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A collapsing floor injured two workers Monday at a midtown office building where falling exterior work killed a prominent architect in 2019. The accident at 729 Seventh Avenue happened just before 10 a.m. During active demolition work on the 18th floor, part of the floor collapsed, sending two workers dropping to the 17th floor. They were taken to area hospitals; their conditions were not immediately clear. — NBC New York
The address is well known as the site where, in December 2019, architect Erica Tishman was struck by a piece of falling debris that her family claims directly resulted from negligence on the part of the property developer and the Department of Buildings. Administrative code charges... View full entry
Ice believed to have fallen more than 1,400 feet from a Midtown condo crushed the roof and smashed the windshield of Deneice O’Connor’s car as she drove up Sixth Ave., the shaken motorist said Saturday. “It just crashed down on me. I immediately thought a body had fallen on my car,” O’Connor, 35, told the Daily News. — Daily News
The ice is believed to have fallen from the SHoP Architects-designed 111 W. 57th Street supertall, one of the world's thinnest skyscrapers and tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere. It is a prominent fixture along “Billionaires’ Row”. Police have also reported that... View full entry
Construction work in New York — city and statewide — remains the most deadly profession in the country. A total of 41 laborers died on the job in New York state in 2020, a decrease from 2019. However, fewer workers climbed scaffolding and pounded nails during the pandemic, so the rate of deaths still rose. — Construction Dive
According to an analysis of data from the New York Department of Buildings, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted by the labor group New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), workplace deaths in... View full entry
A new development in the 2019 accidental death of architect Erica Tishman as criminal charges have been filed against property owners 729 Acquisitions LLC. NBC4 New York is reporting that the administrative code charges were brought by the NYC Department of Buildings. The architect’s family had... View full entry
New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca has announced the results of the department’s citywide “zero tolerance” construction safety enforcement campaign. Since its launch on June 1, 2021, DOB inspectors have conducted safety sweeps at approximately... View full entry
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... View full entry
The New York City Department of Buildings has shut down 322 construction sites across the city due to hazardous conditions in June 2021. The DOB issued full and partial stop-work orders to the affected sites, citing more than 1,129 violations for safety and non-compliance issues. In... View full entry
Erica Tishman died last year after rubble fell from 729 Seventh Ave. and struck her in the head. The building had several outstanding violations with the Department of Buildings some of which her family’s lawyers say still hadn’t been addressed when the family sued the city and building owner in August for wrongful death and negligence. — Daily News
According to Daily News, the city Law Department tried to dodge liability in a new Manhattan Supreme Court filing by saying the city streets are known to be dangerous, so people on sidewalks should be prepared for the worst. The city Law Department wrote: "Plaintiff(s) knew or should have... View full entry
New wearable technology could help prevent struck-by and caught-between injuries and incidents, found a study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas released last month by the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR). The study outfitted workers with waist belts with vibrating motors to detect possible nearby hazards. — Construction Dive
The study explored a system that notified workers through vibrations where nearby machinery and vehicles were in operations. The experiment even went so far as to cover the eyes of the participants, resulting in 95% accuracy in completing tasks. The research moves forward attempts to... View full entry
San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage. Now those competing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earthquakes nearly as much as you might think. — New York Times
Taking a hard look at San Francisco's building codes, this NY Times piece goes in depth on what it means for city high rises if the next big earthquake hit. From the 1906 earthquake and fire to current seismic safety, concerns revolve around the number of skyscrapers built on liquefaction zones... View full entry
There’s been one hiccup since it opened last year: Apple employees keep smacking into the glass. — Bloomberg
The Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA, designed by Foster and Partners, was built with much glass—the building's exterior features the famed curved panels of safety glass while the interior is populated with work spaces, also made from glass. Well, apparently, the favored building material is... View full entry
The recently opened Apple store in Chicago has been praised by one of the city’s papers as an “elegantly understated… boon to the city’s riverfront,” but perhaps that perception will change after the discovery of a significant design flaw.The structure’s ultra-thin carbon fiber roof was fashioned in the shape of a MacBook Pro but does not have any gutters to catch water, so melting snow has begun to turn into icicles and sliding snow that can harm pedestrians below. — Fortune
Outside Apple's recent Chicago store signs read: "CAUTION Watch For Falling Snow and Ice" as noted by blogger Matt Maldre. The new design by Foster and Partners was intended as a “town square” experience for the community, and to serve as a flagship design for all future Apple stores... View full entry
As tens of thousands of Texans undergo a long, difficult recovery from Hurricane Harvey, research findings, and studio and service projects by faculty and students at Texas A&M University are helping individuals and communities learn how to emerge from the damage and how to mitigate the effects of future disasters. — Texas A&M University Newswire
The Texas A&M University is home to the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, studying prevention, response and recovery from natural disasters. Student efforts include gathering post-Harvey water samples and studying their quality, serving meals to the community and building models of... View full entry
Many current architecture students are excited about the removal of styrene mainly because of the various health hazards...[However,] others are worried that it will negatively impact their work and productivity. Sophomore Sam Landay explained that it’s not uncommon for architecture students to put their projects before their health.
Even outspoken opponents of styrene admit the necessity of utilizing the material.
— Student Life, Washington University in St. Louis
More on Archinect:When the pressure is on, dedicated architecture students show how to power nap like a proOne night's bad sleep equivalent to six months on a high-fat diet, new study findsAnother study warns that 3D-printers pose potential health risks for users View full entry
As cranes have grown in height and girth, the controls to operate them have intensified in number and complexity...the crane units in use these days have libraries of intricate manuals, packed with details...some operators may not have time to fully understand or read completely. Same goes for the maintenance team. When something does go wrong with such large machines...the 'mess and carnage' gets magnified. — Popular Mechanics
Crane safety experts give their thoughts on the leading causes of crane collapses, and why safety regulation is more complex than it seems.Previous news about collapses:Crane collapses in Manhattan, one dead and two seriously injuredMore than 50 dead after crane collapses on Mecca's Grand Mosque... View full entry
