Some time this afternoon, a piece of the façade of the building on the SW corner of W 53rd St & 9th Ave fell down onto the sidewalk. Fortunately it doesn’t look like anyone was hurt, but it’s troubling…
The fire department were on the scene, roping off the area and heading up to the roof of the building to check things out:
The piece that fell off:
The fire department left as NYC Buildings arrived to assess the damage, and no doubt fine whoever owns the building. The debris was never cleaned up:
In case you didn’t know, NYC has a law that buildings taller than six stories must inspect their facades for cracks, loose bricks, etc every five years. This building is under that limit, so who knows when anyone last inspected it, if ever.
Anyway, expect to see scaffolding going up in no time on that corner… And don’t worry, the phone booth was unharmed.
Update: It turns out that someone was injured from the debris: a 12-year-old girl was walking with her parent past the building, when she was hit by the falling debris. Fortunately she only had minor injuries, and was taken to the hospital quickly.