Chunk Of Park Slope Building Breaks Off, Crashes Through Pizza Joint Awning Below

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A chunk of an old apartment building in Park Slope broke off on Wednesday and crashed through the awning of a pizza joint below, startling customers at the restaurant and neighbors.

Debris from the landmarked apartment building, on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street, was already starting to crumble before the crash, a witness said.

Melissa Kuzinits, who was inside Smiling Pizzeria on the ground floor with her two kids, told Patch she thought someone was inside doing maintenance work and tossing chunks out of the building.

"Debris was already coming out of the window, small pieces," Kuzinits, who has lived on the block for two years, told Patch. "Someone on the street said, 'You can't do that anymore.'"

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The building's super, Dondi Fogle, told Patch that small chunks of the building were falling off, so a worker went inside the third-floor apartment to check it out. The worker, Fogle said, noticed a particularly unstable window facade.

"As soon as he touched it, the whole piece came down and crashed through the overhang," Fogle said.

"Luckily, nobody was there."

Kuzinits said there was "a huge boom inside when we were paying. The workers were startled."

You can see the chunk of facade missing from the window in the picture below:

A startled neighbor called the fire department. An NYPD officer on scene told Patch: "It just fell. They're old buildings," before getting in her squad car — pizza box in hand.

The area below the building was closed off with caution tape and part of the metal awning appeared to have become separated from the building. Startled neighbors were crowded around the area as a crew swept debris from the sidewalk.

A report immediately filed by the Department of Buildings said: "Part of the building facade fell."

Images via Marc Torrence, Patch