In June 2015, six Irish students lost their lives when a balcony in Berkeley collapsed.
It's still one of the most heartbreaking things to ever happen on the J1 program and has spurred much debate about the structure of the apartments and balcony in which they fell from. The Berkeley tragedy apartments which were named Library Gardens, at 2020 Kittredge St, Berkeley, California have now been changed to the K Street Flats.
The building has been completely revamped in order to separate the tragedy from the apartment blocks themselves. The two balconies that used to face onto the street have been removed, leaving a flat front to the large apartment complex, according to berkeleyside.com. Is this the right thing to do though?
Should those apartments the students lost their lives in have stayed shut down? There has been loads of investigations into the collapse and it was found that some of the balcony's wood was slightly rotten. Could the six have been saved if this was properly maintained?
The students in question who lost their lives were Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller, Nick Schuster, Eimear Walsh and Olivia's cousin Ashley Donohoe. All of the students were from Ireland, apart from Ashley who was a dual Irish-American citizen.
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Do you think the building should be in use again?
Also Read: Ireland And The US Reach Huge Agreement About The J1 Visa
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