Architectural consultant weighs in on Brooklyn building collapse

All right, so you just heard from Mayor of New York City, Zorah Landani. You also heard from the fire commissioner, as well as they were talking about that building collapse in Brooklyn. Very tragic scene, a horrible loss of life, 18 people injured, eight people dead, I believe. We wanted to just kind of get some perspective on a building collapse of this magnitude. So we want to reach out to a local architect. We want to bring in Theo McNeil. Theo, how are you? Pretty good to yourself, sir. Hey, pretty good. Thank you for joining us here. So first and foremost, I just want to ask, when you hear of a building collapsed three stories next to a construction site in a place like Brooklyn, what goes through your mind? What goes through my first structural mind, considering that New York code is a little bit different than ours in Michigan, we allow for something called setbacks, meaning that you don't have to build necessarily right on top of each other. And prior to this. This interview, doing my due diligence about the situation, I did discover that that construction site actually used to house an old auto shop that used to be for sale. So I'm assuming something must have happened to the structure, might have burned down or there may have been some other structural issues that caused it to be torn down for it even to be a vacant site. So and while looking at the images like that structure is really. Right next to the collapsed apartment building. So it didn't give any room for it to breathe when they were probably demoing it. And then also the building was built like 90 plus years ago. There weren't really construction codes established as of then. So they were building something to an eighth. 1850 standard, which is the first comprehensive building code in the United States. And we've known like since then, 1850, 2026, things have thusly changed. And then also another thing we want to highlight is that there were earthquakes in the past few years. I want to say in 2024 within New York and that side of the world is not really built to handle earthquakes as California or something that is on the West Coast. So I think those are some things that kind of go in my mind as to why it collapsed. Perhaps, of course, it's really unfortunate but Those are some factors that kind of play into my mind, in addition to probably the building was not properly maintained and brought up to today's codes and standards. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that point about the age of the infrastructure in the building because New York has been around for a very long time. And that East Coast side of the country is, you know, the infrastructure, it's old, it's aging, and we're seeing a lot more, you know, hazards because of it. But give us a sense of just how... When you deal with aging infrastructure like that, how often it needs to receive maintenance? It needs to receive maintenance. I mean, think of your body. If you're aging, no person you want to see maintenance regularly if you want to be operational. And the same with buildings is that considering that you have people living in it and it's operational was built 90 plus years ago to a construction standard that is completely irrelevant to today's standard. You will want to make sure that the building is built up to those standards and to those thresholds. But on the. Other side, I do feel just like what Mayor Mondani said with the investigations of the construction sites, we kind of want to look into how that adjacent building that was once upon a time there was demoed, because there should have been some sort of provision, considering that that next facade of buildings, which were multi-use structures with facades of businesses on the first level, living on the upper levels, there should have been some care to the foundation, considering that that existing building was literally smack flush right next to those existing row of buildings. Yeah, look, I was talking with our producer, Aaron. He says you were able to kind of you're able to kind of show us the facade of the building. So we want to give you that opportunity to give us that little show and tell. Yeah, I'm gonna do a quick screen share. Give me one brief moment. And I have both pictures of it. Thank Give me one moment. I'm not there. There we are. We're right here. Yeah. All right. So this is what it looks like. So this is I don't know if you're able to see the facade of it where there is an existing building where the demo structure is, which is here. Yeah. And then if I go to the next image, you. that's the construction site, which now the building is gone. As you can see, it's literally smack dab. As I was saying before, right. Right there, right on that. Apartment building, but you can also see some of the structural integrity of that building with the graffiti that's on the side of it. You can kind of see some discoloration of the brick, maybe some potential water damage, water leaks in there somewhere. Once again, this is a 90 plus year old building. So maintenance probably was not, you know, concerning some of these things that may have been minor structural issues in the grander scheme of it can be livable. Once again that building and I'm going to go right back to that previous shot you can kind of see that that roof line of that one-story existing structure is literally flush or right next to that apartment building that has been collapsed. And I appreciate it. The last question I want to ask you is if you are somebody who is living in an apartment like that next to a property that is no longer there, what are some of the things if you are the owner of that building or if you do maintenance in that building that you need to be aware of to keep those people safe? Absolutely. Besides the foundation, any environmental issues that may be because you're demoing an older building like asbestos or any type of lead issues, any type of particulate from older construction materials that may seep into the air that you may have to have the construction site at a point to a containment so that those surrounding in the area may not be exposed to those contaminants and those air pathogens that may cause cancer. So those are also some concerns that I made. I have with the structure of probably because that that one story structure was also old to, you know, something that I'll be concerned with as a resident living in an apartment building. If I'm living right next to a structure that's being tore down, first thing I'm going to realize, I'm going to smell or I'm going to look at the demolition and all whatever that's being tore up. It's going to be tore up all up in my respiratory system. And I'm gonna catch all of that. So that's one thing I don't wanna have to deal with, in addition to the foundation that was also impacted with the demolition of the auto shop that was next to the apartment building. We appreciate that, and as you're speaking, we have this video, thanks to Jay and thanks to Aaron, of first responders rescuing a pregnant woman from the rubble of that collapse in Brooklyn. So you can see they're pulling her up, her hands are shaking. Uh, as the first responders are pulling her up out of the, out of the rubble to safety. But yeah, this look, it's, it's a miracle that they're able to rescue this woman. Um, and, um, you know, God bless all of them, um, for the work that they've done. And my prayers are for the family and those that are involved for sure. Sure. Uh, Hey, look, thank you for your insight. Good, sir. And, uh, we do appreciate it. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Hey, anytime.