BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A crumbling Walnut Hills factory will force the closing of a few lanes of Interstate 71 today as demolition crews remove unstable exterior walls.
Building inspectors have been monitoring an old factory at 660 Lincoln Ave. and noticed buckling walls and loose bricks on Friday. Fearing bricks could shower onto I-71, which passes within 20 feet, the city decided to demolish unstable portions of the building. "A month ago we saw a few cracks," said William Langevin, director of Cincinnati's department of buildings and inspections. "A wall has now actually buckled and a portion above is likely to collapse." The 83-year-old building stand four stories tall. It was built as a factory for the Ford Motor Co. Its defective roof allows rain to seep into exterior walls, Mr. Langevin said.
The factory is a concrete structure. The problem is that the exterior masonry facade is buckling away and threatens to collapse onto motorists below, he said. The loose masonry will be removed, as will other sections found unstable as inspectors examine the building more closely today, he said.
The city built a 12-foot-high fence between the building and highway Friday to catch falling bricks. Two of I-71's four northbound lanes were to be closed at 6 a.m. today so a contractor could take off the outer layer of masonry. Mr. Langevin doesn't expect the work to take more than a day. It shouldn't interfere with traffic, he said.
The building is owned by Scruples of Cincinnati Inc., founded by a group of African-American women who bought the building 1994. They planned to create a business and entertainment complex out of the 200,000-square-foot building and call it Lincoln Station. But the company has run into trouble getting the city to support its project, said Scruples President Elvira Coaston. The company has filed for Chapter 11 protection.
She questions whether the facade walls need to be taken down, and said the bricks could be braced into place, a cheaper solution. Publicity about the failing wall will not deter the company from its plans. Scruples is intent on refurbishing the landmark and bringing jobs to an inner-city neighborhood, she said.
