Photo by Caroline Vitale of 206 West 96th street after bricks fell there.
Bricks have fallen from two Upper West Side buildings over the past few days and high winds were the culprit in at least one of the instances.
On Tuesday around 12:30 p.m., a chunk of the cornice fell off of 206 West 96th street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, smashing through the awning of a barbershop below. No one was reported injured.
“We just heard a loud noise. When we came out, everybody was calling me,” building superintendent Wilfredo Lopez told NBC. “I thought something hit the building. We looked up and a whole section of the building just came down.”
“Officials said the bricks came loose from the rooftop parapet because of the cold and snow over the long weekend, and then the high winds Tuesday blew them right off,” NBC reported. Buildings department records indicate that no violations have been issued since the bricks fell.
Bricks also fell off of another building on Valentine’s Day.
The Buildings Department has issued a violation for “failure to maintain” to a building owner at 157 West 83rd street where bricks fell to the ground on Sunday. The building houses a Hertz garage.
The FDNY requested a structural stability inspection after the bricks fell; no one was reported injured, they said. Meredith Kurz, who took the photos above and below, said the bricks appeared to have fallen from the 5th floor.
The Hertz was open as of Tuesday afternoon.
A toddler was killed last year after part of the facade fell off of a building on West End Avenue; an inspection uncovered major deficiencies in the building inspection process.
Let alone the high winds that had things flying off a building on West 96th today!
Is this near where there is a construction site right off Broadway that has a BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! sound the entire time? Every time I walk past that area I feel sorry for the poor people that live in that area.
I wonder if the sound from that might have weakened the facade?
Someone please give Lucien a physics lesson and some headphones.
I was always curious about the fugly building they put up at 201 West 96th street – The glass with the white , metallic ribbon façade. So Strange and Ugly. Lingered for years since built in 2009. But Now it seems like everything else in the hood it’s become a valuable property. Multi-Million $$ 2 bedrooms.
I’m one of the poor souls who lives down the street from that site, where they’ve been breaking down bedrock since the fall and will continue until at least late April. Every day we hear the banging and feel the vibrations and we’re down the street, three floors up. It’s awful.
That said, it probably wouldn’t affect this street as it’s three blocks down and a street over.