And the walls came tumbling down

Lynn Volkens

Black Hawk loses historic building

1/27/2005 - Shortly after noon on Thursday, the foreman of the crew working on a drainage project behind the Rohling Inn building in Black Hawk noticed a puff of masonry dust filtering out from above one of the upper windows. He called his crew out and away from the building. Twelve minutes later the rear walls of the southeast corner collapsed. There were no injuries. The Black Hawk Fire Marshal was called. He immediately had the gas, electricity and water supplies to the building disconnected. Structural and civil engineer Jerry Maly, determined that there was a “substantial amount of damage.” His recommendation to close Gregory Street from Highway 119 well past the Rohling Inn resulted in traffic being routed up Selak Street, until the hazard has been eliminated.  Meanwhile no one is allowed inside or even within 40 feet of the building. In front of Black Hawk Station, directly across the street from Rohling Inn, a plywood sidewalk tunnel was built to protect pedestrians entering and exiting that casino. All other pedestrians were directed to walk around the back of Black Hawk Station to Selak Street for access to other casinos. Calls went out to all Black Hawk city aldermen that an emergency meeting was needed. They convened at 4:10 p.m., Friday afternoon with David Spellman filling in for absent Mayor Kathryn Eccker.

   The historic red brick building, dating from 1864, was being prepared for use as administrative offices for Fitzgerald’s Casino when the collapse occurred. Now engineer Jim LeFresne, Vice President of Project Development for Barden (Fitzgerald’s parent company), and several other engineers and architects say the rest of the wall must come down. In fact, they say the entire building must come down. The building is in imminent danger of complete collapse, they say. The problem lies in the type of foundation and details of construction. The foundation at the back of the building is rubble stone. During excavation, it is believed the foundation settled to a degree that the building was no longer in plumb. The east wall, as a bearing wall, is hooked into the roof trusses and joists for the floors. The collapse occurred when workmen were attempting to remove a veneer of cement, leftover from an exterior stairway, from the surface of the building’s side. A vertical crack now runs along the east wall from ground to roof about midway along its length. Engineers concurred that if the rest of the wall should collapse further, either on its own, or by design, there could be a domino effect pulling the rest of the building down from back to front.

   Among the packed meeting room was Richard Baldwin, whose company C-West just received contract renewal from Black Hawk last week to provide Building Code Engineering services. Spellman asked Baldwin for his opinion. Baldwin said that the west half of the building is somewhat isolated from the collapse because of the way the building was built, more as two buildings put together into one. Because of that, he said the west half of the building might be more structurally stable. “But it’s anyone’s guess how far a failure (a partial collapse) would take it if the back portion goes,” he conceded. He said it was his understanding that Fitzgerald’s would like to demolish the entire building for safety reasons. Meanwhile, City Council would like to save at least the front of the building for historic reasons.

   The real crux of the problem – could the building be saved, could part of it be saved, and, if so, how long would it take to stabilize it so that Gregory Street could be reopened? After hearing opinions from eight different engineers, architects and in-house management regarding potential success and a timeline for each option, Council voted to demolish the entire building. (Spellman, Bennett, Cottrell: aye. Kerr: nay. Doles: abstain.) The deciding factor, for those voting in favor of full demolition, was the amount of time Gregory Street, the lifeline to many of Black Hawk’s casinos (and also affecting Central City business) would have to be closed. The estimated timeline for full demolition is eleven days. Partial demolition could take five months or longer, with no guarantees that the building wouldn’t collapse in the process. Their decision to demolish the entire building must be ratified at their meeting on Wednesday, January 26^th. If they proceed, the building will be photographed for historic documentation, so that it can be replicated exactly with the stipulation that it be done to current code, when rebuilt. Spellman stressed that the building would need to be recreated exactly as it stands today, with no change in the building’s footprint (size and shape) done to provide more space for Fitzgerald’s. Alderman Tom Kerr really wanted to save the front of the building at the very least. “This looks like an engineered accident,” he said, backing up Spellman that Fitzgerald’s must not benefit in any way in the reconstruction of the building. Jay Peirsol, architect for Fitzgerald’s said that it was never the casino’s intention to use the Rohling Inn for gaming. The building was always to be used for administrative space only. “There’s never been any change in our thinking,” he said, reassuring Council that they had not intention to make the building bigger. Council made sure of that by making the exact replication a condition for Fitzgerald’s permit to demolish the entire building.

   Finally, the question of, “who pays?” was addressed. “We need to have someone on the hook, now,” said Spellman, referring to financial responsibility. He asked for legal input from City Attorney Corey Hoffmann. “Based on what we know now,” said Hoffmann,

“I would be most concerned if I was the person who engineered that.” Fitzgerald’s representatives said they needed to get reports from their people in the field when the collapse occurred to determine if the collapse was due to engineering or other error. The parties reached no agreement on financial responsibility, however, Black Hawk asked for a letter of intent from Fitzgerald’s attorney stating Fitzgerald’s will pay for the new building.

  When Spellman adjourned the meeting, just over an hour later, the crack along the east wall was reportedly enlarging and new cracks were appearing. Outside, Fitzgerald’s engineers were on their walkie-talkies to crewmen below and people had a sense of grim anticipation that the building might fall at any moment.