Winds rip facade from Chelsea building

Powerful wind gusts from Hurricane Sandy have ripped a portion of the façade from a Chelsea apartment building, DNAinfo reported. The top two floors of the four-story structure resembled the backside of doll’s house Monday evening — with nothing separating the interior bedrooms from the elements.

The building is located at 92 Eighth Avenue at 14th Street. Pieces of the partially collapsed façade fell to the street below at about 6:30 p.m., the FDNY and the city’s Office of Emergency Management told DNAinfo.No one inside the building or nearby was injured in the incident, the site said.There are six three-bedroom, two-bathroom rental units in the building. The most recent apartment to be rented out, back in June 2010, was asking $4,550, according to Streeteasy. The ground floor of the building houses the fast-food restaurant Muscle Maker Grill.

Earlier in the day, winds from the storm collapsed a building in Long Island City, Queens, and broke a crane that was being used to build the luxury residential tower, One57 on West 57th Street. [DNAinfo] —Gabrielle Birkner