The Tyranny Of Physics

Funny thing about engineering, that:

A landmarked 1872 cast-iron building is looking strangely similar to the Tower of Pisa, leaning precipitously to one side after the demolition and excavation of an adjacent site. Engineers have placed long wooden supports against the wall to keep the building, on 287 Broadway, from tipping over.

“It’s terrible. One day you own a business and the next you are out of business for nothing that you did,” said David Jaroslawicz, the lawyer for the Yenem Corp., the group that owned a basement diner in the building. “It’s only in New York that you build big buildings and no one pays attention to these details. It’s like capitalism has taken away humanism.”

Settlement over time caused the building to lean slightly to the south by approximately four inches, according to city buildings officials. After John Buck Co., a Chicago-based developer, began excavation work on the neighboring property to develop a 20-story residential tower, monitors installed on 287 Broadway recorded further movement of between 3 and 4 inches. In November, residents and businesses were told to vacate the building.

Today, the diner looks like it belongs in a ghost town residents evacuated.