Construction Archives

The United States wasn’t built in a day, with that being especially true of its major cities.

Since the wall collapsed on the Salvation Army Thrift Store in June, many people in Philadelphia have had visceral reactions to the news of any kind of demolition accident. Today’s news of another demolition gone wrong — at the Shirt Corner site we discussed in an early February post — has underscored that fear, the concern that human error may have resulted in the loss of life.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster that took down the Salvation Army building in Center City, Philadelphia united in calls for reform of the city’s demolition regulations. As you may recall, in early June 2013, a crew member began to take down the wall of a building at 22nd and Market Streets, and the wall collapsed on the adjacent Salvation Army Thrift Store, killing six people.

A few news articles have appeared since the end of December about various plans to revitalize Philadelphia. There are big projects in the works, including the new Comcast tower and riverfront development. The question for construction firms, though, is whether they will have enough workers to do the jobs.

We continue to learn more about the circumstances leading up to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop disaster. As most of Philadelphia knows, a wall at a demolition site adjacent to the Salvation Army site collapsed on June 5, 2013, killing six and injuring more than a dozen other people in the store at the time.

The collapse of the Salvation Army store on June 5 has put the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections smack in the middle of the controversy. In the last week, department officials have heard from the contractor whose firm was responsible for demolition at the site as well as Mayor Michael Nutter.

Only after the city had paid $275,000 to a contractor did officials realize the business had lied on its application. According to the Philadelphia inspector general’s office, the incident has prompted a number of changes in the city’s contracting process that should prevent this kind of fraud in the future.

Six people died when the Salvation Army Thrift Store collapsed on June 5. The disaster was triggered by the demolition of an adjacent building. While city leaders have discussed updating Philadelphia’s construction code to avert the same kind of accident in the future, families of the victims have been investigating the matter themselves, it seems.

We are continuing the story of the Salvation Army Thrift Store building collapse, as related in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by parents of one of the six victims.

The parents of a woman killed in the June 5 collapse of the Salvation Army Thrift Store have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the property owner, the demolition contractor, the Salvation Army and several other entities. Their daughter, 24, was shopping at the Center City site when the building came down. She was one of six people killed; several more were seriously injured.