MANHATTAN — An architect lost his footing on a skyscraper he was working on in Midtown and plunged 45 stories to his death, officials said Friday.
Bruno Travalja, the 52-year-old owner of New Jersey-based Crowne Architectural Systems, had a harness on that wasn't attached to anything as he surveyed the 47th floor of 135 W. 52nd St., near Sixth Avenue, about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the NYPD and Department of Buildings said Friday afternoon.
Travilja knelt down near a ledge with an 18-inch-high barrier to prevent things from falling to the street, said DOB spokesman Alexander Schnell.
He then stood up, lost his footing and fell, Schnell said.
Travalja, of Ridgewood, New Jersey, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The DOB halted work on the site, a spokesman said.
Calls to Travalja's firm went unanswered Friday afternoon.
According to Travilja's Facebook, he studied architecture at the Pratt Institute as part of the class of 1987 and married in 2009.
Crowne uses a "highly skilled, non-union labor force" to build the exteriors of buildings, according to its website.
