A day after hundreds of guests were forced to evacuate a downtown hotel, when a section of the hotel’s outer façade collapsed, officials are investigating and trying to determine why it happened.
On Sunday, just before 10 a.m., firefighters were called to the Westin Hotel on 101 Avenue and 100 Street – after a section of the brick façade on the outside of the building broke away from the wall, crashing to the ground below.
About 250 guests were moved after the collapse – officials said guests were allowed to return at about 4 p.m. that afternoon.
Officials at the Westin released a statement to CTV News, and said engineers and contractors had been retained to evaluate, and repair the affected area:
“Fencing has been placed around the damaged brick wall and parking lot area. Covering is being constructed over the sidewalk on the east side of 100th St. Scaffolding will be going up shortly so the work crew can access and begin a controlled demolition of the exposed brick and surrounding area. This will be followed by clean up before masonry work commences; replacing the bricks.”
City officials told CTV news inspectors only handle inspections of buildings during the permit and construction phase, not after a building is occupied.
“It’s the owner’s responsibility, buildings are maintained and looked after and I would think insurance companies would want owners to do more vigorous inspections as buildings age, everything needs to be maintained and they need to ensure they’re doing it for their buildings,” Eugene Gyorfi, Director of Building Permits and Inspections, told CTV News.
Chris Ambrozic at Scorpio Masonry told CTV the company expects to do the brick restoration on the Westin, and said taller brick buildings can have their own unique maintenance issues.
“It’s the expansion and contraction of the building, the frame and it doesn’t hold the brick veneer,” Ambrozic said. “That’s the biggest issue, and I suspect it could be one of the issues at the Westin that happened, where the stresses of the frame gets put onto the brick façade.”
The Westin was built in the 1970s, and over the past few decades, standards have changed to how facades are attached to a building. Ambrozic told CTV News he believed such a collapse wouldn’t have happened under current standards.
With files from Sarah Richter
