Last night a reader wrote in to tell us about an evacuation at Chelsea Piers Sky Rink Pier. She wrote, "We were just in the middle of an intense hockey game at Chelsea piers, the sky rink pier, when rink management came running out to immediately evacuate the building. Why? Because the PIER IS COLLAPSING!!!" Another person wrote on Contribute, "Chelsea Piers Sky Rink shut down due to to structural damage from a boat." A......

Dozens of families that occupied approximately 30 apartments in an East Harlem apartment house found themselves out on the street yesterday, with what little belongings they could gather together as they were hustled from their homes. The Dept. of Buildings condemned the structure on 2nd Ave. and 120th St., noting that several partitions had recently been removed from the building's basement, causing the building's floor to sag in a sign of potential imminent collapse. In......

If you're wondering what the hell's going on in Hell's Kitchen right now, reader Ed writes in to tell us that around 12:45 p.m. the water tower on top of the now defunct Sony Studios building on 54th & 10th, blew over. The partial collapse (pictured) is on the roof of the four story building, and wasn't part of the demolition the building is currently undergoing -- but rather it appears to have blown......

Photograph of damaged building from the 303 East 51st Street construction site's crane by John Zwinck on Flickr During a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said, "I don’t think anybody should be fully satisfied with the Department of Buildings’ performance. Whether somebody could have done a better job — I’m trying to — whether they could have done a better job I just don’t know." The Mayor's criticism lies squarely with his hire, architect turned......

Two cats living in an apartment completely destroyed by the Midtown crane collapse have been found and reunited with their owners. The recovery of Mr. Gloves and Gooksie was in no small part due to the efforts of Gini Otway, a neighbor who also volunteers at the animal rescue and adoption organization City Critters. As residents of buildings around the crane collapse were being evacuated, someone told Otway that they had seen a cat huddled......

The crane collapse last week that killed seven people showed just how weak the enforcement of safety rules and building codes are in New York City. In addition to the inspector who was arrested for faking a report on the inspection of the crane that collapsed on the East Side, engineer Jose Vargas was arraigned this month for failing to complete a final inspection on a discount store in the Bronx. The building collapsed unexpectedly......

Just a days before the Florida primary, someone gave the New York Times a 1998 NYPD memorandum advising Mayor Giuliani that the department felt locating the city's emergency command center in 7 World Trade Center was not a very good idea. The eight page memo was written by a panel of police experts with help from the Secret Service. Its conclusions were overruled by Giuliani and the command center was destroyed on September 11 as......

A well-known ruin is crumbling. According to Roosevelt Island Historical Society president and historian Judith Berdy, part of the north wing of the Smallpox Hospital collapsed about a week ago. She writes, "The rest of the north wing especially the front is in danger of coming down any time... [The Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation] is working with TPL, the Southpoint park developers to find a way to do emergency stabilization of the rest of......

Some disappointed Giants fans leaving the stadium in New Jersey last night were served an extra dose of indignity when the escalator from the top tier of Gate A malfunctioned and knocked people off their feet. The accounts seem as scrambled as the scrum of people sprawled at the foot of the escalator, but it seems that the bottom few steps of the stairway collapsed, with several people becoming trapped. The emergency stop button was......

When the weather outside is frightful, the risks are likely predictable--in high-wind weather anyway. Early yesterday evening, witnesses report that wooden planks broke free from a crane and crashed onto Spring St. at the new Trump SoHo building, reportedly crashing atop several cars. A collapse of steel from a crane at the WTC site early last week crushed a construction trailer where an architect was seriously injured when pieces of steel demolished his workspace after......

The Daily News and NY Times have some updates on 74 Grand, the landmarked residential building that sank into the ground after a rainstorm in 2004. The would-be tenants are still battling their way through the court system, and one of them never even got to sleep in her $1.6 million loft. Caroline Hunt, a British business woman, was getting her life together in New York when her dreams (and dream home) literally began to......

The architect who was in the construction site trailer crushed by 14,000 pounds of steel that fell 25 stories from a crane may never walk again. Doctors believe Robert Woo was likely paralyzed; his mother said, "He might not walk again...I've been telling him he's lucky to be alive." It is amazing Woo is alive - seeing photographs of the site, it's incredible he survived - but given the amount of construction and development......

Architect Robert Woo is hospitalized but in stable condition today after the construction trailer he was working in was crushed by a load of falling steel that a crane dropped. The crane was elevating the steel at the site of the new Goldman Sachs building at the World Trade Center. The accident occurred yesterday morning when a nylon sling snapped and seven tons of steel fell 25 stories. Woo was the only person injured......