The results of the investigation into the deadly 2023 parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan were made public for the first time in a report released Monday.
The report found the parking garage collapsed after workers began dismantling bricks — without knowing they were holding up the 98-year-old building.
Eyewitness News has learned that a joint, two-year investigation by the city buildings department and the Manhattan DA blames the collapse on a series of mistakes by the garage owner and an engineering firm hired to inspect the building.
“These were human errors. And these were preventable. And because of these various mistakes, Willis Moore didn’t return home to his family that night,” said Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo.
The 2023 collapse of the parking garage at 57 Ann Street “was triggered by the removal of brick and mortar from a severely deteriorated, load-bearing brick pier,” the final report released Monday found.
Oddo, and Deputy Commissioner Yegal Shamash, said private engineers detected cracks in one of the support columns, known as “piers,” that held up the third floor. They say that the garage owner hired a handyman to remove and replace much of the bricks — on the mistaken assumption that there was a steel column, within.
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“And what they removed that day was all of this — all of this brick was removed,” Shamash said. “They didn’t understand was there was no steel inside the masonry pier. There was very little brick left to support that whole area of the floor.”
The ongoing brick removal significantly weakened the structure, and on April 18, 2023 at 4:04 p.m., when a parking garage worker drove a vehicle past the column, “the garage partially collapsed.”
Even after realizing the mistake, they claim, there was no sense of urgency.
“They just said, simply, ‘Put the bricks back,'” Shamash said.
But it would be too late.
The collapse killed a 59-year-old manager and injured five others. It prompted a sweeping review of similar parking garages and a reevaluation of the safety of the structures.
While the report concludes mistakes were made, no charges will be brought by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office.
The garage has since been demolished. The garage company, Little Man Parking, and its consultant, Experion Design Group, did not return calls for comment.
