The Continuing Drama of the Deutsche Bank Building
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Here’s an update on the endless saga of New York’s Deutsche Bank Building. The 41-story office tower was severely battered by the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Nearly eight years later demolition is ongoing, complicated by litigation, toxins, corruption, and human bones.
The latest news relates to a fire that broke out in the partly demolished building in mid-August 2007. Tragically, two firefighters died fighting the blaze. Three construction supervisors and a demolition subcontractor are under indictment for manslaughter in connection with the firefighters’ deaths.
Last week, lawyers for the defendants filed court papers claiming that prosecutors withheld “specific exonerating evidence” from the grand jury that voted to indict. The papers also argue that city, state and federal agencies and other contractors were more to blame for the firefighters’ deaths.
The Deutsche Bank Building (which Deutsche Bank sold to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in 2004) is in the heart of lower Manhattan’s financial district. It was across the street from the World Trade Center’s South Tower, and when the tower collapsed on September 11 the Deustche Bank Building suffered massive damage. It was boarded up and covered in a black chain link shroud (see photo, taken in 2002), pending demolition. A thick soup of toxins — including asbestos, mold, dioxin, and lead — was trapped inside.
Demolition was held up by insurers and by the discovery of hundreds of human bone fragments that had to be carefully sifted from the debris. But in 2007 several floors finally had been demolished when a fire broke out on the 17th floor.
According to reporter William Rashbaum of the New York Times, a negative air pressure system was kept running 24 hours a day in areas where asbestos was being removed to reduce the danger of contamination. Breathing in asbestos particles is hazardous because the fibers can cause asbestosis, mesothelioma, and other severe lung diseases. As the fire blazed, however, the negative air pressure system caused a concentration of smoke that contributed to the deaths of the firemen.
Further, a section of the building’s standpipe was missing, which prevented firefighters from getting water to the blaze. Two of the three construction supervisors under indictment are accused of being responsible for breaking the standpipe. The third, a site safety manager, was charged with failing to realize the standpipe was no longer operable.
William Rashbaum writes, “The court papers filed on Wednesday liberally spread blame among other contractors and an alphabet of city, state and federal agencies — including the E.P.A. and OSHA. The lawyers contend that, in part because of those missteps, the actions of the three men and the Galt company did not represent ‘a sufficiently direct cause’ to support the charges.”
“The Galt Company” is the John Galt Company, the subcontractor under indictment. In January 2009, the former purchasing agent for Galt was charged with stealing more than $1 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation by filing false invoices. In July 2009, two businessmen associated with Galt were charged with falsifying business records as part of a multimillion-dollar check-cashing scheme.
Demolition of the Deutsche Bank Building ought to be completed by early 2010, or at least in time for the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The cost of the demolition job, originally estimated at $45 million, probably will exceed $300 million.
— Barbara O’Brien
