The New York City Dept. of Buildings is expected to send inspectors to the recently completed New York Times building on West 40th Street and 8th Avenue Jan. 11 to determine what caused seven of the 52-story structure's windows to crack on Wednesday afternoon.
The windows, according to the DOB, were located on the 22nd, 10th and sixth floors of the building. Two of the building's signature ceramic rods on the exterior of the 40th and 38th floors were damaged, as well.
"Our engineers believe (Wednesday's) high winds were a contributing factor (to the damage)," said DOB spokeswoman Kate Lindquist. "But they are exploring all possible causes to determine what went wrong."
A spokeswoman for the Times, who would only confirm that one window had been broken, said she was "fairly certain" the crack was not related to the wind. She added that authorities were called immediately and the window was repaired.
According to Lindquist, the tower's general contractor, Madison, Conn.-based AMEC Construction Management, is making arrangements to repair the windows and the ceramic rodss.
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Messages left with AMEC and the Paris offices of the tower's architect, Renzo Piano, were not immediately returned.
This was the second incident involving broken windows at the Times' new office in just more than a month. On Dec. 4, a man was injured after reportedly being struck by glass from a broken window on the 17th floor. Wind gusts of up to 40 mph were blamed for that incident.
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The ceramic rods also have been a source of controversy for the building, which was completed in July. On Dec. 14, ice that formed on the horizontal rods, which encase the predominantly glass and steel structure, fell to the sidewalk, creating an "ice shower" that temporarily shut down the adjacent sidewalks.
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