At a Midtown Intersection, Another Sheet of Glass Falls

Date: 13 August 2008
Source: Nytimes.com

Date: 13 August 2008

If the sound of the 1,500-pound glass panel that plummeted from a tower onto the covered sidewalk shed sounded familiar to anyone near 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas on Tuesday morning, there was good reason — it was the second time in recent months that a sheet of glass had dropped onto that intersection.





At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the floor-to-ceiling-size glass panel, encased in a metal frame, fell more than 50 stories from the Bank of America building and shattered on a shed on the opposite side of 42nd Street, officials said.



Two people, whose names were not released, suffered minor injuries. One man was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center complaining of an injured leg, Fire Department officials said, and another person was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center with injuries that were not disclosed.



James Dean, 47, who had been in the park near the library when the glass panel fell, said: ”I thought it was an explosion,” adding, “It sounded like steel, not glass, hitting the ground.”



“I walked out onto the street and saw chunks of glass as far in as the newsstand, chunks of glass the size of my fist,” he said.



A mason at the Bank of America building, who gave only his first name, Dave, said he was under the street-level scaffolding when the glass hit. “I heard it raining down,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was.”



Richard M. Kielar, a spokesman for Tishman Construction, the construction manager for the project, said the panel, which had been stored on the 51st floor of the building, fell when it was in the process of being put into place with a winch. “It was being taken off the building and being lowered into position,” he said. A window on a floor in the low 40s was broken, but it was not immediately clear whether it was from the falling panel or debris, he said.



Read the entire story on the source link below.

600450 At a Midtown Intersection, Another Sheet of Glass Falls glassonweb.com

See more news about:

Others also read

Insulation giant Saint-Gobain Isover is inviting submissions for its 2009 international architectural student competition which has prize money totalling €6,500 at stake.
On 11 December 2008 the only producer of glass packaging in Slovakia, Vetropack Nemsova, a subsidiary of Vetropack Holding of Switzerland, launched a new automated line for sorting glass cullet, worth SKK 170mn (EUR 5.61mn USD 7.51mn).
Saint-Gobain Containers shut down its second furnace Monday in the second phase of a temporary layoff at the glass plant as a result of economic pressures.
Nuova Oxidal in cooperation with Politecnico di Milano and Texs consortium is organizing a specialization course for project, furnishing and building up of temporary spaces.
As a result of the extreme devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) against the US dollar, the Vetropack Group has adjusted downwards its expectations for the current 2008 financial year.
Specialist  glass manufacturer Romag has marked the end of a year of growth and expansion by revealing profits have risen by more than a third.

Add new comment