Before (top) and after (bottom) a section of the cornice fell. Before photo via Google Streetview.
By Gus Saltonstall
An enormous piece of the cornice at 404 Riverside Drive at 113th Street broke off on Monday afternoon, perhaps as much as 25 feet or more. Large hunks of metal lay on the ground outside the building and the sidewalk was taped off the next day. There was a destructive storm on Monday, although it’s not clear if that’s what knocked the metal off.
The main entrance to the building was temporarily closed on Tuesday and residents were being told to use a side door that exits onto 113th between Riverside and Broadway. “It was a crash,” one resident of the building said when asked about the sound of the metal falling from the roof.
Damage caused to trees and shrubbery by high winds and the falling cornice had been almost entirely cleaned up by Tuesday. It appeared to be sheet metal, wrote Mathew Perlman, who sent in the photos below. Perlman wrote that the photogenic building has been used for various TV shows, and they were recently filming the Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel there.
The Department of Buildings shared the following on the incident:
On 6/19/17, DOB responded to 404 113th Riverside Drive after receiving reports of a partial façade collapse.
-Upon arrival, DOB inspectors observed that a piece of the copper cornice had fallen from the 12-story building and landed on the sidewalk below.
-DOB issued a violation to the building owner for a failure to maintain the property, and ordered the construction of a sidewalk shed at the location to provide overhead protection for the public and residents.
Does the local law 11 inspection extend to the cornice? I just wonder how it could have been so loose, and not have it be picked up in the inspection.
It should as the law refers to the façade and exterior facets of the buildings in the city.
Even if it was in good condition it is made of thin copper, for weight reasons as its suspended of the overhang on the buildings they are on. All it would take is a small space in just the right place for the wind to go in and get trapped and it becomes a sail. This happened to a lot more buildings in the area during sandy
copper has great value, and may disappear more quickly than the time it took the wind to put it there, but value not as great as the correct spelling of the word façade. it’s heartening to think that someone at the department of buildings is actually aware.
Agreed,good spelling has value, but so does its partner, proper capitalization. Compadres in writing “mechanics.”
ç
“alt 0231” I’d have never known without being prompted by your comment to do the research.
Thanks!
Is that Mac or PC 🙂
using a mac computer with english language keyboard (chosen from ‘keyboard preferences’),’c’ with a cedilla (ç): control/option/c
your keyboard viewer will reveal all. find it in the menu bar at the top of your screen—it probably shows as a flag icon. slide to the ‘keyboard viewer’, release your cursor and with the viewer open in a window on your screen, press shift, option, control or a combination of those keys on your actual keyboard, and it will show all the options available, including most diacritical marks, and so forth.
appeared to be sheet metal
Actually its hand hammered copper. Hence its green petunia. This type of building ornamentation was popular in the early 1900’s and many buildings in the area have it. Though many have had it removed over the years and/or have been repaired and painted over. It was done to mimic the more expensive tera cotta on many buildings
Patina.
Though “green petunia” is a lot more original.
😀
Most original! Petunia’s come in many hues, but not in green.
PATINA not petunia 😉
Sorry it lost something in the translation from the metric system
This could EASILY have killed someone. Maintain your buildings, co-ops!!!
If the Property had conducted FISP (formerly known as LL 10/11) then it had already fulfilled its legal requirements for facade safety in conjunction with the City and Engineers. A Penalty from the DOB therefore would need to be dispersed to all three parties.
Perhaps WSR can find out from the DOB or the Landlord…
The building did not file its required LL inspections report
This makes me so mad!! Maintain your buildings!! Remember the tragedy at the Esplanade that killed a child??
I hope they get fined up the A$$.