New York City is many things: museums, restaurants and its iconic skyline. Unique in the world, many people take for granted that these buildings, commonly known as ‘skyscrapers’, are subject to immense abuse form the environment and weather and must be regularly inspected and maintained.
God help the building owners that take this simple fact for granted. A recent article in spells it out pretty well:
Tragedy can result when boards pinch pennies on mandated repairs.
It’s natural – it’s imperative – for co-op and condo boards to explore creative ways to save money. But boards who are thinking about cutting corners on their mandated Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP) repairs, formerly known as Local Law 11, need remember only one name: Greta Greene.
The two-year-old girl was outside the Upper West Side’s Esplanade Luxury Senior Residences with her 60-year-old grandmother, Susan Frierson, in May 2015 when a piece of terracotta cracked off a windowsill eight stories up, plummeting to the street and striking them both. Frierson survived. Greene was rushed to the hospital with brain injuries and pronounced dead the following day.