NEW YORK CITY — A professional engineer misdiagnosed a structural column as decorative in a Bronx building that partially collapsed this week, city officials said.
The unnamed engineer’s blunder — which was uncovered in a probe into the Morris Heights building’s collapse — prompted his inspection authority to be suspended as building officials seek to permanently revoke it, said Mayor Eric Adams Friday.
“Our initial investigation into this collapse has made clear that the engineer involved has no business assessing the exterior walls of buildings in New York City, and we’re taking action to suspend his ability to do so,” Adams said in a statement.
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The catastrophic partial collapse of 1915 Billingsley Terrace Monday left a gaping hole in the seven-story building’s side, scores of residents without homes and, miraculously, no serious injuries.
City officials and Bronx Attorney General Darcel Clark’s investigators quickly began an investigation into what led to the collapse.
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The building had more than 100 violations, according to city records. Residents lodged nearly 180 complaints, ranging from lack of heat to collapsing walls in apartments, in the past two years, records show.
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