Report Reveals 'Preventable' Causes of Deadly Downtown Garage Collapse

Two days after the April 2023 collapse of the parking garage, a jumble of overturned cars remains on what was left of the building's roof. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

A deadly combination of preventable errors, structural neglect and non-permitted work led to the partial collapse of a Downtown parking garage in April 2023 that killed one person and injured five others, according to a report released this week by the Department of Buildings.

An investigation by the structural engineering firm LERA and city agencies found that just hours before floors pancaked at the 98-year-old 57 Ann Street garage, a worker had removed bricks and mortar from a cracked girder-bearing column, known as a pier, leading to a series of structural failures.

Experion Design Group, engineers for the garage owners, Little Man Parking, incorrectly assumed that a structural steel column was inside the brick encasement when a worker was told to demolish the critical third-floor support, the report said. Without the required engineering plans or permits, workers had begun removing damaged bricks and mortar as early as March 2023, according to the report. On the day of the collapse, workers were told by a consulting engineer to put the bricks back, but “did not communicate urgency,” the report said.

“At approximately 4:04 p.m., an LMP employee entered a vehicle on the roof, backed it into a drive aisle and drove it past [the pier] and into a vehicle lift,” the report said. “Seconds after the vehicle passed the pier, the garage partially collapsed.”

“The city’s construction regulations are in effect to keep people safe. The tragedy at Ann Street reminds us that every time unpermitted work occurs, it could literally lead to loss of life,” Deputy Mayor for Operations Jeff Roth said in a statement.

Those regulations had been skirted as far back as the construction of the 98-year-old building, the report said, when the column was built without the margin of safety required by the 1916 Building Code. Over the years, it noted, long-term aging and moisture exposure added to the cracking of the column, which wasn’t properly addressed by the consulting engineers.

“The extensive multiagency investigation into this catastrophic collapse makes one point abundantly clear: This tragedy in the heart of Lower Manhattan was entirely preventable,” Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said in a statement.

No criminal charges are being brought against the garage owner or the engineers.

Willis Moore, 59, the garage’s general manager, was on the second floor when the building collapsed, killing him. Following the collapse, Amy Sewell, a longtime Tribeca resident who formerly parked her car in the garage, described Moore as “the absolute best, so beloved by all. My heart hurts, he was such a great guy.”