New York suspends engineer who inspected collapsed Bronx building
An engineer overseeing inspections of a Bronx apartment building that partially collapsed Monday “misdiagnosed” a column supporting the building and called it a “decorative” element in plans he submitted in June, they said city officials Friday.
Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said the city had suspended the engineer’s authority to inspect building facades and would seek to permanently revoke that authority.
No one was killed or seriously injured in the collapse. But that left more than 170 residents of the building, at 1915 Billingsley Terrace, without a place to live. In addition to the Department of Buildings, officials say, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the city’s Department of Investigation are also investigating what caused the collapse.
“When those entrusted with our security cut corners and make catastrophic mistakes, we will take swift action and hold them accountable,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. He added that the engineer “had nothing to do with assessing the exterior walls of buildings in New York City.”
Mr Oddo said in a statement that the engineer had “failed to identify an obvious structural column as such.”
“We were lucky that no one was killed in this collapse,” he continued. “We won’t take that risk again.”
Mr. Oddo did not identify the engineer, but Richard Koenigsberg, a veteran facade inspector in the city, said in a brief interview Friday that he had filed reports on the building’s condition. His name appears on a file from June that was updated in September, Buildings Department records show.
Mr. Koenigsberg declined to comment on the allegations made by the mayor and Mr. Oddo. He said city officials had not been contacted since he was interviewed the morning after the collapse.
“I have not had any disciplinary actions in my life, so I am not familiar with the procedures,” Mr. Koenigsberg said, adding that he would hire a lawyer and follow the lawyer’s advice.
Mr. Oddo said the unnamed engineer had 368 files under the city’s facade inspection and safety program and that the Buildings Department would review all of them as part of its investigation.
Mr. Koenigsberg said in an earlier interview that he had filed reports with the city deeming the facade unsafe, but he said those reports indicated pedestrians needed to be protected from falling debris, not that the building was structurally unsound.
A corner of the seven-story building collapsed onto the sidewalk mid-afternoon Monday, sending pedestrians and motorists running for cover and leaving bedroom walls exposed and clothes flapping in the wind.