The retaining wall, installed during the excavation of the site to protect the apartment building, lined the base of the building. The collapse of a section about 20 feet long exposed part of the building’s foundation, officials said. But engineers from the city’s Department of Buildings determined that the apartment building was not in danger of collapse.
As most residents returned to their apartments yesterday morning, several said the collapse had brought their frustrations with the site and the planned development to a boiling point. The construction site has been the subject of meetings of Community Board 7 and the Park West Village Tenants Association, and residents have called 311 to make complaints and raised their concerns on community Web sites.
“This is something that could have been predicted,” the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, said of the collapse. His office is part of a task force established by Community Board 7 to address residents’ construction-related complaints. “Every tenant,” he said, “is up in arms.”
The construction site at 808 Columbus Avenue is enormous, spanning two acres. When finished, the 30-story tower will include 600,000 square feet. It will house 359 residential rental units and a Whole Foods market and other shops on the ground floor. The site and the apartment building next to it are owned by the Chetrit Group and Stellar Management, two prominent Manhattan developers.
Anna LaPorte, a spokeswoman for the Chetrit Group, said that the owners had met repeatedly with tenants and the tenant association to address their concerns. “They continue to do so,” said Ms. LaPorte, who works for Rubenstein Associates, the public relations firm hired by the Chetrit Group.
Officials with the Department of Buildings said that the cause of the collapse was under investigation, but added that preliminary reports indicated that blasting earlier in the day may have led to the rupture.
Buildings Department officials issued a stop-work order for all construction operations at the site, excluding the work being done to repair the wall. Devices to detect movement of the apartment building were installed at the request of city officials, and those devices have not detected any movement since Wednesday night.
The owners and the construction manager, Gotham Construction Company, were issued violations by the Buildings Department for failure to safeguard the public and property. Crews at the site had been issued other violations since construction began in October.
A spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said the project had received six violations since January, including citations for air quality problems and for crews working at other than permitted times. In addition, the city’s Environmental Control Board issued a fine of $2,500 for digging without a permit in December.
A statement released by Gotham said the company was cooperating with all the necessary agencies to assess and remedy the situation. Robin Dolch, a Gotham spokeswoman, said the company had tried to mitigate the dust set adrift by the excavation. “But dust can be expected when removing 170,000 cubic yards of earth and rock,” she said.
Residents have registered 52 complaints with the city about the construction work, including complaints about dynamite causing buildings to shake, blasting without proper notification and work starting before 7 a.m. Tenants interviewed yesterday complained that city officials had not done enough to monitor the site or taken their complaints seriously.
Sue Susman, 60, who lives across the street from the construction site, said she was under doctor’s orders to keep her windows closed. “People like me who have asthma have had serious problems,” said Ms. Susman, a member of the Coalition to Preserve West Park North, a group formed as a response to the project.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Garelick slept in his car on Riverside Drive. He returned to his apartment briefly yesterday morning, and stood on his fourth-floor balcony. Below him a backhoe worked to shore up the wall with large stones. The wall, made of vertical and horizontal steel and wooden beams, sits beneath his apartment.
“They were dynamiting right beneath my terrace,” Mr. Garelick said of the work on Wednesday. “The whole apartment was shaking, and stuff fell off my walls.”
Of the nearly 300 units at 784 Columbus Avenue, tenants in all but 17 of them, including Mr. Garelick’s, were allowed to return. They are being kept empty as a safety precaution, officials said.
Mr. Stringer, the borough president, planned to hold a rally at 11 a.m. today to protest the construction work. He said he also planned to ask the Buildings Department to revoke the site’s building permit because of concerns that the development may violate zoning laws.
_______________________________________________________________
WCBS 
CBS
A retaining wall at a construction site where blasting work was being done collapsed Wednesday night, forcing the evacuation of several hundred residents from a nearby apartment building. No injuries were immediately reported. The wooden wall was holding back earth next to a corner of the apartment building at 784 Columbus Ave., which is on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It fell around 8 p.m., community activist Joan Paylo said.he wooden wall was holding back earth next to a corner of the apartment building at 784 Columbus Ave., which is on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It fell around 8 p.m., community activist Joan Paylo said.
Residents said they had major doubts about the safety of the work being performed.
"When they were blasting and I saw where they were blasting this afternoon, I thought, 'This is too close,"' Bridget Polk said.
Heavy construction equipment was being used afterward to dig up earth and put it at the bottom of the wall. The cause of the wall's collapse wasn't immediately known.
The city's fire and police departments, the Office of Emergency Management and the American Red Cross responded.
Residents said the scene was chaotic, with scores of them hanging out in the streets around their building, whose structural integrity concerned them.
Many residents evacuated from the building's 288 apartments were being taken to a nearby public school for shelter, the Manhattan borough president said.
Residents of apartments in a certain part of the building wouldn't be allowed to return to their homes Wednesday night, said Brian Cook, senior planner in borough President Scott Stringer's office. It was unclear whether the other residents would be allowed to return Wednesday night.
Stringer said he had requested an order to immediately stop work at the construction site, which has sparked tension between the developer and adjacent residents.
"This has been a very contentious construction project, and it's culminated in the partial collapse," Stringer said.
"They're going to answer a whole lot of questions tomorrow," he added, referring to those in charge of the construction project.
The construction site runs along the west side of Columbus Avenue from 97th Street, where the 16-floor apartment building is located, to 100th Street, Paylo said. Fire trucks lined the avenue Wednesday night.
Residents have complained about noise and work at odd hours at the planned commercial and residential project, which is being handled by Gotham Construction, Stringer and Cook said.
"We have tried to intervene unsuccessfully," Stringer said.
The project includes a 30-story tower and a commercial space stretching from 97th Street to 100th Street and from Columbus Avenue to Amsterdam Avenue, Cook said.
The evacuated building is part of Park West Village, constructed in the 1950s and '60s, which includes residential buildings, park space, schools and churches. Many of the residents are elderly and have health problems, Cook said.
Telephone calls to several listings for Gotham rang unanswered Wednesday night. Others bounced to voice mailboxes that couldn't accept messages.
________________________________________________________________
NY Daily News (Associated Press)
Residents evacuated after Manhattan retaining wall collapses
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, July 26th 2007, 8:01 AM
A construction site where a retaining wall collapsed, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate a nearby
building, was already a point of contention in the neighborhood before the wall fell, a city official said.
Local residents have complained about noise and work at odd hours at the planned commercial and residential project on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Borough President Scott Stringer said.
Stringer vowed to ask "a whole lot of questions" Thursday of those responsible for the construction project. Meanwhile, most residents of the evacuated apartment building were allowed to go back home Thursday morning, according to news reports.
No injuries were reported from the wall's collapse Wednesday night, and the apartment building, at 784 Columbus Ave., showed "no signs of distress," the city Department of Buildings said in a statement.
Preliminary reports indicated that blasting work at the construction site earlier Wednesday, may have caused the collapse, although authorities were still investigating, the Buildings Department said.
Residents said they had major doubts about the safety of the work being performed.
"When they were blasting and I saw where they were blasting this afternoon, I thought, 'This is too close,"' Bridget Polk said.
The retaining wall had been installed to protect 784 Columbus Ave., according to the Buildings Department. The wall's fall exposed part of the apartment building's foundation, the agency said.
The Buildings Department halted work at the construction site, except for work required to bolster the wall. Heavy construction equipment was being used to dig up earth and put it at the bottom of the wall.
The Buildings Department said foundation contractor Mayrich Construction Corp. was doing the work to stabilize the wall. Calls to Mayrich's Bronx offices rang unanswered early Thursday.
The company in charge of the construction project is Gotham Construction, according to Stringer. The company referred calls to a publicist, who did not immediately respond to a telephone message early Thursday.
News reports said residents of most of the 288 apartments at 784 Columbus Ave. were allowed back into the building Thursday morning.
The Buildings Department said Wednesday it expected to order 16 apartments to remain evacuated until they were safe to re-enter. An agency spokeswoman said she had no update on the residents' status Thursday morning.
Many residents were taken first to a nearby public school and then to a local health center, apparently because it could provide air conditioning. The American Red Cross was working to help them, Troisi said.
Stringer said he had requested the order to stop work immediately at the construction site, which has sparked tension between the developer and adjacent residents.
"This has been a very contentious construction project, and it's culminated in the partial collapse," Stringer said. "We have tried to intervene unsuccessfully."
The construction site runs along the west side of Columbus Avenue from West 97th Street, where the evacuated 16-floor apartment building is located, to West 100th Street, community activist Joan Paylo said.
The project includes a 30-story tower and a commercial space stretching from West 97th Street to West 100th Street and from Columbus Avenue to Amsterdam Avenue, said Brian Cook, senior planner in Stringer's office.
The evacuated building is part of Park West Village, built in the 1950s and '60s. It includes residential buildings, park space, schools and churches. Many residents are elderly and have health problems, Cook said.
The buildings department said the owner of the construction site, who wasn't identified, would be cited with violations.
_______________________________________________________________
Hundreds of residents were forced out of their apartments on Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th Streets after a retaining wall gave way.
The wall, located at a construction site, collapsed and residents of 784 Columbus Avenue were evacuated. No injuries were reported.
The wooden wall was holding back earth next to a corner of the apartment building. According to an eyewitness, it fell shortly after 7 p.m.
Heavy construction equipment was then being used to dig up earth and put it at the bottom of the wall.
"This project must stop. Until we have a full investigation and ensure every one of these tenants that they are treated with respect and dignity, more importantly, safety," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said.
The construction site runs along Columbus Avenue from 97th, where the 16-floor apartment building is located, to 100th Street, a neighbor said.
Residents of all the building's 288 apartments were evacuated. A temporary shelter was set up at nearby P.S. 163.
They said the scene was chaotic, with dozens of them hanging out in the streets around their building. They said they were concerned about the structural integrity of the building.
"I'm not surprised that this happened. I don't know what caused it but they're building or rather they're demolishing and excavating extremely close to the building," a resident told us.
Building officials say they are cautiously optimistic that residents will be able to get back in to the building, except for those living right over the corner where the retaining wall collapsed.
(Copyright 2007 WABC-TV)
