2023 New York City parking garage collapse

A parking garage building partially collapsed in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, United States, on April 18, 2023, at around 4 p.m. EDT. The parking garage collapse at 57 Ann Street resulted in one death, five injuries, and the evacuation of neighboring buildings. In the aftermath of the collapse, local residents were displaced, and the New York City government began requiring examinations of parking garages across the city.

Background

The building, located at 57 Ann Street in New York City's Financial District, was built in 1925. Both in 1926 and 1957, it was granted certificates of occupancy to operate as a garage holding "more than five" automobiles per level and for ten people to be on a floor at a time. The 1957 certificate mandated that the roof was only to hold "passenger-car type" vehicles. The New York City Sheriff's Office parked vehicles at the garage.

The building had received multiple building violations since 1957. In 2003, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) found concrete defects in the stairs, along with cracks in the first-floor ceiling, spalling concrete, steel beams with missing concrete coverings, and defective concrete with exposed cracks. In 2009, broken stairs and loose concrete was noted in numerous areas of the parking garage. The DOB found in 2011 "that the permitted repair work was ongoing and that the interior maintenance of the building was in good condition". In 2013, improper exit door issues were also noted. The DOB commissioner stated that there was also an application for work on the building in 2010 for the automobile lift, however the open violations were not addressed during the application. Overall, 19 violations were completed or defaulted and an additional four open which required a certificate of correction. The DOB issued 64 building-code violations to the garage's owner, 57 Ann Street Realty Association, between 1976 and 2023.

Prior to the collapse, there were no recent permits for construction at 57 Ann Street. Under a local law that required building inspections for all garages citywide by 2027, the DOB had been scheduled to inspect the garage before the end of 2023. Despite several previous nonfatal parking-garage collapses in New York City, regulation of the city's parking garages had generally been lax, and regular inspections of the city's garages had not been required until 2022.

Collapse

The second floor of the parking garage partially collapsed onto the first floor at around 4 p.m. EDT on April 18, 2023. The collapse killed the garage's 59-year-old manager, Willis Moore. Initially, five people were reported injured, one of whom refused medical treatment. Local TV station WPIX later reported that seven workers had been injured, including the worker who had declined treatment.

Videos online showed numerous cars piled on top of each other. Students attending nearby classes at Pace University heard "a large noise and a big rumbling" and similar effects of an earthquake, along with screams during the collapse. Shaking and vibrations were also noted in the collapse area.

Response

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) assisted with evacuations and assistance. The Digidog, a robotic dog by Boston Dynamics, was deployed, along with a drone and tower ladders; it was the first time the FDNY used the Digidog in a structural collapse. Pace University canceled classes at their New York City campus and evacuated two university buildings. Several New York City Subway services had to run at slower speeds while emergency crews responded to the collapse. New York City mayor Eric Adams called the building "completely unstable" as he visited the collapse site, and at one point the FDNY withdrew its personnel due to the unsafe building conditions. A street was blocked off due to fears that the buckled facade would collapse onto the street. Emergency services assisted people who were trapped inside the parking garage. According to local media sources, initial findings attributed the age of the structure and an excess number of vehicles on the roof of the structure as contributing causes to the collapse.

Moore's body was retrieved the day after the collapse. Following the collapse, the building was scheduled to be razed via controlled demolition. Although some sources said there had been between 80 and 90 vehicles in the garage just before it collapsed, the FDNY estimated that there had been about 40 cars in the building. On April 20, cranes began demolishing the remains of the garage. Also to be demolished was a connected parking garage at 25 Beekman Street. Demolition was temporarily delayed due to concerns that the work would trigger a secondary collapse. The rear of the garage partially collapsed on April 29, 2023, while it was being demolished.

After the collapse, the DOB issued full or partial vacate orders to occupants of six buildings. A neighboring Pace University building at 161 William Street was also deemed unstable; Pace closed the building for the rest of its spring semester while the party wall between the garage and Pace's building was shored up. The adjoining block of Ann Street was closed for several months, displacing residents of that block.

New York City building inspectors conducted inspections of parking structures across the city. In late April, four additional garages in Manhattan and Brooklyn were closed for posing "an immediate threat to public safety". One engineer indicated that the garage-inspection process could have saved lives if it had occurred earlier. Several dozen garages with similar problems to the garage at 57 Ann Street had been identified by May 2023. In November, the discovery of similar structural issues at another garage overlying Amtrak's West Side Line in Manhattan led to disruption of the Empire Service. In early 2024, the city government hired a structural engineer to investigate the collapse.

References