The newly formed Roosevelt Island Steam Plant Demolition Community Advisory Group (CAG) held its first meeting on Wednesday, June 17, revealing newly discovered asbestos concerns that brought a stop to work and extended the timeline for the site’s demolition, according to a City representative.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an order to stop work on Friday, June 12, halting the third week of asbestos cleanup (formally known as asbestos abatement) inside the structure. The order states work was being performed in violation of the City’s asbestos rules that “poses a threat to human safety.”
The order halts demolition preparation until the overseeing agency — the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) — submits an updated “scope of work” plan for DEP’s approval.
The mandate was issued after a routine DEP inspection on June 11 “identified materials in additional areas of the building that they believe require asbestos remediation,” HPD Deputy Commissioner AnnMarie Santiago said in the meeting — the first public notice of the issue almost a week after it emerged, based on HPD’s timeline.
Agency representatives collected samples from the site the following Monday for analysis, Santiago said. The stop-work order will remain in effect until testing is done and DEP approves the new scope of work plan, Santiago said. A definitive timeline for demolition was never established given the project’s dynamic nature, Santiago said, but the discovery suggests asbestos work will take another three to four months.
The development marks the latest inflection point in the demolition project, which some residents argue is unsafe, unwarranted, and proceeding without community input. Anti-demolition advocates say the news validates their warnings that demolition is being rushed without adequate environmental assessment, air monitoring, or community safeguards — right across the street from Firefighters Field and a residential tower that includes a daycare for toddlers.
More than 2,000 people have signed a petition asking the City to stop demolition and instead repurpose the structure for community needs such as affordable housing and education facilities.
HPD and the agency that ordered the demolition — the Department of Buildings (DOB) — say the facility is structurally unsound with a pair of smokestacks at risk of collapsing. But the City has refused to disclose official reports or assessments to support their assertion, instead directing residents to obtain them through public record requests.
The steam plant opened in 1939 and powered the island’s hospitals and other facilities until it was decommissioned in 2014. The Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation announced in December 2025 the start of work to raze the site, prompting concerns among residents who argued the community was entitled to more notice of a project of this scale with health and safety risks. The demolition announcement’s timing in close proximity to news of the extension of Roosevelt Island’s master lease has also prompted suspicions that redevelopment plans for the steam plant site have already been made behind closed doors, an allegation that RIOC denies.
In early statements about the project, HPD said the demolition was moving forward pursuant to an emergency order “to address the potential collapse of the smokestacks” after “visible cracks and faulty masonry were observed on both the building and smokestacks.” After a raucous April 15 town hall, the City started backing off the “emergency” characterization of the demolition. In an FAQ sheet, HPD clarified that the Department of Buildings (DOB) issued two orders related to the site in July 2024 — an emergency order to seal the site and a second directing HPD to address the conditions of the smokestacks and the steam plant building via a demolition “as soon as possible.”
Asbestos abatement — the process of containing and removing asbestos-containing materials from the site — began May 18, a critical step in preparing the site for demolition.
Prior to this discovery, asbestos abatement in the structure’s basement was 100% complete, representing roughly 30% of the initial project scope, Santiago said.
The newly discovered hazards mark the second time work has stopped at the site over environmental concerns. In February, the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) halted excavation of underground oil tanks for nearly week after residents reported oil-spill contamination — a case (#2508914) that remains open. Since then, Santiago reported Wednesday, all 12 tanks have been removed, and a soil-removal work plan is being finalized with a target completion window of late July.
Both instances show “there is no functioning system for the public to be notified in a timely manner about issues at the site,” said Kalin Kresnitchki, co-founder of the Architectural Community Alliance of Roosevelt Island, a local nonprofit leading a campaign to halt the demolition and bring transparency to the project.
“The City’s own agency found this work poses a threat to human safety — and we learned about it only because it came up at a meeting. The order is posted inside the fence, where no resident can see it,” said Kalin Kresnitchki, co-founder of the Architectural Community Alliance of Roosevelt Island (ArchRI), a local nonprofit leading anti-demolition efforts. “First DEC over the oil, now DEP over asbestos. What else don’t we know?”
Photo Credit Kalin Kresnitchk
The CAG meetings emerged in the wake of the town hall through a request from elected leaders. ArchRI and others expressed concerns with the structure and management of the CAG meetings. The group is set to meet only monthly; the scope of discussion is limited to “how” the demolition proceeds rather than whether it should; participation is restricted to representatives of invited groups and there is no livestream for real-time viewing.
The agencies invited participants to submit questions ahead of time, but gave no written answers to ArchRIca’s 12 questions. HPD did not address residents’ concerns about potential lead exposure — which the agency itself has acknowledged exists as “potential lead dust.” When a representative of the day nursery across the street from the site asked how children would be kept safe, HPD offered no plan — only that it would “circle back” closer to demolition.
Meanwhile, HPD has confirmed that there is no plan for community air monitoring during asbestos cleanup. Air monitoring is only taking place within the structure to protect workers, a necessary step that advocates say fails to protect the community from airborne transmission outside of the building.
Air monitoring results are posted on the City’s steam plant updates website on a weekly basis. While the results indicate no asbestos has been detected in air samples analyzed so far, an AI-assisted review pointed out several procedural gaps, administrative discrepancies, and mathematical errors in the field logs and laboratory documentation that leave the methodology vulnerable to being penalized for non-compliance with standard environmental record-keeping protocols.
The 1939 Starrett & Van Vleck building is a sound steel-frame structure that — in the assessment of ArchRIca co-founder and licensed architect Zora Boyadzhieva — can be repaired, reused, and even expanded, rather than torn down and rebuilt later with new steel and concrete. Repairing the two landmark smokestacks would cost about the same as demolishing them, roughly $700,000 versus $750,000, according to an independent engineering analysis.
“The City admits this is not a structural emergency — so the real question is why tear down a sound building only to rebuild on the same spot years later. We’ve asked to see the analysis that justifies it for seven months,” said Boyadzhieva. “If the City doesn’t have a plan for this building, we do — a reimagined steam plant that works for the community and brings in revenue for the Island and the City.”
The monthly CAG virtual forum, modeled after major civic oversight bodies across New York City, includes members from:
- Roosevelt Island Disabled Association
- ArchRI
- Roosevelt Island Older Adult Center
- PS/IS 217 PTA
- The Child School
- Roosevelt Island Day Nursery
- The Roosevelt Island Business Alliance
- Roosevelt Island Residents Association
- Cornell Tech
Other developments that were discussed:
Asbestos Testing: Independent air monitoring for airborne asbestos began May 18, 2026. Testing stations are set up inside the building outside active abatement boundaries and near negative-air engineering controls. To date, zero airborne asbestos structures have been detected, Santiago said. But ArchRI argues that the pause in work so new areas can be tested suggests work so far has been incomplete, according to ArchRI.
Community Air Monitoring Plan (CAMP): A major point of contention for community advocates is the lack of air monitoring stations in areas outside of the steam plant building, especially at Firefighters Field. HPD confirmed in an email that there are no plans for more air monitoring sites until demolition starts. When it does, Santiago said perimeter monitors will be used to log total organic vapors and dust concentrations continuously, but she did not specify where, exactly. If any reading spikes above the established baseline background average, operations will be immediately suspended until mitigation and dust suppression are applied, Santiago said.
Exploration of Barging: Conversations are underway between the contractor, RIOC, and ferry operators to evaluate the logistics of barging debris off the island once demolition begins. Meanwhile, the contractor will continue to use trucks to carry debris from asbestos abatement via the island’s sole thoroughfare, Main Street. Santiago stressed that debris is transported in tightly capped and sealed lined trucks to prevent dust or material migration.
Site Protections: Basic code-mandated safety barriers have already been completed, including heavy protective roof shielding over the adjacent tramway, sidewalk pedestrian sheds, and perimeter fencing. Santiago said structural scaffolding cannot be built around the 210-foot smokestacks until the underlying soil remediation and backfilling work is finished and stabilized.
Demolition Schedule: Because structural engineering means-and-methods plans must clear both DOB and DEP approval following the revised asbestos and soil scopes, there is no definitive start date for pulling down the stacks or the main building. Actual structural demolition remains at least a few months away.
The quality of the You Tube video is lacking. Can you please identify the participants and who they represent. Thanks