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January 30, 2008
UPDATE: Scaffold Collapse To Blame at 525 Clinton Avenue
According to an eyewitness, the man who was killed this morning on site at 525 Clinton Avenue was working on the interior of the top floor when the high winds created a wind-tunnel effect that allegedly blew him through the glass window and to his death. This is all the more surprising given our report last summer that the development was using a new, unusually thick (four inches) type of glass called Visionwall. The eyewitness reminded us that the winds can get especially bad in Clinton Hill because it is, after all, on a hill. Unbelievable.
UPDATE: Here's an update we just received from DOB:
Upon inspection, Buildings engineers and inspectors determined a three-frame pipe scaffold installed on the roof of the new building under construction had collapsed. Sections of the pipe scaffold collapsed onto the 2nd floor and 12th floor setbacks of the new building under construction. Preliminary reports indicate three workers on the pipe scaffold were performing stucco work on the exterior of the rooftop bulkhead at the time of the incident. The workers were employed by a sub-contractor, Bell Tower Enterprises, retained by the general contractor overseeing construction of the new building, Clinton Court Development LLC.
Given this new information, we're redacting the earlier eyewitness account until we can get more information.
BREAKING: Worker Killed at 525 Clinton Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP
Photo by Gary Brubaker
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Comments
That's really sad. Poor guy.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 1:45 PM
Great scoop Brownstoner! Keep up the good work!
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 1:49 PM
How horrible.
Regardless of how thick glass is, it would seem it would always be possible to break it. Must have been a real wind tunnel effect as you said. I felt the wind pushing me along in lower Manhattan today. I could just imagine the force if it was focused into a hallway or rooms sized space. Truly sad.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 1:51 PM
This is horrible. If those wind advisories were in effect, and if it's worse in Clinton Hill, then work should have been postponed until it was safe. Someone needs to be accountable.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 1:55 PM
apparently they said he fell off a scaffolding not out of the window, even so I'm sure he didn't break trough the window, as you can see there are many open spaces where the windows haven't been installed yet, in any case that's too bad for the guy!
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 2:08 PM
Supposedly there was a scaffolding on the interior that he was working on at the time...
Posted by: brownstoner at January 30, 2008 2:21 PM
Very sad.
I hope measures are taken to prevent this in the future. I also hope the construction company/developers/owners take care of his family in a generous and compassionate manner. What a tragedy.
Posted by: Montrose Morris at January 30, 2008 2:34 PM
That's terrible.
On a side note, I live a block from this site, and Clinton Hill is not any kind of hill to speak of. Prospect and Crown Heights, just uphill Washington Ave. from this site, is an actual hill. But its a tall building all by itself, it doesn't need to be on a hill.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 2:38 PM
I've been saying all along that the wind up Hanson Place between the tall buildings is really brutal sometimes and "once AY is built" we're going to have horrible wind issues.
Environmental studies down on building projects and esp. tall buildings do EXTENSIVE wind studies. ALL the computer modeling you want to do is do-able now. It is amazing what can be figure out with the right input. Frankfurt has some tall buildings that had amazing wind studies done...may be available online. I was impressed.
Problem with the proposed AY towers: wind studies were equal to nothing. People aren't even talking about wind issues. This is plan dumb.
The problem with wind, esp in an area with low buildings is that high buildings, esp. set up as a tight forest like the proposed AY project are like cliffs rising out of the desert. The wind that hits the hill of Clinton hill sweeps up from the low areas of Gowanus, etc. surrounding the south, west and east side of the southern FG and Clinton Hill areas.
The problem with wind year round: winter, higher wind speeds chill neighboring areas, especially if they lose their solar gain from hi-rise shadows. In summer, hot air is shuttled down to ground level drying out and overheating the surrounding area.
Basically, these tall buildings can cause lots of wind turbulence and impact the surrounding area...since air tends to be invisible (Voire how it is used as a dumping ground for lots of pollutants as well), it tends not to hold the place it should in the planning stage of tall buildings, etc.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 3:00 PM
2.38, I live close by as well. The "Hill" in Clinton Hill is from the rise from the East River and up Lafayette Avenue. I agree, there is another hill going up Underhill and Washington too. Being near Fulton Street, it's hard to tell you're at the top of the Hill in Clinton Hill, but if you travel north on Washington for example you'll see the decline as you move towards Park and Flushing... keeps us out of the Category 5 Hurrican flood plane... ;)
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 4:10 PM
4.10 here, the concern about wind and AY's is a bit much.
There is no windy issue in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, and when it is windy, it does not generally blow in from the Gowanus area, but from the North and North West (sometimes north east) during winter storms, so the concern about some hyperbolic confluence of high winter winds being funneled through the canyon of AY towers is a bit much.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 4:15 PM
I live next door to this building and have called 311 (who passed me through to 911) on multiple occasions during wind storms as they have not secured the building materials. My building gets hammered with materials as do cars (and unlucky pedestrians) below. 911 operators always say they are dispatching someone immediately, but I have never seen any follow up.
I wouldn't want to live in this cracker box when it's 'finished'.
Why can't the city issue a stop work order for all new construction until they get some safety rules in place?
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 4:40 PM
4:10: I guess I just think of a hill being the top of a peak, and since going up underhill or Washington will get you to a view of manhattan with a 2 min walk, that seems more like a hill to be worthy of the name. Maybe that's why they get called "Heights." But its nice to know Category 5 Hurricane flooding won't hit us!
3:00: A little worked up over AY? But come on, wind does not "sweep up" from low-lying areas. It sweeps across the continent at higher altitudes where there are no obstructions (based on pressure gradients). When tall buildings create wind problems its because they're grabbing these higher-level winds and diverting them downwards (the cliffs in the desert that you mention).
In summer, the 'cliffs in the desert' phenomenon would probably serve to cool down the neighborhood, since higher-altitude air that the buildings grab is cooler than that closer to the ground. But there isn't that much wind in the dead of August, maybe some would be nice?
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 5:05 PM
This is a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the families involved.
I *always* steer clear of scaffolding, because I think too many builders are lax about safety. Once, in the Flatiron nabe, I walked under a small scaffold, made it about 20 feet, when I heard a huge crash-- the wooden side panel (the place where people post advertising) had crashed to the ground for no apparent reason. We're talking about 15-by-6 feet of plywood, framed with 2x4s. Could have killed me, or anybody else.
Posted by: Rehab at January 30, 2008 6:41 PM
5.05 - 4.10 here again. Maybe that is where the "Heights" in Prospect and Crown Heights comes from... hmmm. Clinton Hill or "The Hill" was built before Prospect Heights. Maybe the founders of Prospect Heights were trying to figure out a way to distinguish the higher elevation from the existing "Hill" neighborhood to their north. Pretty funny if you think about it. Some dude in the 1880s saying, "Uh, well, we already have Clinton Hill, what the hell will we call this neighborhood we're building on the hill south of Clinton Hill. Upper Clinton Hill. No, sounds like we're trying to hard to cash in on the Pratts and Pfizers down the way. How about Prospect Heights. Sounds fancy enough, let's do it..." lol
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 6:42 PM
"Wind tunnel effect that allegedly blew him through the glass window and to his death"
Obviously, the word 'allegedly' gets you off the hook, but you should have proper sources in check for such news. You reported it as News, but it was quite different.
This was no better than a rumor.
Posted by: guest at January 30, 2008 8:14 PM
6:42, I think you're on to something about neighborhood marketing. Which suggests that Park Slope needs a re-branding, bad. Who wants to live on a (slippery) slope?
8:14, this is a blog, not the freakin' NY Times. Mellow out.
Posted by: Rehab at January 30, 2008 10:14 PM
Should have been tethered independently of the scaffolding as required.
Posted by: guest at January 31, 2008 10:38 AM
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