Uncovered Structural Engineering Report Declares Bethlehem Steel Administration Building Structurally Sound

This is AWESOME news!In yo face Szymanski!

(I hope people are still calling his house by the way ;)

Ok, so it's not structurally unsound, they are still fully within their right to demolish the building. What is the next step? Has there been an offer to created a 501(c)3 to purchase the building and become it's steward?

"..if we don't start making moves and start getting rid of stuff that is unusable..."

I agree and I think the first thing that should go is the City of Lackawanna. Seriously. What do we need it for? What good is it? What can it possibly be good for except to keep a bunch of politicians employed and put another useless layer of bureaucracy and red tape in the way of any progress?

lmao, this article is a joke, stop crying. the building is half gone. move on people. its like a 3yo who does not get his way

And now the EPA is there. Luckily the asbestos abatement contractor got greedy and decided to break some laws. This will hold the demolition up even longer.

"...this report is the only one where the consultants were allowed inside the building for their review..."

Huh? The other reports were written by people that didn't even go inside the building? How does that work?

Maybe awarding a demolition contract is a lucrative venture to someone in a town where these things don't happen often.

That's great. Thanks for the info, Mike. The Geoff compilation is especially nice.

"was withheld from the courts by the City of Lackawanna and the Gateway Trade Center owner"

Any indication if there can be charges against these "progressive" parties for obstruction of evidence? Wouldn't that be a role reversal.

It's funny because I've also seen pictures showing the floors and the roof rotted out.

Great building for a industrial heritage museum. or a steel plant museum. Hundreds of thousands of people are still alive who walked through these doors to apply for a career at Bethlehem steel. This a great building

oh, and by the way: everyone mike named ("members of the Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group, Meagan Baco, David Torke, Lesley Horowitz, and Dana Saylor")? thank you. seriously.

pbn and campaign for buffalo ought to give you awards, since you spared them all the heavy lifting.

So what happens next? The lawsuit is supposed to halt the demolition until an investigation takes place. What investigation is supposed to take place? Who is supposed to investigate? Who is going to be investigated? Even if the courts decide in favor of the plaintiff, what is going to happen to the building? Nobody has ever said they're in a position to take on the immense challenge this building would pose. How do we know this building can be redone in a financially reasonable way? How much is it going to cost? How do you convince someone who has actual money that it would be worth the investment? That building would be a tough one to try to redo. It's hard to get to, in very bad shape, full of asbestos, and surrounded by a sea of industrial wreckage.
I wonder if anyone can answer these questions with hard information and not more wishful speculation. I have never seen anyonedo it yet, which doesn't make feel all that hopeful for the building's ultimate fate.

I hope they sue the Gateway and Szymanski and Lackawanna and everyone involved until the entire city of Lackawanna is so destroyed that they dont exist anymore and have to merge back into West Seneca or Buffalo.

I hope Szymanki is run out of office and out of Lackawanna

Another quote for the Geoffrey Szymanski wall-of-shame:

"Preservationists just want to turn western New York into Colonial Williamsburg."

-- To me, after the land bank press conference on March 30, 2012

This is a one of a kind gem of a building done by Architect L. C. Holden whose work is rare. The community has been fighting to save this building for more than 20years. It is a proven fact that preservation is a key asset to urban renewal. This building could be offices, it could be a museum, it could be a community center- there are a plethora of plans for this site. The question should not be why save it but instead, why haven't we saved it yet. In a city and region that has long been considered dead- this is the perfect example of how a community can use such a historically significant structure to benefit its urban landscape architecturally and financially by boosting industries such as cultural tourism. This is iconic. It is the face of more than a hundred years of our communities development and decline and could be the face of our communities redevelopment and renewal. If we let this building be destroyed or sit in decline as the owners have let it, we are saying we do not care about our past or our rich cultural heritage, therefore we do not care about building our cultural tourism industry and other industries that will spring up as a result of beautifying our urban landscape and preserving our cultural icons. And as a result we are saying we do not care about our community now or in the future. This building is an asset and it can be more than just an asset- it can be the central focus of Lackawanna's rebirth as a city focused on economic development through reuse design, preservation and cultural tourism. When we lose our history, we lose our cultural assets, we lose our ancestors, we lose our economy, and we lose our community. Buffalo and Lackawanna have lost so much of what it could be and should be because steps were not taken to preserve and save our past. Now, Buffalo is scrambling to rebuild canal side, hurrying to save our grain elevators, slowly renovating the Richardson Complex, developing plans for the Shoelkopf Color Factory as a 35 acre railway museum, and basking in the sun of the success stories of the Darwin Martin House, Graycliff, the Botanical Gardens, the Wilcox Mansion, Statler City, the Buffalo Zoo, the Olmsted Park System, the Buffalo Museum of Science, OLV, Hotel Lafayette, the list goes on- all if which bring millions of tourists and their dollars to our region and act as relevant community-focused centers of education- most of which were once endangered of being razed and some had fallen into disrepair and seen as an "eyesore" and a liability- until the community came together and said "NO! WE WILL NOT LOSE THIS PART OF US!" That is why we must save this building- for our past, our present, and our future. I hope that is an enlightened answer and I hope I have given a good enough sentiment for saving this sad old lady. We can not lose her. We can save her and she will deliver.

From pictures I've seen (sorry, can't post them at this site), the load-bearing walls are fine but the roof opened up allowing water to rot away the floors. So there's much work to be done, but buildings in far far worse shape have been beautifully restored. It's all a question of political will, a situation where a slow Lackawanna can't beat a fast bulldozer.

I assume the structure has not been declared a Local Landmark due to lack of any effectual local governmental body? There is so much irony involved here; this magnificent structure could become a "gateway" to a revitalized Lackawanna, if only they wished to be revitalized. Also, this should be a regional issue, tied to the restoration of the Lake Erie shoreline south.