NYC elevators: City’s worst of the worst list

When Stephen Hewett-Brown was crushed to death in an elevator in Manhattan on New Year’s Day after pushing a woman to safety, the tragedy seemed to reinforce the fears of millions of New Yorkers who regularly have to take elevators to their jobs or homes.

Tenants later came forward to say that the elevators had long been a problem and needed to be fixed. A number of complaints and violations was recorded over the years involving the Broome Street high-rise’s three elevators by the New York City Department of Buildings. The management company says the elevators were modernized in 2011 and that safety was its “paramount concern.”

Throughout the city there are numerous buildings that have racked up multiple elevator violations. Each month, the Buildings Department releases a list of the worst elevator offenders in the city.

Here are five of the buildings most recently named by the Buildings Department in December. The department says the owners on the list accrued more than 10 violations and 10 complaints from the public over a 12-month period, and have histories of unresolved elevator problems.