Divine Lorraine: Terrible news (Lorain, Penn: salvaged, cost, to move)

[RightonWalnut]

The Divine Lorraine is on fire!

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by Summersm343

The Divine Lorraine is on fire!

How bad is it

[kidphilly]

Also ironic in that it is part of the agenda for a meeting tomorrow Hopefully nothing major with the fire

PennDesign | What's Next for North Broad Street's Revitalization?

[kidphilly]

Fire at Divine Lorraine extinguished quickly

[RightonWalnut]

Sorry I walked down there to check it out. It doesn't look like any serious damage was done. There were firemen still inside and a large crowd out front. Thank god it was nothing serious.

[Marius Pontmercy]

Doesn't matter if it looks ok. Just because the building is still standing doesn't mean its even remotely salvageable at this point. The fire burned out the roof, and thats the death knell for any building. Now the elements are free to come in and destroy the shell from the inside out.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy

Doesn't matter if it looks ok. Just because the building is still standing doesn't mean its even remotely salvageable at this point. The fire burned out the roof, and thats the death knell for any building. Now the elements are free to come in and destroy the shell from the inside out.

Not to mention the fact that the water used to put it out could have been even more damaging than the fire itself.

This is definitely terrible news.

If you want to look at the bright side though... assuming it did actually come through the fire mostly unharmed this could perhaps hasten redevelopment. As Marius points out, without a roof, the building will not last long. Perhaps people will begin to move quickly now that the clock may be ticking on the buildings life. If it were solely up to the owners of the property I think they'd rather just let it rot and build anew, but I don't think Nutter would allow that to happen.

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by Marius Pontmercy

Doesn't matter if it looks ok. Just because the building is still standing doesn't mean its even remotely salvageable at this point. The fire burned out the roof, and thats the death knell for any building. Now the elements are free to come in and destroy the shell from the inside out.

You are assuming that it was remotely salvageable even before the fire, which is unlikely IMO.

[RightonWalnut]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

You are assuming that it was remotely salvageable even before the fire, which is unlikely IMO.

Since the place was already gutted by previous developers who had interest in the place and since the building is made almost entirely of stone, I could see it being salvageable... I guess we'll have to wait and see. I don't think Blumenfeld would have interest in it if it wasn't salvageable.

[phillies2011]

Originally Posted by bryson662001

You are assuming that it was remotely salvageable even before the fire, which is unlikely IMO.

I feel like people often forget that as neglected as the Divine Loraine looks today, it was still in use barely over a decade ago and it only fell into disrepair less than 10 years ago.

Granted a lot of damage can take place over the course of ten years of neglect but buildings that have been empty A LOT longer than that have been successfully restored.

I think it is without a question salvageable now, and CERTAINLY was before the fire. The big question though isn't whether or not it CAN be salvaged but rather whether or not doing so is cost effective as without some sort of public funding no one is going to sink money into this place to fix it all up if they won't recoup that investment once they are finished.