BIN
Building Identification Number
The seven-digit number New York City assigns to each structure so that every city record can point at exactly one building.
Addresses are ambiguous: corner buildings answer to several streets, complexes share one address across many structures, and street names repeat across boroughs. The BIN exists so records do not have to care. Nearly every violation, permit, complaint and inspection the city publishes carries one, and it is the key this site uses to assemble a building's full history across agencies.
The first digit encodes the borough (1 Manhattan, 2 Bronx, 3 Brooklyn, 4 Queens, 5 Staten Island). A BIN of the form X000000 is a placeholder meaning the record could not be tied to a specific structure.
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