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A panel on what appears to be the roof overhang fell off the New York State Museum Sunday, Oct. 18, 2021. The debris hit a terrace level of the building. No one was hurt.
A panel on what appears to be the roof overhang fell off the New York State Museum Sunday, Oct. 18, 2021. The debris hit a terrace level of the building. No one was hurt.
A panel on what appears to be the roof overhang fell off the New York State Museum Sunday, Oct. 18, 2021. The debris hit a terrace level of the building. No one was hurt.
ALBANY — Part of the sidewalk outside the New York State Museum was barricaded and closed to the public Sunday, after a panel from the museum's ninth floor fell off and hit the building's terrace level, and then Madison Avenue and the sidewalk.
Albany Fire Batallion Chief Greg Sokaris said that an exterior panel came loose around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. There were no injuries and no vehicle damage, the chief said. He said the incident has been turned over to State Police and the state Office of General Services. Sokaris described the panel's failure as "isolated."
"I think a lot of the debris got caught in the top level," Sokaris said.
A Times Union reporter could see two square pieces missing from the roof's overhang, where the panel had apparently gotten loose.
OGS said Sunday night it was "a piece of the structure" that fell, and that it hired a contractor "to perform an emergency inspection of the entire perimeter of the building and begin repairs."
The state agency said the area will remain closed to the public "until the situation has been fully resolved."
Someone initially posted in a tweet Sunday that they saw "chunks" of the building fall. Then Albany Common Council member Richard Conti said in a tweet "was walking on the terrace level as they were barricading the lower stairway, got out in time. Saw fallen chunks on northeast terrace corner."
Pete DeMola reports on the city of Schenectady and the towns of Glenville, Rotterdam and Ballston Spa. He previously reported for the Daily Gazette and Sun Community News in the Adirondacks, where he won the New York Press Association's 2015 Writer of the Year Award for his investigative reporting. He previously lived in Beijing, where he reported on pop culture for several domestic publications and social media companies, as well as worked for a record label. He's a 2005 graduate of Syracuse University. You can reach him at pete.demola@timesunion.com.