brianac
October 28th, 2007, 08:09 AM
Building in Flatiron Collapses, Causing a Mess but No Injuries
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/timothy_williams/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: October 28, 2007
A vacant four-story building in the Flatiron District that officials suspected was unstable, collapsed last night, but caused no injuries, the authorities said.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/28/nyregion/collapse190.jpg Rob Bennett for The New York Times
A view from the back of 22 West 24th Street. The front part of the structure collapsed, leaving only the front wall.
The brick building, at 22 West 24th Street, had been mostly unoccupied, its upper windows boarded with plywood since a fire in 2003 on its second and third floors caused significant damage, officials and neighborhood residents said.
On Oct. 15, the Fire Department requested that the city Department of Buildings check the structure’s stability. The Department of Buildings issued a violation to the building’s owner for failing to maintain the exterior, and as a precaution, submitted a partial vacate order for an adjoining parking lot, officials said.
Witnesses said the collapse, which happened shortly before 8 p.m., sounded like an explosion, sent debris flying and raised a cloud of black smoke.
“I heard a loud noise, things were falling from the building, and I ran,” said Marlo Goodman, 36.
John Bley, a Fire Department deputy chief, said each of the building’s four floors had collapsed atop one another.
The cause remained unclear last night, but Mr. Bley said that there was no evidence of a gas leak and that no construction or demolition had been taking place at the building.
“If this happened during the daytime, during a workday when there are a lot of people on the street, I think we could have had a lot of injuries here,” he said.
Fire Department officials said the portion of the structure that remained standing after the collapse would be torn down within the next day or so.
The building, which dates from about 1900, had been used by the Gilded Age architect Stanford White (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/stanford_white/index.html?inline=nyt-per) as a meeting place during his 1901 affair with Evelyn Nesbit, a 16-year-old showgirl.
White, who helped design the Washington Square Arch, among other structures, had the second and third floors of the building outfitted with a curtained canopy bed and a red velvet swing.
Nesbit’s husband, Harry K. Thaw, fatally shot White in 1906.
Jason Grant and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/timothy_williams/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: October 28, 2007
A vacant four-story building in the Flatiron District that officials suspected was unstable, collapsed last night, but caused no injuries, the authorities said.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/28/nyregion/collapse190.jpg Rob Bennett for The New York Times
A view from the back of 22 West 24th Street. The front part of the structure collapsed, leaving only the front wall.
The brick building, at 22 West 24th Street, had been mostly unoccupied, its upper windows boarded with plywood since a fire in 2003 on its second and third floors caused significant damage, officials and neighborhood residents said.
On Oct. 15, the Fire Department requested that the city Department of Buildings check the structure’s stability. The Department of Buildings issued a violation to the building’s owner for failing to maintain the exterior, and as a precaution, submitted a partial vacate order for an adjoining parking lot, officials said.
Witnesses said the collapse, which happened shortly before 8 p.m., sounded like an explosion, sent debris flying and raised a cloud of black smoke.
“I heard a loud noise, things were falling from the building, and I ran,” said Marlo Goodman, 36.
John Bley, a Fire Department deputy chief, said each of the building’s four floors had collapsed atop one another.
The cause remained unclear last night, but Mr. Bley said that there was no evidence of a gas leak and that no construction or demolition had been taking place at the building.
“If this happened during the daytime, during a workday when there are a lot of people on the street, I think we could have had a lot of injuries here,” he said.
Fire Department officials said the portion of the structure that remained standing after the collapse would be torn down within the next day or so.
The building, which dates from about 1900, had been used by the Gilded Age architect Stanford White (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/stanford_white/index.html?inline=nyt-per) as a meeting place during his 1901 affair with Evelyn Nesbit, a 16-year-old showgirl.
White, who helped design the Washington Square Arch, among other structures, had the second and third floors of the building outfitted with a curtained canopy bed and a red velvet swing.
Nesbit’s husband, Harry K. Thaw, fatally shot White in 1906.
Jason Grant and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.