New York City's facade inspection program was born from a tragedy forty years ago. In the spring of 1979, Grace Gold, a freshman at Barnard College, was fatally struck in the forehead by a piece of masonry that fell from a Columbia University apartment building on 115th Street and Broadway. Her death inspired the passage of Local Law 10, which called for the regular inspection of facades. In 1998, the city further tightened the inspection process under Local Law 11.
On Tuesday, more than 40 years later, a piece of a building again fell off a building near Times Square and killed Erica Tishman, a 60-year-old New York architect.
Although the investigation into the recent accident is still ongoing, both incidents appeared to have involved buildings with questionable, if not, poor maintenance. Gold's parents sued Columbia over negligence in the care of its building, a case in which the university settled. The 17-story office building connected to Tishman's death had been issued a Department of Buildings violation in April for a damaged facade.
But another common factor in both cases is the building material that fell—terra cotta, a fired-clay substance whose use dates back to ancient times and became ubiquitous in New York City during the early 20th century. In 1911, one out of every two buildings constructed in the city was made from terra cotta, according to Susan Tunick, an artist and president of Friends of Terra Cotta.
Although beloved by preservationists for its warmth and versatility, the material has come under scrutiny by some experts for its difficulty to maintain and repair.
In May, the DOB issued a report titled "Facade Failures In High Rise Buildings" which named named terra cotta along with cavity walls and glass as three common concerns pertaining to facade breakdowns. With terra cotta, which was first on the list, the report highlighted its uses as ornate building overhangs and projections—and its anchoring systems, what Tunick said was the real culprit behind the breaks. Terra cotta often uses steel anchors, which are susceptible to rusting.
"When a material rusts, it expands many many times," she said. "It will cause the terra cotta to blow apart when enough pressure builds up."
One of the problems that the report cites is terra cotta has mistakenly been thought to be water resistant. But in fact, the material has been susceptible to water damage, which results in cracking, breaking into small pieces, and rusted anchors. Moreover, its weaknesses can be difficult to spot. The DOB laid out examples of buildings with terra cotta which were approved as safe only to be cited with a violation a month or even just a few days afterward.
The DOB report was not the first time issues with terra cotta have been raised. A 1985 New York Times story noted that terra cotta's "image of indestructibility" gave way to bad installations that didn't allow for water seepage and which caused deterioration. A lack of maintenance or bad repairs caused further damage. An architectural historian described terra-cotta replacement as slow, costly and exacting work.
Its problems can also be difficult to spot from just using binoculars. In 1998, following a shower of crumbling brick in Midtown, the Times reported on a plan by the DOB to issue new rules calling for close-up inspections of terra cotta buildings. Later, when Local Law 11 was being hammered out, experts argued against singling out terra cotta, convincing the city to expand the law to include inspections for all types of construction.
An example of a terra cotta building from a DOB report highlighting concerns with the material.
Asked to comment on the May report, DOB spokesperson Andrew Rudansky stressed the need for periodic maintenance regardless of building material. "Each material is unique, and property owners should be aware of the appropriate inspection and repair requirements to safely maintain building facades with terra cotta," he said in a statement.
In the wake of Tuesday's accident, the DOB performed a citywide sweep of all 1,331 facades that required immediate work.
Despite the ever-growing skyline, deadly accidents involving falling building material are relatively rare in New York City. Following Gold's death and Local Law 10, serious injuries or deaths in accidents related to hazardous facades dropped dramatically.
But there have been several alarming incidents in recent memory, both involving terra cotta.
In 2015, a two-year-old girl died on the Upper West Side after a piece of a terra cotta windowsill broke off from an eight-story building.
Just last summer, a large portion of the ceiling in a Brooklyn Borough Hall subway station that was made of terra cotta collapsed and gave a woman a concussion. In November, the MTA's Inspector General issued an audit on the incident and detailed the difficulties engineers had with inspecting terra cotta. "The supervising engineers who conducted the 2016 enhanced annual inspection admitted to us that they had only limited experience with terra cotta and found it more challenging to rate terra cotta defects than to rate defects in steel or concrete," the report said.
Following the passage of Local Law 10, some building owners, including Columbia University, elected to tear off terra cotta cornices rather than go to the expense of maintaining them and submitting to regular building inspections.
"It ended up being very bad for historic buildings," said Simeon Bankoff, the executive director of the Historic Districts Council.
In the case of landmarked buildings, which must be renovated or repaired according to historic preservation guidelines, the city does allow property owners to substitute materials in some cases. Zodet Negron, a spokesperson for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said that glass-fiber reinforced concrete, glass-fiber reinforced plastic and micro-cota, a polymer-based composite intended to imitate terra cotta, are examples of what has been accepted in place of terra cotta.
As a preservationist, Bankoff defended terra cotta. "It is a very, very hardy material," he said, adding that oftentimes the problem lies with the disintegration of the metal clips through which terra cotta is attached to buildings.
"It's not a terra cotta problem," he insisted. "It's a building inspection and maintenance problem."
Tunick agreed, saying, "The problems are from deferred or no maintenance. That’s the problem. It’s not the material."
In fact, a recent story in The Real Deal showed that many landlords have failed to comply with facade inspection rules, and cited a DOB analysis that found more than 22,000 violations since 2014 related to facades.
She added: "Some buildings in New York City are restored lovingly and maintained lovingly. Most are not because of cost."
