Portion of Facade Collapses on 110th

A portion of a façade on the roof of 535 W. 110th St. collapsed Saturday evening due to high winds. No major damage was sustained to apartments in the building, and no one was injured in the incident.

The façade fell shortly before 8 p.m., and police and fire department officials responded quickly, cordoning off the street within half an hour of the event. According to a resident, the building was “in lockdown,” and no one was allowed to enter or leave for two to three hours afterward.

Winds of up to 45 miles per hour late Saturday may have caused the damage. “I’ve never heard wind like that before,” said a resident who asked not to be named and added that the windows in his apartment were rattling violently throughout the night.

“A big piece of wood fell, boom—it just missed two guys,” he said.

In a similar incident in 1979, a Barnard first-year, Grace Gold, was struck and killed by falling masonry from a building on West 115th Street. This led to the passage in 1980 of Manhattan’s Local Law 10, which requires, among other precautions, that all New York City buildings over six stories have their façades inspected every five years to insure that they pose no danger to the public. Problems found during these inspections must then be remedied in a timely manner. In compliance with this law, scaffolding was just added to line a large portion of the sidewalk on 110th Street, including below 535.

maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com