Another shower of debris falls onto Chestnut Street

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... another falling chunk of a Center City building.

A pair of masonry panels plummetted from the sixth floor of a building on Chestnut Street near 11th early yesterday, marking the third time this summer that debris has rained on downtown streets from high above.

While none of the incidents has resulted in injuries to pedestrians or motorists, the potential for a real tragedy has resonated with City Councilmen James Kenney and Frank DiCicco.

They said yesterday that they plan to introduce legislation on Sept. 17 that will require an engineer or registered architect to inspect the exterior of buildings six stories or higher every five years.

Brian Abernathy, DiCicco's director of policy and public relations, said that the councilmen, inspired by a similar building code in New York City, began working on the legislation last year.

The legislation requires building inspections to be made from scaffolding or an observation platform.

Engineers will have to file reports with the Department of Licenses and Inspections that declare the buildings "safe" or "safe with a repair and maintenance program," or "unsafe," the councilmen said in a release.

Property owners will be required to fix unsafe portions of their buildings within 30 days. "Property owners need to guarantee that passers-by are safe," Kenney said.

On Aug. 5, a fire wall on the side of a building fell onto the roof of the Beneficial Building, at 16th and Chestnut streets, about 11 a.m., causing bricks and debris to fall to the street below

On June 3, marble panels from the Broadcast Building, 16th and Walnut streets, crashed to the ground.