Rogue roof decks, missing facade inspections at Phil Pulley-managed apartment building that collapsed

For residents of the 1700 block of Folsom Street, the tricolor bricks and broken cinder blocks covering the sidewalk feel like hundreds of dodged bullets: Each one of them, from 50 feet above, could have been fatal.

Two weeks ago, part of the Darrah School Apartments parapet wall came crashing down on the city’s Francisville neighborhood, obliterating trees and damaging cars along a section of the block that spans eight rowhouses.

The Oct. 6 collapse sent parents racing to their kids’ bedrooms at 9:34 p.m., thinking it was a gas line explosion or earthquake that could force them to flee. A living room window across the street from the apartment was shattered.

“I’m just glad I wasn’t out there,” said Derrick Watson, a seven-year resident of Folsom Street who at first thought a bomb had gone off. The side of the block where bricks rained down is a frequent route for people walking their dogs or headed to the nearby playground.

No injuries were reported. Residents of the building soon returned to their apartments. The news vans moved on.

But neighbors want answers: How does much of a large wall of an occupied building just fall off in calm weather? And how can they be sure it won’t happen again?

Darrah School Apartments is operated by SBG Management Services, headed by controversial landlord Philip Pulley, who is being sued by the state Attorney General’s Office for allegedly running unsafe and rodent-invested buildings. He also pleaded guilty last month to federal voter fraud charges.

Eleven Philadelphia apartment buildings managed by SBG have been linked to nearly 1,000 building code violations, according to city records. City lawyers have gone to court over SBG’s buildings more than 300 times between 2014 and 2024 over maintenance issues or to file liens for unpaid utilities and delinquent taxes totaling more than $2.5 million.

Pulley, in his first public comments since the collapse, said in a phone interview Thursday: “Nobody knows why it fell. … It’s just one of those things.”

Pulley insisted the Darrah School building is not subject to a city facade ordinance that requires owners to conduct periodic facade inspections for buildings over 60 feet and submit reports to the city.

The ordinance, passed in 2010 following several high-profile incidents of falling bricks and concrete in Center City, is aimed largely at aging mid-rises like Pulley’s nearly 100-year-old Darrah School building.

“None is required,” Pulley said of the facade inspections. “The building is too small.”

Then he launched into an expletive-laden rant and hung up.

After The Inquirer sent questions to the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections last week about the facade ordinance, city investigators “remeasured the building” and found that Pulley should have submitted a facade report due to structural elements of the building that take it over 60 feet, an L&I spokesperson said Thursday.

L&I issued a violation on Friday for that failure.

Abieyuwa Aghayere, an engineering professor at Drexel University, said facade inspections are particularly important on older buildings like Pulley’s.

Constructed in 1926, the building was named after Lydia Darrah, a Revolutionary War figure who helped the colonists while Philadelphia was occupied by the British. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

“The reason [for the ordinance] is so you don’t have all these pieces falling down,” Aghayere said. “They need to be inspected periodically. They might corrode, or fall apart. You just don’t know.”

Besides questions about the state of the facade, aerial photographs, city records, and SBG emails reviewed by The Inquirer indicate that roof decks were added to the building within the last five years — without the required city authorization.

Both decks are on the same side as the collapsed parapet wall.

Ava Schwemler, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, said: “A building permit and zoning permit are required to erect a roof deck. Neither of these were obtained by this property owner prior to construction of the roof deck.”

Schwemler said the cause of the collapse has not been determined. The city is awaiting an engineer’s report.

Pulley on Thursday claimed not to have any knowledge of the decks or how or when they were built.

Aerial photos from April 2019 show no decks on the roof. In 2020, however, decks can be seen in both the southwest and southeast corners.

“Predated me … no idea,” Pulley said.

Pulley has been involved with the apartment building since at least 2014, financial documents show, when he signed a mortgage on behalf of Darrah School Realty Co. and Old Darrah Corp., two of the many companies that own apartment buildings he runs through SBG Management. Darrah School Realty Co. has shared addresses with both SBG and Pulley’s home address in Huntingdon Valley, Montgomery County.

In June 2020, residents of the Darrah School building received emails with lease addendums as a result of the “new roof top deck.” The emails were signed by SBG Management Team, Pulley’s company.

Phillip Lee, who lives across the street from the Darrah School building, said he and other residents have received little communication from the city or SBG Management. Two weeks later, the street remains closed to traffic. The rubble hasn’t been cleared.

One resident jokingly questioned whether she should be wearing a helmet when walking outside her home. Another resident said she’d been shaken by seeing fire officials using specialized equipment to check for bodies immediately after the collapse. She had initially thought someone might have been killed.

Lee said he has been confused by statements from SBG and the city that the collapse wasn’t due to a “structural issue.”

“It’s the structure that fell,” Lee said. “I’m not a construction worker, I’m not an inspector, but the structure fell on the ground.”

Amy Rose, a four-year resident of the block, said some of her neighbors fear the building is unsafe, given how easily the wall came down.

“It’s not like there was a crazy storm or anything” the night of the collapse, Rose said. “So how do we know all the other sides are OK?”

The Darrah School building is the second Pulley-run building to collapse in as many years.

In September 2022, a large portion of the facade fell off of SBG’s seven-story Lindley Tower building in the city’s Logan section, displacing more than 100 residents. In that case, as in this month’s building collapse, L&I issued a violation after the collapse for a failure to submit the required facade inspection reports.

The Lindley building had a history of other unaddressed L&I violations.

Weeks before the collapse, in August 2022, the city had sought a court order to have Lindley Tower Realty, a Pulley-affiliated company, pay $927,800 for failing to fix a slew of code violations. That money has still not been paid. City officials continue to pursue the case in court.

After the Lindley collapse, SBG’s insurance carrier said it would not cover the damages, contending that SBG employees had been aware for “several months” that the brick facade was severely compromised.

In fact, employees had noticed it bulging out so much that they erected a fence below that area of the facade to prevent people from walking under it, according to the insurance company. After the facade bulged out even farther, building managers told people to move their cars to safety and expanded the fencing, the insurance company said in court papers. Days later, the bricks came tumbling down.

After SBG failed to make needed repairs following the collapse, city officials obtained an order from a judge to demolish the tower and bill SBG for the cost. Pulley and his lawyer are appealing the order.

Schwemler, the Law Department spokesperson, said on Friday the city is monitoring overdue fines and penalties for properties owned by Pulley and SBG Management, and evaluating “the options for ensuring collection of any outstanding delinquencies.”

She said property owners have 35 days to address violations. If a property fails reinspection, L&I can ask the court to impose substantial penalties, and L&I can also order property owners to cease operations.

Back on Folsom Street, resident Chris Pavelec, whose security cameras captured this month’s collapse, is hoping to avoid another Lindley Tower saga.

“I just want to make sure it’s cleaned up and safe, and that the building isn’t going to be an ugly mess for the next two or three years,” he said. “Or have to worry about more of it coming down.”

Staff writers Dylan Purcell and Samantha Melamed contributed to this article.