Whimsical Windows - Surveying the aftermath from the 24th floor

This week's meme post for Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors is a throwback to the time when tragedy was averted in the roof collapse of the Hartford Civic Center about 4:00 am January 18, 1978. Only a few hours after 4,800 spectators had watched a UConn college basketball game had left, so no injuries. An engineering error led to the weight of the snow pack on the roof to take it down...

This picture, in its faded original print and black-and-white edit, is interesting. The persons are my father and his mother looking at the ruins from his 24th floor office in Hartford's 'Gold Building' - the tangled and twisted structural steel is easier to see up there - and the reflections of the people and the windows of the next door (and long defunct) Hartford National Bank add an eerie feel to the scene. I believe these were taken in mid-late March 1978. An unique view of an urban disaster.

Whimsical Windows - Collapse aftermath

Surveying the damage from the 24th floor

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors, and we look at details of interest. Today is a scan of a unique view from the 24th floor of the United Technologies building in downtown Hartford Connecticut. I date the view from February or March 1978. The persons are my father and grandmother as they look down at the collapsed roof of the Hartford Civic Center which fell on 18 January 1978. The view is on the floor my father worked on looking west toward the building. The pattern on the reflection is the facade of the then Hartford National Bank building next door. The print was damaged and faded so it is now in B&W. A unique look at a disaster in which no one was hurt...

Shadow Shot Sunday - Shadowy Collapse

Examining the collapsed Hartford Civic Center roof February 1978. © 2012 Alcam Writing & Admin LLC 

Shadow Shot Sunday is back as I go back in time to February 1978. The place is the 24th floor of the Gold Building in downtown Hartford. The persons are my father (who worked for UTC and had access) and Grandmother examining the collapsed roof of the Hartford Civic Center. 

This is a print that I have seen but found last week - the color had faded so I edited it in B&W and sharpened it as best possible. So the eerie view through the reflections is maintained...I found two cool things that explain it better - this Hartford Courant slideshow (great newspaper photography in its heyday) and a video below from the History Channel that I've seen before. The fallibility of humans is quite apparent in this mishap...