Photograph of 102 East 124th Street via WABC The Department of Buildings commissioner admitted her agency knew a Harlem building was in danger of collapse but somehow it got lost in the shuffle and collapsed on its own. On Tuesday, bricks fell off 102 East 124th Street, a vacant building, and a few hours later, the roof and top floor collapsed. Its neighboring building was compromised and authorities moved to demolish it, asking the......

Last month, scaffolding holding two window cleaners outside a 47-floor building on East 66th Street collapsed, leaving one of the cleaners dead and the other, his brother, with massive injuries. Now, the survivor's doctors and wife are talking about his "miraculous" recovery, as he's alert and talking - and may even be able to walk in a year. Here's a list of what Alcides Moreno has been through, per the Daily News:- Fell 47......

Yesterday's gusting winds caused quite a bit of damage besides providing more winter chill. Building scaffolding was knocked over in many places, a tree pinned a man in NJ to the ground, and windows and/or debris fell from two Manhattan skyscrapers, hitting pedestrians. Winds were reported to be at least 40MPH, with gusts at 50MPH, yesterday (wind advisory was in effect until this morning at 4AM). The Buildings Department had asked property owners and construction......

Improper construction that posed a serious safety threat to pedestrians led to the adjustment of three modillions from the Tweed Courthouse. The building just underwent an $89 million renovation six years ago, but someone forgot to properly glue the architectural ornamentation to the building's cornice. The safety problems on one of the city's most prominent landmarks went unnoticed until a city Buildings Department manager gazed at Tweed while walking to his office on Chambers St.......

Seething over their many, ignored complaints about new construction at 808 Columbus Avenue, residents of Park West Village held a rally to demand an investigation. All 280 apartments at one Park West building, 784 Columbus, were evacuated when a retaining wall collapsed at the 808 site on Wednesday night. However, there were a number of calls to the Department of Buildings from 784 residents, complaining that the building was shaking as workers blasted in......

The demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building next to Ground Zero has been halted after officials are still unable to determine how a several-foot-long section of pipe fell from the deconstruction site and crashed through the roof of a neighborhing firehouse, injuring two firefighters. The incident occurred yesterday morning and investigators are still wondering how a 15-foot section of steam pipe from the irreperably damaged office tower fell through the roof of the firehouse,......

The Buildings Department has some idea of what caused a rigging from a towering crane at Third Avenue and 13th Street to fall on Friday. The Department of Buildings' initial findings say hydraulics failed. The Third Avenue sidewalk between 14th and 12th Streets only opened yesterday afternoon, after the damaged parts of the crane were removed. Here's the NY Times' account of how the crane was stabilized and the aftermath:The crane was dangerously unbalanced, though.......

Those brothels in Queens just keep on popping up. Last night cops busted not one but two of them. Well, OK, it sounds like one was more of an illegal strip club but the Post calls 'em brothels so... The first one, Club Daydreams, at 146-16 Hillside Avenue in Jamaica was busted by the NYPD Vice Squad around 1 A.M. who arrested eight women for prostitution. The Buildings Department also got the joint for......

As the West Village is happy that the City Planning Commission wants to prevent high-rises from being built (well, the measure needs the City Counci's okay),and Gothamist can only suspect it's part pre-emptive strike against huge outdoor advertisements. For example, the Queens Tower Condos in Rego Park are the target of many complaints for putting up a huge lingerie ad outside one of the buildings. The Department of Buildings has issued violations to the condo's......

For our Sunday dose of wall alarmism, Gothamist enjoyed the NY Times examination of 126 retaining walls with "cracks, bulges and leaks", because now we'll be walking the streets, wondering if the wall next to us will suddenly collapse. Most retaining walls are located in the Bronx and northern Manhattan, because they are the hilliest parts of the city, but you may now notice retaining walls wherever you go, like around the cemetary at Trinity......

Yesterday afternoon, the roof of 103 Meserole Street in East Williamsburg collapsed on top of eleven workers who had been renovating the building. At first, area residents said it sounded like a huge explosion. The Buildings Department says that the owner had been given a permit for "vertical enlargement" - gutting the building for a new facade, replaced beams, and new windows - and the FDNY explained what happened: "Both side walls were being......