'Twas a weekend of urgent text messages to the Treo. At 12:44am Sunday morning: "Gigantic fire on broadway and prince!" 4:15pm Sunday afternoon: "interior of synagogue across from inoteca just collapsed." (New Curbed concept: architectural destruction text messaging updates. Who's in?)
The Soho fire, in the 575 Broadway building, is notable 'round these parts for the drenching of architect Rem Koolhaas' iconic Prada Flagship Store and the submerging of Lure Fishbar, both well documented by downtown blog Verbose Coma—check the photo that bears this eerie caption: "The soaking floor of Prada (imagine this with the constant growl of electrical circuits exploding). That's $800,000 Brazilian zebra wood." Ouch.
Meantime, on the Lower East Side, a Curbed correspondent sent along the above photo of the First Roumanian-American Congregation Synagogue on Rivington Street, noting: "about 3:30pm i heard the convergence of sirens on rivington. by 4:00 there must have been over 100 firemen swarming outside the synagogue. and at precisely 4:11pm it happened, with one large thud, the roof collapsed spewing dust from between buildings straight out at teanys. i just so happen to have my camera trained on the area and managed to capture some of the activity." Per The Villager, the vacant temple had seen better days even before the fire. Another picture from our correspondent of the billowing chaos immediately following the roof collapse, after the jump.
· Fire Sale [Verbose Coma]
· Rem Koolhaas' Prada Flagship Store [Galinsky.com]
· Fire at a Soho Building Damages a Dozen Businesses [NYTimes]
· First Roumanian American Synagogue Collapse [Flickr/Brother Lawrence]
· Roof Collapses at Historic Lower Manhattan Synagogue [NYTimes]
· Rivington synagogue hangs on, hoping for a revival [The Villager via Gothamist]