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It could have been worse, according to Bill Stotler.
Stotler is an excavating and demolition contractor who was shoveling snow on the sidewalk outside the Focht Building, which is catty-corner to the Devorris Downtown Center, Thursday a week ago, when he thought he heard wood cracking.
He asked passersby if they heard it, too, and they did not.
“Well, maybe I’m nuts,” he told himself.
Turns out he wasn’t.
He was back at the property – the former LeBistro restaurant – on Sunday, peeked through the window and saw that the roof of an addition closest to the corner had collapsed.
By Thursday, working not as caretaker, but as demo contractor, he had taken the addition down, and in the process realized that if not for the epoxy stucco and Styrofoam skin on the brick casing of the wood-framed addition, it might have collapsed onto the sidewalk and into 15th Street, causing injuries.
The culprit was the weight of the ice, snow and water that remained on the roof because of frozen drains – and, possibly, disabled parapet outlets, plus a heavy air conditioner, Hughes said.
The air conditioner weighed 10 tons, according to Stotler.
When he inspected the addition early this week, Stotler received a shock, as he looked up from a stairway to see the sky between the framing and the bricks on the side opposite 12th Avenue.
He recalled yelling as he jumped toward the interior into an adjacent section of the building that appeared to be sound.
When he began demolition Wednesday, the addition caved in fully after he had barely touched the roof with his excavator bucket, he said.
The addition was attached to a steel-and-masonry section that Hughes said should be OK.
The addition’s roof included flat wood trusses that rested on a steel beam that is part of the steel-and-masonry section, Stotler said.
The overload on the trusses tore them off the beam, twisting it, both men said.
The building – which once housed H&H appliance – had been slated for renovation to create an office for Altoona Family Dentistry.
The dental practice still intends to proceed with the project, but needs to evaluate the rest of the building to determine whether it’s salvageable, according to Marty Marasco, CEO of Altoona Blair County Development Corp.
Originally, the plan was to remove the wing of the three-segment building that is behind the former restaurant courtyard, to create more parking, Stotler said.
Now, it might make sense to keep that wing and add parking where the collapsed addition stood, Stotler said.
Colin Dangler, husband of dentist Katherine Dangler, was leery of speculating, but said the collapse might create an opportunity to create more spaces on the property.
Parking can be scarce downtown.
The building was insured, according to Marasco and Stotler.
Colin Dangler hopes to begin the construction project soon and finish this summer.
The dentistry office is currently located on Howard Avenue, across from UPMC Altoona.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.