Family forced from Prospect Lefferts Gardens home after stucco drops from building next door

A Prospect Lefferts Gardens family is still out of their home after a large section of stucco broke off a six-story apartment building at 61 Clarkson Ave. on Saturday and crashed onto their property next door, the city’s Department of Buildings said.

Inspectors found that the exterior material had come loose. Pieces hit the sidewalk, and others came down on the neighboring rowhouse at 63 Clarkson Ave., covering its front yard and driveway and landing on its roof. A DOB spokesperson said wind from the weekend’s nor’easter played a part. No one was hurt. The debris damaged the way in and out of the house, so the agency ordered the whole home vacated.

Vacate order at 63 Clarkson Ave.

Homeowners Thema Hepburn and Chester Dean were in bed when a loud crash shook the house. Hepburn said that when she first saw white debris outside, she thought it had snowed overnight. Then she saw chunks of siding covering the car, the yard and the sidewalk as more pieces kept falling. She picked up her toddler and called 911. A security camera at the home recorded the siding smashing across the yard and the car.

The couple, their child and the tenants in the rowhouse’s second apartment all had to leave. They said DOB told them they cannot move back until scaffolding goes up at the building next door. Falling stucco shattered the car’s front and back windshields, and the couple said the car is totaled. They do not yet know the full cost of the damage.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Hepburn said. She described trouble sleeping and time off work to deal with the fallout.

What the building owner must do

Public records name Clarkson Parnasa LLC as the owner of the 11-unit building. DOB ordered the company to put up a sidewalk shed next to the damaged section and to hire an engineer to report on the condition of the facade.

Fallen pieces were still lying on the sidewalk and on the couple’s roof on Monday. The material looked like thick styrofoam spotted with a cement-like coating. A 2024 city advisory lists styrofoam and other polystyrene foams as common building materials, used in insulation and in exterior insulation and finish systems.