Tram Thuy Nguyen came to New York about eight months ago to be with her fiance, her former boss said, and her favorite topic in recent months had been her coming marriage."She was extremely excited," said the former boss, Chris Morley, who had worked with Ms. Nguyen at Bien Realty near the apartment that she shared with her fiance on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village.
Ms. Nguyen, 37, known to friends as Tina, who recently went to work for the real-estate agency Keller Williams NYC, was killed on Tuesday evening after she was struck by plywood fencing blown from a construction site as she walked along a street not far from her home, the police said on Wednesday.
The episode occurred around 5:50 p.m., the police said, as Ms. Nguyen walked on the sidewalk in front of 175 West 12th Street. She was struck by a piece of plywood that was blown off a security fence surrounding the area where a 200-unit condominium complex, the Greenwich Lane, is rising on the site of the former campus of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, the police said. The force of the impact then slammed Ms. Nguyen, who was using her cellphone when she was struck, against the wall.
Ms. Nguyen was declared dead at 9:12 p.m. at Bellevue Hospital Center, the police said.
"She always saw the best in everyone," her fiance, Alex Beitler, said in a statement released by a friend on Wednesday. "She was always reminding me to see the same. We were together for five of the best years of our lives. We planned to be married in July of this year. The family and I have decided to bury her in Philadelphia.
"This is the most devastating loss. She was the woman of my dreams. I hope people will remember her by seeing the best in one another and treating each other with true kindness."
The New York City Buildings Department said on Wednesday that it had issued a full stop-work order for the site, a move hailed by local elected officials. The department also said it issued Environmental Control Board violations to the contractor, Turner Construction Company, for a failure to safeguard property and for failing to provide plans for its construction fence.
On Wednesday, workers on the job site said that they were told the project, at 1 Seventh Avenue, which was developed by the Rudin Management Company and Global Holdings, would be shut down indefinitely.
"My foreman said, 'Everybody pack your stuff,' " said Luis Piaenro, 22, a roofer from the Bronx. He said he feared he would be jobless for two weeks.
Other contractors leaving the site on Wednesday afternoon said they feared they would be out of work for months.
The plywood was about four feet by eight feet, the police said. It came from a fence section, about 10 feet tall and painted green, that rings the job site and sits about 30 feet diagonally across 12th Street from the front door of 175 West 12th.
Workers on Wednesday were seen securing the fencing with a metal frame and bungee cord. Others, in white hard hats, were photographing and inspecting the fence.
Everton Harris, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, said the agency was on site investigating the case and what caused the plywood to come loose.
Mr. Harris said that there had been various violations issued by the department and that 11 of them, issued between last May and November, remained open. "There are fines due," he said. "But that's pretty much normal to have open complaints and violations."
Chris McFadden, a spokesman for Turner Construction, said that "safety on and around our job sites is always our No. 1 priority" and that the company's "thoughts and prayers" were with Ms. Nguyen's family. He said the company had addressed the open violations, was cooperating with the authorities and was doing its own inquiry.
In a statement, Bill Rudin, chief executive, and his cousin Eric Rudin, president of Rudin Management, who are part of one of the city's most established real estate families, said: "What happened is tragic and devastating. We extend our deepest condolences to the family."
Those who knew Ms. Nguyen described her as friendly and talkative, and Mr. Morley, her former boss, said she spoke of wanting children. He said she showed her love for them on Halloween, when she made sure the real estate office had Tootsie Rolls to hand out, and she dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake. "She was excited to talk to the kids," he said.
Ms. Nguyen's former husband, Johnathan P. Hagood, said she loved looking at all kinds of art, collecting paintings and refurbishing apartments. They met in Philadelphia, and had lived in Japan for a time.
"I just can't believe it," Mr. Hagood said, weeping upon hearing the news. "That's crazy."
Ardian Garunja, a tailor who works beneath Ms. Nguyen's apartment, said he watched her and her fiance point a camera at themselves in the street one summer day and dump buckets of ice water over their heads - part of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
"They looked very happy," he said.