Scott Stringer: Goldman Sachs' $2.4 Billion Construction Site Threatens Downtown Residents' Safety

Cars were backed up for blocks during the West Side Highway shutdown south of Chambers St. Saturday following a falling ...

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By Josh Williams and Nicole Bode

DNAinfo Staff

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Disaster-prone construction workers at Goldman Sachs' new $2.4 billion building site are threatening the safety of downtown residents, says Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

Stringer fired off a scathing letter to Tishman Construction, which oversees the building at Vesey Street and West Street, after a pane of glass fell 38 stories early Saturday to the street below.

No one was injured, but the West Side Highway was closed in both directions until 8 p.m. Saturday.

The falling glass was the latest in a string of dangerous projectiles to come from the building, according to Stringer.

In April, a hammer “plummeted 18 stories striking a taxi cab on Vesey and West Street,” Stringer wrote in the Nov. 30 letter. In May 2008, a sheet of metal fell on to the Battery Park baseball field below in the middle of a Little League game.

Earlier that year, seven tons of steel fell from the site onto an architect working below, paralyzing him from the waist down.

“We cannot allow construction sites in the heart of Lower Manhattan to continue posing safety risks to residents and workers,” Stringer said.

Tishman spokesman John Livingston apologized for the latest fiasco at a Community Board 1 meeting Tuesday.

“We deeply regret this, it’s an unfortunate incident,” Livingston told angry residents.

Tishman officials said the workers were unable to remove the 7-foot by 10-foot pane of cracked glass from the building over the weekend because of high winds. Tishman’s safety experts didn’t think the glass was in danger of falling out, officials said.

Since then, six more cracked panes of glass have been discovered on the building fascade, all of which should be removed by today, Livingston said.

“I am not comfortable with family members around the building anymore, it's dangerous,” said Linda Belfer, chairwoman of Community Board 1.

Couple crosses southbound West Side Highway at Warren Street, where traffic was shut down because of falling glass

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Department of Buildings officials issued a stop work order on Saturday.

Tishman will be called on the carpet again Dec. 15, when the full Community Board 1 is expected to demand a full accounting of their safety measures.

Police car closes off West Side Highway in both directions after a pane of glass fell from a Battery Park building Satur...

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DNAinfo/Nicole Bode