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The 15-story Manhattan building facade that crumbled and injured a Pennsylvania tourist Tuesday was inspected and certified safe in January, a Buildings Department spokesman said.
Complying with a 1998 law that required the exteriors of buildings that are more than six stories tall to undergo thorough inspections by March, 2000, the owner hired an architect who certified the structure safe, said Buildings Department spokesman Paul Wein.
The inspection standards were tightened after several tons of bricks fell from a facade on Madison Avenue in December, 1997, injuring two people and closing parts of the avenue for weeks.
The cause of Tuesday's collapse was still under...