Closing
The old Ocean House did not have any heating, air conditioning, or ventilation. It was a seasonal hotel only open for about three months a year. After the Great White Station nightclub fire, Rhode Island's demanding fire codes were more rigorously enforced. The 138-year-old structure was grossly non-compliant with current building and life safety codes. The timber building's structure was compromised due to installation of electric and gas lines, plumbing, and reconfiguring the rooms to have private bathrooms. In the last years of the hotel's life the top two floors were off-limits to guests. Of the original 159 rooms only 59 could be used. The Ocean House closed its doors in 2003 and was sold.
The current owners considered renovating the old building. To do so would have required installation of interior structural shear walls to bring the Ocean House up to current code for hurricane and wind loads. New hurricane-rated windows set in new frames and a brand new foundation made of concrete with steel tie-downs throughout would have also been needed. All lead paint would have to be stripped off the exterior and interior. Interior mold would have to be removed which meant demolishing interior finishes. To offer today's hotel amenities two floors would need to be created below the current building, plus a concealed parking garage would be required. All these problems would be economically and physically impossible to fix, so the owners decided to replicate the Ocean House.
Read more about this topic: Ocean House, Rhode Island
Famous quotes containing the word closing:
“Our two eyes do not make our lot better; one serves us to see the good things, the other the evils of life. A lot of people have the bad habit of closing the first, and very few close the second.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“Although sleep pressed upon my closing eyelids, and the moon, on her horses, blushed in the middle of the sky, nevertheless I could not leave off watching your play; there was too much fire in your two voices.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“At closing time would go
In waders and peaked cap
Into the showery dark,
A dole-kept breadwinner
But a natural for work.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)