The widower of a beloved architect who died tragically in an accident is now taking aim at the property developers in his ongoing quest for justice.

A judge in New York is now allowing a suit to be brought against Himmel + Meringoff Properties, which manages the Seventh Avenue building through an LLC called 729 Acquisitions. The ruling clears the way for larger damages to be assessed against the company as part of a larger case initiated by the late husband of architect Erica L. Tishman. 

Tishman was killed in December of 2019 after being hit by debris from a crumbling terracotta facade that came off the 18-story building managed by Himmel + Meringoff. The development group, which has declined to repair the feature, was subsequently fined a measly $1,250 and ordered by the city to construct a protective shed at a cost of $13,000.

Himmel + Meringoff had reportedly been warned as recently as July of 2019 that the facade of 729 Seventh Avenue was a hazard and in dire need of repair. 

The city had previously claimed that the architect was at fault for her own death in a motion to dismiss the initial complaint brought against the Department of Buildings. A related audit of the DOB cited the deadly incident along with two recent building collapses in Manhattan and Brooklyn as preventable tragedies owing to the fact that all three properties had been subject to DOB violations which the entity then failed to refer to the city’s Housing Preservation and Development Department. 

Overall the audit found a total of 1,966 cases that went unaddressed well beyond their required 30-day window. Himmel + Meringoff has declined to speak with several different media outlets about the case.