Property Grunt

Friday, August 07, 2009

All Hands for Building Collapse

Breaking: Unstable Walls At 2 Fifth Avenue

Some wire reports about 2 Fifth Avenue, the post-war building just north of Washington Square Park (on the west side of Fifth): "10-12 FLOOR WALLS ARE BULGING" and "BRICKS ARE PULLING AWAY FROM THE 17TH AND 18TH FLOORS." Yikes! Apparently the Department of Building was called and authorities are preparing for a possible "minor collapse." And here's some history about the 20-story, 391-unit building—did you know there were originally 11 brownstones on the property—built by William Rhinelander for his family—between Washington Square Park North and 8th Street? When plans for this apartment building were released, there was a "Save Rhinelander" campaign. UPDATE: Now it's an "all hands" situation for a wall collapse


I am sure Brown Harris Stevens is freaking out. They have an office right next door. The city is going to take good care of this building since Ed Koch lives there.