people can say this without performing an Engineering study on the building. A facade is not structural. When a brick or bricks are damaged on your 50 year old house, do you tear the whole house down? Bricks falling off a building does not mean the solid steel and concrete structure is damaged unless you are have a professional report indicating otherwise.

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I'm certainly not an engineer but wouldn't the bulging brick and falling facade signify structural problems with the foundation?

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Originally Posted by mikeg19

I'm certainly not an engineer but wouldn't the bulging brick and falling facade signify structural problems with the foundation?

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The bricks and facade are cemented onto a reinforced concrete building frame. If the flashing on the roof is not maintained over time water will wash the bricks and facade right off a building. The building has been there for a long time and has settled long ago, so unless some unseen hydraulic or seismic activity has altered the composition of the soil under the building its just loose tiles falling off a bathroom wall.

Incredible how buildings downtown reach this state. I was talking to my building manager about our upcoming REQUIRED facade and window inspection. Even if we have as so much a quarter size chunk of masonry loose, we must have scaffolding and canopies up the next day or face thousands of dollars per day in fines. Where is all the action in Detroit? I recall a whole thread here devoted to an entire wall coming loose in one of these buildings. The city should be shaking these individuals down for every penny they got for allowing their buildings to become a public danger.

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Originally Posted by rjlj

Detroiturbex does some great reporting on the Wurlitzer situation. I don't understand how a piece of stone this large with such a small overhang can fall without it being pushed off. Actually, it looks like two or three sections of stone were pushed off the roof judeging from the other pictures. Regardless, the facade of this building needs to be secured.

http://detroiturbex.com/content/special/wurlitzer/

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I hope he did everyone a favor and pulled that loose piece of brick away from the side and let it sit on the Wurlitzer roof...If those were loose anyway and getting in is so easy I'd speculate with a great deal of certainty that the piece that fell on to 1515 was actually pushed

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Originally Posted by rjlj

I don't quite get how people can say this without performing an Engineering study on the building. A facade is not structural. When a brick or bricks are damaged on your 50 year old house, do you tear the whole house down? Bricks falling off a building does not mean the solid steel and concrete structure is damaged unless you are have a professional report indicating otherwise.

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I thought I read somewhere in the past that the foundation was failing....which is why I said what I did. If indeed can be salvaged...that would be great.

Either way, something has to be done in the interim.

Metrotimes has picked this stroy up.

http://metrotimes.com/news/falling-down-1.1141406

If I remember right the owner of this building bought it for 200K and wanted 2 million for it and wasnt flexible on the price. It looks like his greed is going to come back and haunt him.

His greed can only haunt him so much, though. What's much scarier is that Chris or his son -- or any of us, on the street or in the alley -- can be crushed to death by our neighbor's negligence. The owners of The Wurlitzer must be pursued vigorously until the problem is solved, and yes jail time should be a possibility for something that can result in manslaughter.

The Freep takes on the Wurlitzer Building situation. Thank you Steve Neavling and Mandi Wright for taking on the story.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011050...text|FRONTPAGE

$850,000 sounds a lot better than the reported $2 million he was originally asking for, though I think the value of the building certainly has diminished since he purchased it for $200,000...just give it away to someone who has the cash to do something with it to make it safe and secure...like the article says they "should know better"

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Originally Posted by mcsdetroitfriend

I hope he did everyone a favor and pulled that loose piece of brick away from the side and let it sit on the Wurlitzer roof...If those were loose anyway and getting in is so easy I'd speculate with a great deal of certainty that the piece that fell on to 1515 was actually pushed

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If it was pushed, it's the owners fault. If the building was secure, there would be no one getting in throwing things out windows or knocking bricks off the roof. But I doubt that happened. It comes down to slumlords around town that get away with letting their building deteriorate. No one ever does anything until something happens. Actually, let me correct myself, no one does anything. Has the city made them put up scaffolding around their building?

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Originally Posted by wolverine

If it was pushed, it's the owners fault. If the building was secure, there would be no one getting in throwing things out windows or knocking bricks off the roof. But I doubt that happened. It comes down to slumlords around town that get away with letting their building deteriorate. No one ever does anything until something happens. Actually, let me correct myself, no one does anything. Has the city made them put up scaffolding around their building?

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Free Press says the city erected the fence on its own after getting no cooperation from the owner and his judge wife.

Good. I hope the city sues the hell out of them.

Detroit really needs to step up regulation and impose extremely heavy and harsh fines on owners that poorly maintain their buildings.

Check out the huge penalties on this building in Chicago that was found to have black mold:
http://www.1000westlofts-lawsuit.com/site/

$8 million in building code violations! That's alot of money for the city.