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Architecture & Engineering


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November 19, 2014

Collapse puts new focus on 3,000 old buildings in the French Quarter

  • Built in a horse-and-buggy era, the New Orleans neighborhood suffers from termites, absentee landlords and heavy trucks that rattle the walls.
    • By CAIN BURDEAU
    Associated Press

    NEW ORLEANS — The collapse of a 210-year-old building in the heart of the French Quarter is raising warning flags about decay and a lack of rigorous inspections in one of America's oldest and most fragile neighborhoods.

    No one was injured when the three-story, brick-and-cypress building collapsed in late October, but the episode has thrown into focus an array of problems throughout the nearly 300-year-old Quarter. Among them: structural decay, voracious termites at work on aged wood beams, Louisiana's humid climate, absentee landlords and the stresses of modern life as heavy trucks rattle streets and balconied buildings standing shoulder to shoulder.


     
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