The Department of Buildings issued a stop work order at 420 Park Avenue South, a construction site where worker Anthony Paino, 28, fell 10 stories to his death yesterday. The building planned for the site is the Gansevoort Park, a 19-story hotel. According to the Staten Island Advance, "A preliminary investigation indicated that Paino was preparing the job site for concrete work...He was supposed to have been working on a column close to the building's edge, but inside protective guardrails, according to Levine Builders, the general contractor for the project." The Daily News, which said it was Paino's first day at the site, reports that it appears, per other workers, that Paino was not wearing a required harness, "Paino had climbed outside a safety railing to install or repair some rebar, coworkers said. He was standing on a flimsy piece of plywood that gave way under his weight." Friends say Paino just bought a house with his fiancee and worked another job as a pizza delivery man.
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