Architect Killed by Crumbling Facade in NYC
Prominent architect and New York City community leader Erica Tishman was killed on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, by a piece of concrete that fell from the crumbling facade of a midtown Manhattan, New York City building.
Tragically, it appears that this was a preventable accident. City records show that the building owner was cited for “failure to maintain exterior building facade” earlier in 2019, over 7 months before the accident, yet a protective shed or scaffolding did not go up until hours after the tragedy.
A New York Times article suggests that the building owner, who owns 12 commercial buildings in Manhattan, appears to have a pattern of facade-related violations. Other properties of theirs currently have outstanding violations related to unrepaired, crumbling facades.
The piece of the building facade that fell on Ms. Tishman yesterday was an egregious assault waiting to happen. Both the building owner and the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) knew for many months that pieces of the building’s facade were falling apart and creating a dangerous condition to anyone walking below. The city correctly issued a violation to the owner, and a paltry fine, but the owner failed to act and the city failed to follow up. Days, weeks, and months went by with no corrective work being performed. Worse still, no scaffold or sidewalk shed was installed to protect pedestrians until the danger was resolved.
Kreindler partner Andrew Maloney currently represents the surviving family of a Long Island father of three who was killed in NYC in 2018 by a falling piece of a corroded fire escape that hit him in the head while he was walking on a SoHo sidewalk. In that case, the rotting fire escape had been painted over by the building owner and its contractors in a cost-saving manner to hide the prevalent rusting metal and decay.
Kreindler partner Anthony Tarricone is prosecuting a similar case in Boston, Massachusetts, in which a crumbling piece of a building facade fell upon a young pedestrian from New York while she vacationed late last year. That case, known as the Common Ground Facade Collapse, has many similarities to yesterday’s midtown Manhattan tragedy. According to Mr. Tarricone:
The Boston case is even the same part of building — the parapet. It overhangs a public sidewalk, is a public nuisance, and the building was in deadly condition at the time of the incident.
Kreindler & Kreindler is one of the most highly regarded personal injury law firms in the country concerning complex wrongful death claims. Partners have litigated numerous such cases in New York and elsewhere.
Media and interested parties may contact:
Mr. Andrew Maloney at 212-973-3438 or via email, amaloney@kreindler.com
Mr. Anthony Tarricone at 617-424-9100 or via email, atarricone@kreindler.com