16An 84-story miracle
Debris falls from skyscraper, punctures cab, misses passenger
Debris from an 84-story building under construction on Midtown’s Billionaires’ Row punched a hole in the roof of a yellow taxi Thursday and forced the closure of part of W. 57th St. for the day.
No one was hurt in the scary incident, which the city Buildings Department said involved a piece of “terra cotta” from 111 W. 57th St.
“It sounded like something going through metal,” said Peter O’Brien, 48, the fire safety director at the Directors Guild of America building across the street from the construction site.
“It was a cab, and the cab had a passenger. The passenger called 911 right away, which was the right thing to do. Before I knew it, there were emergency vehicles everywhere,” O’Brien added.
The building is going up over the former Steinway Piano showroom, and when finished will be one of the tallest and thinnest in the country. Apartments in the building are expected to sell for tens of millions of dollars. A 7,130-square-foot unit on the 57th floor is priced at $57 million.
The structure topped out last year at 1,428 feet. Work on the project began in 2014.
In December, a piece of metal debris fell from the same building site on to a nearby roof, city records show. It was unclear if anyone was hurt in that incident. Last January, the city issued a stop work order against the building when passersby noticed scaffolding attached to its side came loose and began swinging in high winds.
Falling debris from an old Midtown building killed architect Erica Tishman, 60, on Seventh Ave. near W. 49th St. on Dec. 17. The Billionaires’ Row structure, 111 W. 57th St., is among several ultra-luxury skyscrapers going up on the street — and some of them are among the world’s tallest. The Nordstrom tower — which houses a Nordstrom department store on W. 57th near Broadway — is 1,550 feet tall.