Crane Collapses, Demolitions and Fires in Brooklyn

Nasty day in Brooklyn yesterday. First, we had the collapse of a crane at the old Todd Shipyards site where Ikea is building its big box. (Or a "lift accident," depending on the source of the information.) Ikea is continuing to clear the sprawling site in Red Hook and preparing to fill the Graving Dock on the site. The retailer has rejected calls to preserve it as a working ship repair facility and will be filling it in to use as part of its parking lot.

The firm doing the Ikea demolition is the same one that is tearing down one of our favorite buildings in Williamsburg, the Old Dutch Mustard factory, whose impending demise at the hands of Breeze Demolition we came across this weekend.

Then, there was the fire at the wonderful Broken Angel on Clinton Hill. It was started accidently during work on the building and, fortunately, didn't spread to the entire building.

All in all, not the best of days.