Manhattan Billionaires' Tower Rains Debris on Unsuspecting City Below
According to a complaint filed yesterday with the New York City Department of Buildings, an eight-foot-long section of pipe fell from a hoist car on the 81st floor of 432 Park Avenue, crashing to the ground in front of an occupied building across the street. The under-construction tower—the tallest residential building in the Western hemisphere—is now under a full stop work order from the DOB, Curbed notes.
Stop work orders are issued to "protect workers, tenants, the public as well as buildings and properties from unsafe conditions," text on the DOB's website reads. Practically, it means that all construction on 432 Park must be halted until the department deems the working conditions suitable, under penalty of a $5,000 fine for the first violation and $10,000 for subsequent violations. Given the pedigree of the matchstick's developers and prospective tenants, that might not be such a big problem.
Between the Manute Bol-sized hunks of material raining from this investment opportunity for global plutocrats, One57 playfully dangling enormous weights over 57th Street during Hurricane Sandy and again a year later, and the specter of a Central Park that's bathed in the shadows of Billionaires' Row, one thing is clear: even when their aeries high above the city sit unfinished and unoccupied, midtown belongs to the rich.
432 Park's media representatives have not yet responded to a request for comment. If you saw the pipe go down, or know anything else about the incident, leave a tip in the comments or email me at andy@gawker.com.
