April 5, 2004
Windy Weather Causes Stuff to Fall
If you thought that the crap falling from the Time-Warner Center this weekend was an enraged Thomas Keller throwing fire-ravaged kitchen equipment from Per Se, you were so wrong. Two pieces of sheet metal fell from the 76th floor of the Time-Warner Center yesterday evening, due to the intense winds yesterday. Streets around Columbus Circle were closed until other debris was secured, and the Post says the sheet metal is from business mogul David Martinez's $45 million unfinished apartment.
More winds today, which made Gothamist think of some of the city's windiest places: Anywhere near the water, any of the big north-south or east-west streets (like up Church Street or across 86th Street), so pretty much a lot of the city. Gothamist gets ready for those windy areas by wearing two coats and a ski mask, so we look like a bank robbing Michelin Man. If anyone has more information about wind tunnel/funnel effects that are caused by skyscrapers, please let Gothamist know in comments.
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Didn't Someone get Konked on the Head during Contruction of the center Months ago and died?? They've have had problems with stuff falling from the building since day one.
No skyscrapers, but what about that intersection where 11th St. meets Greenwich Ave. and Seventh Ave.? Jesus Christ is it windy there. Even on days when it is still, I expect to see stretchers from St. Vincent's blowing down the Seventh Ave. like tumbleweeds. And just yesterday, I was shocked--shocked!--to see Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford at the Williams-Sonoma a few blocks above there. One wouldn't think he'd let her out on such days for fear of losing her in a gale.
I work around the AOL construction site... building.... consumer conceptspace... mall... Whatever. Yeah someone definitely got konked on the noggin during construction and a piece of debris hit the your fired guy's building too. I don't think the person who got hit died though, I think it was a construction worker who had a hard hat on. My memory is failing but I think that's how it went down, so to speak.
hmm...there is a definite skyscraper effect. I remember reading in a book about the WTC that they had to take that into account because of the buildings' size and height. essentially, they had design a way to slow down the wind tunnel effect or you wouldn't have been able to walk around down there. will have to find the details somewhere.
There's always the famous "23 Skidoo" -- the wind tunnel created by the Flatiron Building that caused ladies' skirts to fly up back up in the day. Never seems very windy around there nowadays, though. Probably because of the changes in the buildings around the area altering the wind conditions.
I don't know about wind tunnels (aside from where they are; plenty in midtown). It's kinda fun to work in a high-rise building, though. The walls creak on particularly windy days. I worked here for almost six months before I figured out what that sound was. (Although, then I thought, "Holy cow, the building is moving!" which is kind of unsettling.)
I happened to be in the TW Center when the shit started to fall...on my way out, actually, when mere feet in front of me a team of 7-8 security guards swooped down to secure the doors and herd people hurriedly back inside.
When we walked across the mall--that's all it is, certainly, a mall--to exit at the north end, we saw lots of flashing lights and police tape. Although I pretty quickly surmised that more of the troubled building's pieces must be taking flight, it was interesting to see quite a few people completely freaking out, asking the police a lot of questions, and hurrying off onto Central Park West post-haste. I even heard someone utter the phrase "dirty bomb."
I saw that mess. Interestingly, every time I go past that center, there's some huge disaster with multiple fire trucks. I'm starting to think they should pay me not to visit midtown.
This from NYT ( http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/nyregion/25blocks.html?ex=1081312390&ei=1&en=fcf05e03d2a2db08 ) :
" Tall buildings can act as sails that catch the wind and direct it downward, an effect more dependent on relative height than absolute height. In other words, the street-level wind produced by a 70-story tower among 20-story neighbors will typically be greater than that produced by a 70-story tower among 50-story neighbors. Because wind also spills around corners, the space between buildings can affect its force. "
regarding tall buildings moving....
after living in l.a. for a couple years i found out that newer skyscrapers are built on rollers to adjust and adapt when there's an earthquake. i bet wind has something to do with that too.
when i moved here and we had a fire/safety orientation in a skyscraper near the main branch of the nypl i asked if the building was built on rollers and a) no one knew and b) they all thought i was insane.
isn't nyc on all these fault lines anyway.
hmmm