The ice fell from a building at 32 West 48th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, shortly after 1:30 p.m.
The victim was taken to Cornell Medical Center with head trauma, including cuts on his face and his lips.
He was described as stable and alert.
"It's frozen ice, it's like concrete, coming from that distance with that velocity, it just hit him right in the face," said eyewitness Onikwa Thomas.
Witnesses tell us ice chunks from the top of the building were falling during the afternoon, and the victim, who works in the building, was standing outside looking up, and complaining about it.
"And the guy was just standing, he was like, 'They should do something about this ice falling', so as he said that, he just looked up, and chunk of ice just fell on his face, split his lips, there was blood everywhere," said Thomas.
As pedestrians, so many New Yorkers focus on the icy sidewalks and streets right now. It's hard to remember, in this vertical city, we do need to be conscious of what might be above. And we need to keep it moving, or else this kind of thing can happen.
"I think it's horrible, not good. Hope he's alright," said eyewitness Clarence Jenkins.
"I stepped out of my shop and he was just on the ground," said another eyewitness, Bekim Bujari.
Adding to the risk, people who work in the area say the building and the sidewalk area around it aren't maintained very well.
"The building, the elevators, the maintenance, everything is really old like nobody really takes care of this area," said one worker.
The building's super wouldn't comment on camera about this as the injured man was taken to the hospital
