Officials ordered a crumbling Upper East Side parking garage to shut down last week following a deadly collapse downtown highlighting the dangers associated with the structures that bear massive weight daily.
“As we continue our targeted parking structure enforcement sweeps, garage owners and New Yorkers should know that DOB is taking swift action to protect the public from unsafe buildings,” a NYC Department of Buildings spokesperson told Upper East Site.
DOB inspectors say the Icon Parking Systems garage located at 434 East 80th Street, near the corner of York Avenue, is in severe disrepair with rotting I-beams, a section of concrete floor slabs missing, cracks throughout the structure and even evidence of debris falling from the ceiling.
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The garage has water damage to the foundation walls, and the severely damaged entrance ramp is no longer structurally stable, according to the Partial Vacate Order issued by DOB and posted to the garage’s entrance last Wednesday, May 10th, warning of the ‘imminently perilous’ conditions inside the structure.
Located within The York, a 13-story luxury rental building at 435 East 79th Street, the structural stability concerns only involve the parking garage, not the residences above, which DOB has not ordered to vacate.
The Upper East Side underground parking closure comes three weeks after an above-ground parking structure collapsed at 57 Ann Street in Lower Manhattan, killing one man when the top floor crumbled and fell, pancaking down to the cellar.
Since that deadly collapse on April 18th, targeted enforcement sweeps by the Department of Buildings have slapped 15 parking garages, above and below ground, with vacate orders due to structural deficiencies posing an immediate danger. That’s out of 187 parking structures inspected since last month, DOB says.
While most closures have been the result of targeted enforcement of parking structures with open safety violations, in the case of the Icon Parking Systems garage on East 80th Street, the DOB says the partial vacate order was the result of an inspection by a professional engineer hired by the building, as required by law every six years.
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Alerted by the engineer to the danger inside the garage, DOB ordered the removal of all cars and SUVs parked there and that the building begin implementing plans to shore up the underground structure temporarily until permanent repairs are complete.
“Lack of proper maintenance and regular repairs at these aging structures has, in many cases, led to severe structural hazards that endanger anyone who steps inside these buildings,” explained the DOB spokesperson.
“We continue to use every tool at our disposal to protect the public.”
