City Records Show Three Years Of 'NYT' Building Debris Complaints
Everybody knows The New York Times' newly-erected skyscraper home has been plagued by falling glass, ice and vermin. In December, the Department of Buildings dropped by the place to investigate after what we thought was the third time debris was reported to have fallen from the building. Not so! A look at records kept by the Department of Buildings shows that people have been complaining about flotsam and jetsam raining from the Renzo Piano building since construction began in 2005-18 of the 33 complaints on record about the building are related to material flying off of it. Screwdrivers, bolts, steel, glass, i-beams, what have you. There was the time that wet concrete fell on to some NYPD cars below. Oopsies! And the time an entire window fell from the sky onto a car below. Then there's the succinct complaint from July 31, 2007: "Something fell off the building." You don't say? Yikes. After the jump, peruse the records.
To be fair, we'd guess that erecting a colossal office building with nerd elevators would make the neighbors a smidge crabby, perhaps inclined to phone in a few trumped up grievances against the big bad media company who also makes them fork over $500 a year for home delivery. DOB inspectors found no reason to request the Times take any followup action on four of the 18 falling debris complaints they investigated. Among the total 33 complaints levied against the paper's building, inspectors found no evidence of violations on 11. Then again, the city has issued the Times seven official violations, including a partial stop work order earlier this month, which looks to be still in effect, at least according to the Dept. of Buildings website. Hey, maybe all you Times-ers should take a stab at expensing hard hats. Or body armor.