Facade Partly Collapses Off Upper East Side Building

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Part of a facade detached from a five-story building on the Upper East Side Wednesday morning, luckily injuring no pedestrians when it fell onto the sidewalk below.

The collapse was reported around 10:48 a.m. at 354 East 83rd St., on the corner of First Avenue. Video from the Citizen App showed a chunk of the building's brown stucco facade missing from the top floor and lying on the sidewalk.

A Department of Buildings spokesperson said that city inspectors were at the scene Wednesday afternoon, examining the building for structural stability.

First responders removed additional sections of the stucco that were found to not be fully secure, said the spokesperson, Andrew Rudansky.

"As a result, DOB has ordered the building owner to immediately install a sidewalk shed in front of the building, and issued a violation to the owner for failure to maintain the building’s exterior walls," he said.

Before today, DOB had not issued any violations or received any complaints about the building's facade, city records show.