Social Security building cordoned off, Chester St closed, Elm St reduced to one lane

[ron_newman]

As I walk by right now, there's a fence around part of the Social Security Building, closing off the adjoining sidewalks on both Elm and Chester streets. Chester Street is closed to traffic between Elm St and Redbones. Dunkin Donuts is closed, and the bus stop has been moved temporarily down the street to in front of Anna's Tacqueria.

A cop stationed nearby said that a piece of the building fell into the street, but I don't see any rubble or any missing piece of the building.

A reddit thread points off to a tweet saying "Dunks + old Social Security bldg in Davis Sq has significant structural integrity problem".

Anyone know more??

Comments

[cthulhia]

wait. *you* don't know?

[ron_newman]

I first learned about it from that reddit post, then walked over to look around. Maybe in the daytime it will be more evident what fell off and where, but I didn't see anything obvious.

[beinneighe.livejournal.com]

I walked by during the day and saw a guy take a photo of the wall, but I looked and couldn't figure out what it was he saw.

[ron_newman]

During the day? How long has it been fenced off like this?

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

When I passed by that area around 11:30 a.m., the Dunkin' Donuts was open for business, at least.

[beinneighe.livejournal.com]

day = ~4:30 or so?

Oh, and I was also in the area around 2, and there was no fencing. Neither structural nor athletic.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

That was my exact thought, too: "I wonder what Ron knows about this?"

[unferth.livejournal.com]

A chunk of the molding fell off the side of the building on the Chester Street side - the corner adjoining Dunken' Donuts. The gap is clearly visible over the windows, once you know where to look - it was over the third window small window away from Elm in this view:
https://maps.google.com/?ll=42.395339,-71.121862&spn=0.001636,0.003055&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=42.395262,-71.121979&panoid=zcy3KRMDMTMC1aNagtjyOg&cbp=12,155.46,,0,-23.39

Up and slightly right from the blue Coolata ad. Basically the whole length over one of those windows fell - although it was only the lower extended lip, not the molded columns and arch. It looked to be about the same thickness as the curb of an average sidewalk. Certainly nothing you'd want to be underneath, but to the untrained naked eye (and with no knowledge of any underlying engineering issues) that alone wouldn't suggest any serious structural issues.

I think this happened sometime roughly around 3:00 PM today - at least, I stopped into iYo a little before 3 and didn't notice any special traffic. Although I was coming from Grove and could have overlooked a minor commotion at Chester. Shortly afterwards, a fire truck showed (aimed the wrong way on Elm) and when I checked to see what was going on, I saw at least three full-length trucks, plus a smaller fire department SUV and a police cruiser. I think that was about 3:15 pm. They had taped off the area by then, and blocked it with vehicles.

They didn't have fencing up when I left iYo around 4-4:15 - I first saw that when I next went into the square a bit after 9.

[ron_newman]

Thanks for this informative and detailed reply!

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Ok, so that's the second building that's fallen into the street in Somerville this fall. When are we going to actually get inspectional services?

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's any inspection system to prevent buildings from falling apart. The incentives are pretty strong for the building owner to keep the building together, because fixing such problems is expensive and they are liable for any damages.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

We have inspectional services. They're just too busy hunting rats to worry about little things like buildings falling into the streets.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

Don't downplay the rat thing--we just noticed them around our building in the past couple of months or so (since the landcritters dumped some dirt in our yard areas; don't know if there's a connection or not...), and when both candidates for Alderman in Ward 5 feel compelled to tell Scout Somerville that one of the first things they want to work on if elected is to do something about the rat problem, well...I guess it's safe to say we're not the only ones w/a problem. (Psst, Mark: I'm going to hold you to that.) On Halloween night I ended up standing on the sidewalk w/a bowl of candy for the kids, because I didn't want them coming down the stairs to my basement apartment door due to the rats deciding that right then was a good time to Come Out and Play in the area around the entryway. *sigh*

But yes, Inspectional Services needs to get cracking on making sure buildings don't keep collapsing at inopportune moments (then again, I don't think there is such as a thing as an opportune moment for a building to collapse...). Is it too much to ask that they handle that AND do something about Willard/Ben and their little buddies?

[ron_newman]

This afternoon, probably continuing into tomorrow, construction workers are removing all of the decorative stonework above all the windows, on both the Chester and Elm street sides.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

That seems like a reasonable precaution.

Or maybe it's more of a postcaution.

[ron_newman]

But it's sad to lose all of that detail.

Also, they're removing it all by hand with chisels, since they don't want to cause more vibration by using power saws or stonecutters.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

The owner of the building proposed a new facade back in September, which seemed to anger a lot of residents. It sounds like there may be no choice now.

[ron_newman]

This wasn't the whole façade falling off (like happened to Zoe's on Beacon Street) -- just a small ornamental piece of moulding.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

so, not a case where someone knocked something off with a hammer to provide justification for building owners knocking the building down and putting up luxury condos and fro-yo stores?

[antimony.livejournal.com]

When I arrived in the square last night around 6:30pm, there were cones up but no fencing; by the time I left at around 8, the fencing was up. The rubble had been moved by then -- it wasn't at all clear what had happened.

[monica jimenez (from livejournal.com)]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x348807219/Workers-remove-crumbling-facade-on-old-Social-Security-building-in-Somerville

[ron_newman]

I don't know why LJ didn't turn that into a live link, but here it is:
Workers remove crumbling facade on old Social Security building-

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Maybe because she's posting through Facebook?

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that all of Chester St is still blocked off, including the sidewalk to Redbones. I hope the Social Security building owner is sent a bill for the police detail.

[ron_newman]

And another bill for Redbones' lost business. I don't understand why the west sidewalk can't be opened during hours when there is no work being done on the Social Security building's façade.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

I don't understand it either. Even if the entire facade fell off, it would land on the street. It wouldn't reach the sidewalk across the street. I can't think of any good reason to block off access to Redbones.