Engineer accused of negligence in Bronx building collapse hit with 2-year suspension

An engineer accused of contributing to a partial building collapse in the Bronx last December by misidentifying a structural column at the seven-story residential property has been suspended from inspecting building exteriors for two years, after a preliminary investigation into the incident, according to city officials.

The engineer, Richard Koenigsberg, must also pay a $10,000 fine and wind down his business over a four-month period, under an agreement he signed with the city in lieu of a disciplinary hearing at the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.

His suspension follows a temporary measure that similarly barred him from inspecting building exteriors in the city after he allegedly misidentified one of the building's load-bearing columns as “decorative” in plans filed with the city Department of Buildings last June.

“Public safety in our city relies heavily on the competence and expertise of state-licensed private engineers, especially their ability to properly diagnose building conditions,” Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo said in a statement. “When a private engineer fails to demonstrate this competency, our construction professional disciplinary team will not hesitate to take quick action to curtail their ability to work in our city.”

Koenigsberg declined to comment when reached by phone on Thursday. Witnesses and a government official who spoke to Gothamist in the wake of the Dec. 11 collapse said workers had been jackhammering and removing bricks from one of the building’s ground-floor columns shortly before the facade came tumbling down.

The collapse at 1915 Billingsley Terrace in Morris Heights displaced nearly 200 people from their homes, the American Red Cross said at the time. But many families have since returned after the building underwent extensive repairs and inspections, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ office.

Although no one was killed in the incident, it renewed concerns about the city’s aging housing stock and the need for thorough inspections to prevent future collapses. The buildings department, the city Department of Investigation and the Bronx district attorney’s office continue to probe the factors behind the collapse, and Adams’ office said “additional enforcement actions” are possible, depending on further findings.

Koenigsberg will be allowed to complete active jobs where he was already contracted to perform certain exterior inspections under his agreement with the city, but a third-party engineering firm will review the resulting reports before they go to the DOB for "enhanced scrutiny." Officials added that jobs Koenigsberg has already completed and filed reports for will also receive a hard look.

The buildings department has audited 368 facade inspection reports Koenigsberg filed last year, and has informed the state office that oversees licensed engineers about the results, according to the Adams administration.