IMBY: A Rear Window View of Brooklyn's South Slope

Demo permits for Windsor Terrace Anomaly.

2009-07-10T07:23:00.012-05:00

Last Remaining 17th Street Sleeper Shell to be Put Down.
Demolition permits for decades vacant 534 17th Street have been approved. Just about the only thing worth saving from this architectural gem is the cast iron gate out front. IMBY readers will remember that the other vacant shell on 17th St. sold for $2.372 million earlier this year? FYI folks, it's almost completely renovated.

An application for the construction of a new two family building is currently working its way through the DOB plan examiner's office waiting for approval. The owner of record is Ellen Baxt. The filing architect is Benjamin Baxt of the firm Baxt/ Ingui Architects, P.C.

Contemporary townhouses seem to be the firms speciality with examples o' plenty in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carrol Gardens, and Park Slope. The firm, however, may be best known for their ongoing conversion of the Strong Place Church into 24 residential condominium units. Brownstoner has the poop here.

Should be interesting to see what Ben creates for Ellen.

So far info gleaned from the building's application form fills in some of the blanks.

R5B zoned lot... 1.33 FAR... 3,643 buildable SQ FT... 30' height... 20' wide lot... two family... NO CURB CUTS.

Past Posts:
17th Street
Friday, September 19, 2008
"Adele Manor"

Who's going down at the Armory Heights Plaza?

2009-06-18T22:42:00.012-05:00

Photos courtesy C.C.G.H.

Parking. Parking. Parking. Lots of parking related questions concerning the brand spanking new underground parking garage at 406 15th Street and whether it violates any zoning or certificate of occupancy rules, regulations, and or laws.

There are currently two pending Buildings Department violations awaiting judgement before the Environmental Control Board.
#34767573M Specific Violation Condition(s) and Remedy:
"VIOLATION OF PARKING REGULATIONS IN A RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT. RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT IS R. ACCESSORY PARKING TO DWELLING IS ADVERTISED & OCCUPIED AS COMMERCIAL PARKING SPACE FOR RENT. REMEDY: CONFORM TO PARKING REG" Scheduled hearing date was 6/15/2009

#34767568H "Specific Violation Condition(s) and Remedy:
OCCUPANCY/USE CONTRARY TO THAT ALLOWED BY THE C OF O. C OF O #301987161F ISSUED 3/20/09 INDICATES. OFF STREET PARKING IS FOR ACCESSORY PARKING AT TIME OF INSPECTION. PREMISES IS USED & ADVERTISING FOR COMMERICA"
Scheduled hearing date is 8/03/2009

406 15th Street is within the south Park Slope R6B residential zone. The Schedule A from the DOB web site shows 27 rental apartments over 5 floors, a cellar level community facility, and two sub cellar levels of parking below, each level indicating 11 parking space or 22 indoor parking spaces total. There are 4 additional street level parking spaces along side the building.

The Quality Housing Program, mandatory in contextual R6 through R10 residence districts and optional in noncontextual districts, encourages development consistent with the character of many established neighborhoods. Its bulk regulations set height limits and allow high lot coverage buildings that are set at or near the street line. Quality Housing buildings must also have amenities relating to the planting of trees, landscaping and recreation space.
The R6B district allows a maximum FAR of 2.0 for all permitted uses, and limits street wall heights to 40 feet, and overall building heights to 50 feet. New developments in R6B districts are required to line up with adjacent structures to maintain a consistent street wall. New multifamily residences in R6B districts must provide off-street parking spaces for 50 percent of the dwelling units.

Central Parking Systems is currently managing the Armory Heights Plaza's parking garage which is only accessible by a large elevator . There is an uniformed attendant on duty who operates this elevator. There is an illuminated sign fixed to the outside of the building over the garage entrance indicating "PARK".

There are signs within the garage indicating hourly and monthly rates. There are handouts available at the corner grocery advertising these same rates. There is a sign attached to the light pole a few blocks away on the corner of Prospect Avenue and Eighth Avenue pointing in the direction of the Armory Heights Plaza garage.

M Properties Group of Manhattan, LLC is seeking a long term rental tenant for the 8,200 square foot cellar level Community Facility. They specifically note that this 100' x100' residential rental development across from the Armory (the new Park Slope Sports Facility) has 80 parking spaces. This ad is several months old.

It certainly looks as if they are not hiding the fact that this is a commercial operation seeking outside automobiles to fill their parking spaces... Whether that's 22, 26, or 80 open spots we can't tell. It will make a difference in the amount of carbon monoxide produced if they plan on seducing drivers exiting the Prospect Expressway or spectators attending a track meet at the sports facility. The question of the legality of that backyard exhaust vent was answered. The DoB says it violates no building code nor zoning rule. I wonder if they ever considered the difference between a purely residential usage and one that may involve the passage of 80 cars one right after the other.
So, anyone have answers as to whether this usage is kosher? Please feel free to comment.

Architectural Voyeurism #22

2009-06-13T21:36:00.004-05:00

Eleventh Street Priorities. Transom Threesome.

New coat of saint paint.

We South Slopers anticipate drinking our $14 glasses of wine from hand made ceramic mugs.

2009-06-11T20:01:00.019-05:00

Two for four.
We lived, it was just the two of us back then, for five years in the early Nineties on Eleventh Street, just above Sixth Avenue, in a sunny two bedroom railroad apartment located on the second floor of a three family brick walk-up. In nineteen hundred and ninety four, the three of us moved farther south down to Sixteenth Street just below Eighth Avenue, and have been there ever since.
I walk by our old Eleventh St. place almost daily now on my way to Steve's C-Town on Ninth Street to shop for groceries. They always have good prices on apple juice, two for four dollars regardless of the season.
Today on my usual route I noticed a little something had changed. There was a display of hand built ceramic vessels forming a miniature city scape in a wooden store front's bay window. Without the big "PRINTING" sign covering the entire window, it's easy to forget that this was once the home of the recently, dearly departed, Henington Press printing shop.

Movable Type
In the window an old manual type writer is displayed, upon a single sheet of white paper, someone has written these double spaced lines:

Yes, we are changing...

Yes, we are keeping the window...

491six.com

A reference to the address, 491 Sixth Avenue no doubt, which can take you to this sparse web site *click* that informs you this space will, coming this Fall, be reincarnated as a... mystery solved...wine bar. You can also register to be placed on their snail mail-ing list here *click*.

"He had a blood alcohol level of .491, that's 6 times the legal limit!"

When I saw that enigmatic window display it took me back to a time when McSweeney's Bookstore operated out of the same type of architecturally antiquated storefront-stage on Seventh Avenue, before they pretended to move to Fifth and go into the Super Hero Supply business. At the time they were one of the only places in the South Slope selling aphrodisiac/taxidermy supplies... glass eyes, potent bird beaks, talons, and the like. I purchased my paperback copy of Caring for Your Miniature Donkey there. Nobody knows more about trimming donkey hooves than Bonnie R. Gross. She saved me hundreds in farrier costs! Something that comes in handy when you're the father of Rosemary's Baby.

Today 429 Seventh Avenue is the home of the Hand of Glory tattoo parlor. That's were I got my Dave Eggars tramp stamp. (Father's Day is June 21st!)

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York Blog laments the closing of Hennington Press after ninety six years (three generations) at the same address, and directs us to this touching video and radio interview produced by WNYC radio.

She's gone... Kluge has left the building.

Block Hole

2009-06-09T07:29:00.013-05:00

182 15th Street a.k.a. "The Katan Towers" before Board of Standards and Appeals July 2006 reversal of fortune. The official nuts and bolts BSA ruling brief for 182 15th st. can be found *here* in the archives of the South South Slope Community page.

Behold, recent pictures of the ongoing construction from both the 15th and 16th Street perspectives.*Click* on pictures to enlarge. There is still quite a bit of construction going on in the South Slope, despite the economy being what it is.

Job Type: NB - NEW BUILDING
182 15th Street Brooklyn, NY
BIN: 3337745 Block: 1047 Lot: 24

Job No: 301791318 Job Type / App No.: NEWB Fee: STANDARD
Permit No: 301791318-01-NB Issued: 06/08/2009 Expires: 10/10/2009
Seq. No.: 04 Filing Date: 06/08/2009 RENEWAL Status: ISSUED
Work: Proposed Job Start: 09/12/2005 Work Approved: 12/16/2004
NEW BUILDING -

Zoning: R6B
Use: J-2 - RESIDENTIAL APT HOUSE No. Dwellings: 31 Stories: 4
Total Floor Area: 74,385 Landmark: NO
Site Fill: ON-SITE
Review is requested under Building Code: 1968

Issued to: ASHER NEUMAN Tracking No: GC
Business: CIPCO DEVELOPERS INC Phone: 718-422-0496
320 ROEBLING STREET #623 BROOKLYN NY 11211

Superintendent of Construction: SHMUEL SPIELMAN
Business: C H DEVELOPMENT Phone: 718-302-2802
199 LEE SUITE 524 BROOKLYN NY 11211

In this aerial view you can see how the construction site completely surrounds three very small 16th Street wood frame homes. Will this be the New Building's driveway entrance for their off street parking?

As seen from the 15th Street side of the site. Sections of the older, existing Katan Tower foundation now have shrubbery growing from them.

Foundation work as seen from 16th Street side of the fence.

Squatters move in after $16 million Park Slope Armory renovation remains unused.

2009-06-03T11:13:00.007-05:00

14th Street Derelicts in Residence

This tip comes to us from our good realtor friends at Acorncoran, whom apparently have an exclusive on this historic NYC landmark property.

Not one to waste an opportunity, it seems this couple has set up home directly over the newly replaced stone steps at the main entrance to the renovated $16 million Park Slope Armory Sports Facility. We are not sure how long these squatters have been living off that fixture, but judging by the guano pile, it's been awhile-- months, almost a year maybe. Coincidentally, that's just about how long the Armory has been left vacant and unused, while the powers that be figure out a way to run this facility and pay the bills at the same time.

As our broker friend points out, vacant poorly maintained buildings are not only unsightly and unattractive, they greatly reduce the value of neighboring properties.

Getting out in front of the problem... "The challenge before us is primarily one of compliance."

2009-06-02T03:12:00.012-05:00

Breaking news: Independent engineering consultants have determined that NYC developers, contractors, and engineers, are failing to comply with existing Department of Buildings regulations and are causing catastrophic loss of life and damage to adjacent properties!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Predictable but costly underpinning failures. Deficient design. Inadequate construction and supervision. General lack of monitoring site conditions...

And we here at IMBY were convinced it, (the root of all evil), had something to do with south Slope homeowners engaging in orgies of misconduct!

Please visit this DOB video link to hear Mr. Lynch's own words.

"In the last three years, there have been 13,000 new building permits in the city. Every new building has an excavation component, and for every new building, there are approximately three adjacent buildings impacted by the construction. Most of these buildings are on the lot line. That potentially equates to 40,000 neighbors being impacted by the new building. In response to the rise in excavation related incidents and collateral damage to the neighbor's buildings, the Department recognised the need to focus on excavation." -Timothy Lynch DoB Special Enforcement Forensic Engineer

"A typical self-certified Manhattan job... Hundreds of drawings of the new building, and virtually no information provided on the lot line. This is not our idea of good due diligence. Engineers should have provided this essential information to the general contractor to ensure that the general contractor understood what was on the lot line in congested neighborhoods.
The problem with this is that if there is a structural issue progressing with the neighbor, there is no way to check to see if it's progressing. You can't pick it up early enough." - Timothy Lynch

"The challenge before us is primarily one of compliance with existing regulations."

A little background: In April of 2008 Mayor Bloomberg and Department of Buildings Commissioner LiMandri announced the launch of the High Risk Construction Oversight (HRCO) Study to analyze high-risk construction operations of concrete, cranes / hoists, and excavation. Over the past six months, a group of highly-specialized engineering experts have been conducting in-depth site inspections of materials, processes, and systems, while also reviewing the Department's current inspection protocols, to identify any necessary changes to industry practices as well as the Department’s oversight of these activities. During this process, the HRCO Engineers have been working with the Department and Industry in developing recommendations to expand the agency's efforts in making high-risk construction activities safer. BuildSafe New York: The NYC Department of Buildings’ New Vision for Safety provides participants with the opportunity to hear about the findings from the study experts themselves and to help craft the implementation of recommendations that will support a safer construction industry.

32% of sites visited had NO monitoring at all of adjacent properties.

"Over half of all design drawings had major deficiencies."

One in four sites with NO precondition surveys of adjacent properties. Those claiming to have surveys, the remaining 3/4, their surveys were found to be deficient.

36% of sites visited had significant problems with digging their foundation holes= hazardous conditions concerning the sheet shoring, bracing, and setting up of the site.

26% of sites visited had significant problems with underpinning. Problems with sequencing, layout, GROUND LOSS, approach pit, and dry packing.

Architectural Voyeurism #23: Fourth Avenue Veiled.

2009-06-01T11:39:00.003-05:00

"3 DOORS DOWN FROM THE ABOVE ADDRESS STYROFOAM IS BEING BLOWN THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD. CONSTRUCTION SITE HAS NOT TAKEN PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS TO CATCH ALL OF THE DEBRIS FLYING OFF THE BLDG" DOB LINK

Out of the hole. 1638 8th Avenue raises its iron.

2009-06-01T06:09:00.010-05:00

Started in 2001, now eight epic years in the making, The Bobker Groups 1638 8th Avenue has finally begun to erect its iron skeleton within the poured concrete foundation. The unusual lot extends some 347 feet between Prospect Avenue and Windsor Place. Karl Fischer is the architect of record.

We are expecting 27 condo units in all, to be built two stories (30') in height with some kind of additional Board of Standards and Appeals approved R5 residential zone bending roof decking to cap them off. Twenty off-street parking spaces have been approved with curb cuts on Eighth Avenue . As always click on the pics to enlarge.

Click here: Visit the IMBY Archives for past posts on 1638 8th Avenue.

"Grasso" Bill to Prohibit Permits

2009-05-21T09:42:00.003-05:00

Bill to derail deadbeat developers

BY Brian Kates
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, May 21st 2009, 4:00 AM

Responding to a Daily News probe, a city councilman Wednesday introduced a bill that would bar the city from granting permits to contractors and developers who have outstanding fines.

The bill, sponsored by Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), would prohibit city agencies from granting permits to any applicant who owes "fines, civil penalties or judgments."

Vacca said the bill was prompted by last Sunday's Daily News report that hundreds of scofflaw building code violators continue to receive permits despite racking up $263 million in fines that have gone unpaid for as long as a decade.

"The Daily News article struck a nerve in my community, which has been trying to deal with this issue for some time," Vacca said. "People have to know that they will be held accountable via the permit process if they do not have fines paid up."

The bill applies to all city agencies.

It would put a stop to scofflaws such as demolition diva Marie Grasso, who was profiled in The News for receiving 144 Building Department permits in the last 12 months despite owing a staggering $1.4 million in fines and penalties.

Planned Obsolescence

2009-05-19T00:16:00.007-05:00

I guess the bloom is off the rose. Found this up on the Buildings Departments BIS web page describing the following complaint...

"Re: BUILDING SUPPORT BEAMS BUCKLING & WALL MOLDING CRACKED DUE TO PRESSURE. DRY WALL BULGING IN HALLS & APT 3A. BUILDING NEXT DOOR HAS HISTORY OF POOR SUPPORT."

Too early to to make a guess as to what's going on in apartment 3A, but let's hope it's not what I think it means for the Armory Heights Plaza Apartments; To suddenly become immanently perilous to life and be hit with an emergency vacate order.
There's got to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the new drywall to crack and bulge, after all this is south Slope "black tie tuxedo" construction at it's finest.

Could this "bulging" be related to:

Or maybe have something to do with this:

UPDATE 5-20-09: Inspectors checked out Apartment 3A today and found:
"NO VIOLATION WARRANTED FOR COMPLAINT AT TIME OF INSPECTION
NO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN APT 3A NO CRACKED MOLDING"

False alarm! Rest easy everyone...

Wrecking Brooklyn MMG Style

2009-05-18T00:45:00.006-05:00

Late night mechanical demolition of 406 15th Street by our gang over at the Armory Heights Plaza. This audaciously unsafe job was signed off by the Buildings Dept. despite overwhelming protests by neighboring home owners at the time.

Brian Kates of the Daily News writes about our friendly home wrecker Ms. Grasso and her Staten Island based demolition company, MMG Design, or MMG Construction or what ever it's being called this week. Mr. Kates figures she owes the city something like $1.4million in unpaid vile-lations. Ms. Grasso doesn't recall owning a demolition company.

She's infamous over here in the south Slope, especially on 15th and 16th Streets.

Apparently, according to ECB records, MMG works without permits. MMG forgets to officially notify the neighbors when they are to start work. MMG doesn't post their contractor identification info out on the construction fence. Maybe because MMG doesn't know how to build a fence that will actually support the DOB paper work and remain standing for any length of time. MMG doesn't provide workers with safety equipment and harnesses. MMG uses unlawful scaffolding and uncertified workers to install scaffolding. MMG works against DOB stop work orders. MMG works on weekends and after hours. Housekeeping? The sites are often crowded and piled high with combustible debris.

Sidewalk sheds? Dumpster permits? MMG doesn't use any means of dust control. MMG will often use a back hoe with out proper mechanical demo permits. MMG fails to safeguard neighboring persons and property. MMG routinely forgets to water proof adjoining properties after exposing their side walls and foundations to the elements.

And now we find out that MMG does not pay their fines.
Check out for your self. Posted in numerical order, by address, a few of MMG's ECB violations. Feel free to send me any I missed and I will add them to the list.
Because the Devil is in the Details...
5 Roebling Street
11 Frost Street
156 16th St.
156 16th St.
156 16th St.
156 16th St.
172 Skillman Avenue
172 Skillman Avenue
172 Skillman Avenue
186 Green St.
187 23rd St.
187 23rd St.
187 23rd St.
187 23rd St.
187 23rd St.
178 15th St.
178 15th St.
182 15th St.
182 15th St.
202 8th St.
202 8th St.
202 8th St.
202 8th St.
202 8th St.
206 N. 12th St
206 N. 12th St.
206 N. 12th St.
206 N. 12th St.
206 N. 12th St.
206 N. 12th St.
224 16th St.
228 16th St.
228 16th St.
277 19th St.
277 19th St.
335 Greene Avenue
335 Greene Avenue
339 Greene Avenue
390 14th St.
390 14th St.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
546 4th Ave.
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
568 Union Ave
781 Dekalb Ave.
781 Dekalb Ave.
950 St. Johns Place
950 St. Johns Place
1154 45th St.
1156 45th St.
1463 E. 8th St.
1653 E. 2nd St.
1653 E.2nd St
1653 E. 2nd St
1653 E. 2nd St
1653 E. 2nd St
1653
1653
1653
1653E. 2nd St.
1824 E. 4th St.
3360 Shore Parkway

Other construction related stories by Brian Kates.

"So many ways to beat the system

And few places have witnessed it more often than south Park Slope."

"A rare victory for residents over shameless deception."

"Danger & ripoffs are on the rise

How hot construction biz brings a black market, scams & death."

"Sitting helpless as damage continues."

Knitta Please! Brooklyn Craft Gang Tags in Prospect Park

2009-05-14T12:32:00.003-05:00

Crotchet Bomb left on chain-link fence under Prospect Park's Nethermead Arches.
Does the gang color Dusty Rose signify the "Knit Wonz" or the "Pearl 2z"?

Prospect Park hosts The Rick Acevedo 4th Annual Zombie 10K Fun-Run for Charity

2009-05-14T08:52:00.004-05:00

Prospect Park Brooklyn:
Turn out was pretty good this year. Much better than the previous three races. Good to see our Zombie community coming together to support such a worthy cause, although I'm not sure who Rick Acevedo actually is/was. Google search turns up that there is a roofing contractor by that name in Rye, New York. I'm guessing this charity is some kind of devastating hot tar or shingles related disability service organization.

In recent years Green Wood Heights/Windsor Terrace has become home to a pretty close-knit Zombie enclave of sorts. Whether their reanimation was the result of some Haitian voodoo curse or secret government infectious Raccoon fecal ringworm experiments gone dreadfully wrong, Zombies new to the neighborhood are finding long term living residents more than tolerant, welcoming them in with open, deliciously fleshy, arms.

Mindless race participants enjoying comic relief as provided by Comedy Central's Michael and Michael have issues.

Architectural Voyeurism #21 Fire Escapes

2009-05-08T20:44:00.003-05:00

TOP: 17th Street 5 o'clock shadow.

BOTTOM: 23rd Street

"orgy of misconduct"

2009-05-06T23:03:00.015-05:00

"This was a black-tie tuxedo construction job," said their lawyer, Ravi Batra referring to the construction of The Armory Heights Plaza, 406 15 th Street.

*Recent Press coverage of the ongoing litigation, with IMBY commentary, in red.*

Civil Litigation Over Park Slope Construction Gets Heated
by Samuel Newhouse (sam@brooklyneagle.net), published online 05-05-2009

Ravi Batra & Michael Hiller Argue Construction & Injunction

By Samuel Newhouse
Link: Brooklyn Daily Eagle

ADAMS STREET — Arguments became a bit heated in Brooklyn Supreme Court Tuesday after a hearing in the lawsuit against a real estate developer in Park Slope who allegedly damaged surrounding structures during construction.

Defense counsel Ravi Batra and plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Hiller argued before Supreme Court Justice Laura Jacobson over whether an injunction was necessary to prevent Armory Heights, LLC from selling properties located at 406 and 408 15th St. in Park Slope.

After Hiller filed an Order to Show Cause last week, Batra appeared in court Tuesday with an Affidavit In Opposition “to the fraud-upon-the-court laced 4/30/09 OSC application by plaintiffs.” The judge neither granted nor denied the injunction that was sought Tuesday.

Batra argued that “the building’s not for sale and it’s not going to change ownership,” despite plaintiffs claims that the property was in jeopardy of being sold to a shell corporation, according to their documents filed in court.

Hiller then wanted a court stipulation that agreed to not sell the property, which Justice Jacobson said was not necessary. Batra is “an officer of the court,” Jacobson said.

However, Jacobson agreed to draft an order forbidding the properties from being sold. After oral arguments, Hiller said he was “pleased that we got what we came here for today — an order preventing the defendants from transferring the building.”

Hiller says that Armory Heights is uninsured. The defendants say that is not true. But Hiller says that he had city records that prove there is no insurance.
If this is true, how were they able to acquire Building Permits?

Hiller also wrote in his Order to Show Cause that if ownership of the buildings was transferred, it could “render any judgement obtained against them uncollectible.”

However, Batra stated that his clients are “neighborhoods guys — living in Brooklyn, born in Brooklyn, die in Brooklyn” who would not pick up and leave.

Batra claimed that the motion was baseless. The previous transfer of property was, Batra said, a “kosher” business change from Armory Plaza, Inc. to Armory Heights, LLC. He referred to the plaintiffs’ case in general as an “orgy of misconduct,” which he said “undermines public confidence in the courts.”

"orgy of misconduct" classic Batra! No doubt this debauchery was masterminded by the pastor of the Memorial Baptist Church!

Don't you think that embarrassing shoving match you entered into with a disgruntled homeowner, in front of the congregation's young children, (who attended the hearing, and managed to sit silently and patiently for three hours in the courtroom,) undermined their "confidence in the courts"?

“They tortured us,” said defendant Joe LoCicero, a developer/owner of Armory Heights, about these legal matters and 311 calls regarding the construction project. “It’s horrible. It’s inhumane.”
Last time I checked, ordinary citizens don't have the power to issue Stop Work Order Violations.

Various plaintiffs outside the court told the Eagle that construction has caused cracks in walls and foundations to appear in nearby structures, including the Baptist Memorial Church of Brooklyn, which is 100 years old.

The plaintiffs are seeking over $35 million in damages and an additional $100 million in punitive damages.

Some plaintiffs also said that the tires of their cars had been slashed and some cars had been keyed, as part of what they believe were intimidation tactics.

After arguing before the judge, Hiller and Batra shouted at each other in the hallway of the court’s ninth floor. A court officer appeared and calmed the parties before asking the plaintiffs to leave.

Shoddy work stalls Park Slope bldg.

BY Veronika Belenkaya
Link: DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, May 6th 2009, 12:48 PM

Two Brooklyn developers whose construction site left eight Park Slope homeowners and a church with sunken backyards, cracked walls and foundations can't sell their new building until a $135 million lawsuit is resolved, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge ruled Tuesday.

The controversial episode even led to a shoving match in the courthouse yesterday.

Between Mr. Batra and a homeowner... With the plaintiff's lawyer, Mr. Hiller, trying to separate the two.

The recently completed 15th St. apartment building has been a nightmare since Armory Heights developers Jack and Lorenzo LoCicero began to dig up a quarter-acre parking lot in 2005.

"They dug 60 feet deep and sinkholes started to form around it," said Timothy Piterzak, 48, whose dream home was nearly destroyed after four years of construction next door.

The building is unusual in that it has a cellar and two more subcellar parking levels below that. Excavation went right up to the 100'x100' property line, 45' straight down.

"We have a brick patio and that broke in half, the entire patio started moving away from the house," he said. "We watched the tree that my father and I planted when we bought the house sink four feet into the ground."

Now the controversial building is completed, but another apartment building, seven private homes and the 100-year-old Baptist Memorial Church of Brooklyn that surround it are all damaged.

"If you walked into the sanctuary of that church, there's a 25-foot crack and the parishioners are concerned that they'll lose their prayer space of generations," said Michael Hiller, who represents eight of the nine plaintiffs in the case.

"They didn't shore up or brace the surrogating properties. When you don't do that and dig, you create a void and surrounding property migrates into the empty space - literary, everybody's backyard sank into the ground."

But the LoCiceros' lawyer, Ravi Batra, who got into a shoving match at the courthouse yesterday with one of the homeowners, said the church was previously damaged and that some of the surrounding homeowners didn't let LoCiceros' workers secure their homes by filling in the sinking land gaps with dirt.

I want to thank Mr. Batra for publicly acknowledging the fact that "land gaps" formed along the property line during excavation, endangering the plaintiff's homes. Also thank you for admitting that the frequent, clandestine dumping of dirt over their fences to fill in these sink holes was done without the permission of these home owners. I think that supports their argument and the entire case, no?

"They're jumping to collect on insurance fraud ... it's an attempt to shake down the LoCicero brothers," Batra said. "We have proof that there's preexisting damage to some of them and self-inflicted in others."

Don't you need to have insurance to commit insurance fraud?

vbelenkaya@nydailynews.com

SINKING FEELING
PARK SLOPE WAR OVER CONSTRUCTION 'DESTRUCTION'

By REUVEN FENTON and ALEX GINSBERG
Link: NY POST
May 6, 2009

A group of Park Slope building owners is claiming that the developer of a new building on their block is putting a little too much "slope" into the neighborhood.

The owners of seven buildings near the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 15th Street in Brooklyn have been embroiled in a three-year legal battle with developers Jack and Lorenzo LoCicero over the five-story residential project they claim has created sinkholes, cracks and structural problems.

State Supreme Court Justice Laura Jacobsen yesterday demanded that Jack LoCicero promise not to sell the newly completed building, known as Armory Plaza -- a move the plaintiffs fear would prevent them from collecting money if they win.

An Order to prevent the sale or transfer of the building until the case is settled. The plaintiffs are arguing that since the developer has failed to provide insurance documentation, and that the building is owned by a corporation, their will be no assets to collect on if the building is sold or transferred even if a judgement is made in their favor... or something to that effect.

Timothy Pietrzak, 48, claims the building caused his brownstone's back yard to give way and swallow a retaining wall and a telephone pole.

"There was a time we thought for sure the house was going to collapse," said Pietrzak, who is one of the plaintiffs. The other angry owners include Arnold Rosenshein, a landlord who says he was forced to evacuate an eight-unit apartment building and slice off a chunk to keep it from collapsing.

Stephen Christopher, the pastor of the nearby Memorial Baptist Church of Brooklyn, said the construction produced a 20-foot crack in one of the house of worship's auditoriums and an incline in the churchyard.

But the LoCiceros are firing back hard, calling the entire case a shakedown. They claim the problems with their neighbors' aging buildings existed long before they broke ground in 2005 on Armory Plaza at 406-408 15th St.

"This was a black-tie tuxedo construction job," said their lawyer, Ravi Batra, noting that the city issued Armory Plaza a certificate of occupancy as soon as it was complete. "Everything that could be done was done. This has always been about 'give us some more money.' "

WTF is a black-tie tuxedo construction job anyway?
Give us some more money? Is he talking about the Department of Buildings, or the plaintiffs?

Batra said he could document cracks in the Rosenshein building dating back as early as 1989.

Neighbors don't buy it. "Our yard has sunk a lot in the back," said Arthur Trimling, 67, an art director who lives next door to the church. "It's very scary having your house attacked this way. It strikes you right in the heart."

Sunk on 16th
Residents jeer development
The Park Slope Courier LINK
By Gary Buiso
Friday, May 8, 2009 10:54 AM EDT

Put a tennis ball on one floor of Arthur Strimling’s South Slope home, and the suddenly precocious sphere will take on a life of its own.

“It will roll to the other side of the house,” observed Strimling, whose home, his lawyer charged, now rests “at a slant.”

This wasn’t always the case. But after a real estate developer constructed a five−story building at 406 15th Street, strange things allegedly began to happen in and around Strimling’s home at 399 16th Street.

Telephone poles and trees began to sink 10 feet down in the ground, residents like Tim Pietrzak said. Retaining walls began to take the shape of a capsized ship.

It was roughly around 2006 when Armory Heights LLC began work for the now completed, Bricolage designed building, Armory Plaza. Around that time, Pietrzak started to get a sinking feeling. “You could touch the wires on the telephone pole,” he recalled.

Pietrzak and Strimling are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Armory Heights, seeking $35 million in compensatory damages, and $100 million in punitive damages.

Strimling said that just to hire engineers to investigate their home’s predicament and offer recommendations could cost $100,000. “We are going to stick this out. We’re quite certain justice is on our side,” he said.

This week, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Laura Jacobson agreed to draft a court order preventing the developers from selling the property, pending a court hearing scheduled for August.

Michael Hiller, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the developer dug down 60 feet, and failed to shore up or brace the surrounding property, resulting in the property damage. His client’s concern, he said, is that if the property is sold, his clients would be “left without a remedy.”

Defense attorney Ravi Batra said the plaintiffs, who include the Memorial Baptist Church on 16th Street, are simply using litigation “as a stick−up gun.” He said his clients, Armory Heights principals, Jack and Lorenzo LoCicero, have been the subject of phony complaints to the Department of Buildings, (DOB), an agency he said that has been unduly harsh on his clients, who performed a “black tie” construction job, meaning it was done to limit damage to adjacent properties.

Batra said property owners now suing prevented contractors from backfilling, or replacing lost soil, to the site, and are themselves responsible for any damage subsequently incurred.

Video of contractors filling in sink holes that formed after drilling the 60' deep foundation pilings.

“All the property owners have a claim for is bags of dirt. They are the ones who left it exposed. If they have new damage, they will have to eat it, because they could have prevented it,” Batra said.

Hiller was also not pleased with the DOB — the agency charged with monitoring construction sites. He accused the agency of being “asleep at the switch.” Particularly galling, Hiller claimed, is that the developer is uninsured, but DOB let the project proceed nonetheless. “How they could let this project go with no insurance is unexplainable,” he said. Batra has rejected Hiller’s insurance claim.

How's it made? Greenwood Heights Minerva Buildings' final finish.

2009-05-01T09:40:00.007-05:00

EIFS Process Shots
This notorious building site has had to go through many design reincarnations to get it to where they are, finally, as-built today.
Behold the town houses 614, 616, 618, 620 Seventh Avenue and 322-326 Twenty third Street.

I'm not a big fan of Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems. They have been around for something like 30 years in the United States. Not sure how these condos will hold up over time, maintenance wise, especially those protruding wood framed windows... but you can certainly examine for your self the steps that actually go into the multi-layered construction of these plastinated skins. Just click on any of the photos to enlarge.
The trouble with EIFS, it's only as strong as its weakest seam. Water tends to infiltrate a building's exterior envelope around poorly installed windows and doors, and at the roof line flashing. I would always recommend redundant layers to be on the safe side. That probably doesn't happen very offen with most of the overly value engineered developments in the South Slope.
You really need to have a very competent highly trained design team and stucco contractor doing the work, or else the system will fail and moisture will eventually enter and become trapped behind all that fiberglass mesh and acrylic co-polymer technology with no way to get back out. That's when you get mold and rot between the interior and exterior walls... and big repair bills down the road.
Every once in awhile I even see synthetic stucco being used over old wood frame houses. There's one on 16th Street and 6th Avenue in the neighborhood that comes to mind. When you think all it takes is one split seam or poorly flashed window opening to trap in moisture, well that's just plain criminal, throwing your money away in my opinion.

Anyone remember when they were building the new Union Market on 7th Ave? Before they started construction the building owners had to remove a large amount of the second story plywood substrate that had rotted after the EIFS apparently failed.

An additional note about the Minerva buildings. That's got to be one of the largest curb cuts Ive seen around any where. No place left for the planting of street trees?

So what do you think about the finished product?

DoB Building info link.

Green Wood Cemetery's Blossoms

2009-04-30T17:14:00.007-05:00

Come embrace the transient nature of life.

Cherry Trees, branches heavy with princess pink blossoms. Flowering Dogwoods, white and red cruciforms...
Azaleas ready and willing, their buds bursting at the seams, to open next week?

IMBY & Armory Plaza celebrate anniversary.

2009-04-21T10:49:00.014-05:00

Armory Height Plaza and Imby.blogspot.com
April is a special month for both of us. Four years of their construction, three years of blogging about said construction. Certainly a time to reflect on the many lessons learned...
Ummmm... Help me I'm drawing a blank here...

Special thanks to all those many anonymous architectural voyeurs who continue to drop in. Without your hits IMBY would not be the premier commercial-free south Park Slope Brooklyn Internet web site posting within the cyber world today.

Blue side walk sheds and mesh netting.
Some random photos from the past including this satellite aerial shot that captures a moment in time when 15th Street still had places to buy traditional Mexican Conchas and rent a kosher Ford Focus for the day. A time before our earth moved and the surrounding buildings followed.

Back then who could possible think that things (quality of life issues) could actually get worse off than the constant construction noise being generated from months of grinding away at all the old pointing between every bit of masonry making up the Armory's block long facade?

Four years and counting
Sink holes, cracked foundations, and DoB vacate orders: The making of 406-408 15th Street's Armory Heights Plaza in pictures. *click on pics to enlarge*

Mechanical demolition of Rosa's Bakery at 406 15th St. VIDEO LINK

Cracked side wall of 1504 8th Avenue. Eight families were forced out of the building after an emergency DoB vacate order was issued in July of 2006. VIDEO LINK

More than 200 60' long hollow steel tube piles were bored in place in order to construct the Armory Heights Plaza's underground parking garage. The rear and part of the side brick wall of 1504 8th Avenue removed. The building remains vacant to this day.

Excavating the three story deep pit.

The rear yard of 391 16th Street. Sink holes destroy the chain link fence.

The finished product. Yes they have their permanent Certificate of Occupancy!

400 15th Street looking for buyer.

2009-04-15T22:43:00.020-05:00

100 days on the market and counting... No one working on the site for months, permits expiring...
Anyone interested in finishing this baby off? Please? All the hard work is finished!

It comes with a set of easy to follow DoB approved Corporate Design of America, P.C. plans, so if you're good at assembling Ikea furniture for instance, I bet you could do most of the remaining work yourself in your spare time, on nights, and weekends. Ten additional years ought to be more than enough time to get'er done. Just in time for the next speculative real estate bubble cycle to kick in.

Not sure how all those new next door neighbors at the recently completed Armory Heights Plaza would react to the quality of life issues... They are still moving in, but I bet they would pitch in if you could convince them it's in their own interest to complete this thing ASAP... For their own sanity.

The tan bricked two story garage building in the foreground is 396 15th street. The building farther down the street is 402, Rosa's Bakery, and of course the next building is 406-408, our beloved Armory Heights Plaza.

This is the rendering provided with the listing. Not very inspiring.

400 15 St Brooklyn, NY 11215
$5,599,000
MLS ID #342576
MAXIMILLION REALTY, INC.

Blast from the past. Heartache and hardship. Where did all their money go?

The Community

2009-04-08T06:41:00.007-05:00

Bustling Magnolia Plaza
The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

The Garden
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

"I have to tell the truth: it doesn't take long in community to realize that people are broken and in need of repair. And the minute you realize this, you're liable to think, "I can name this person's problem much better than she can. And I know a thing or two about people. Maybe I can help fix her?" You do this because you love her, of course, and you want to see her get better. You want to see her back on the road, doing the things she was made to do. The problem is, people aren't like cars. We aren't made to run just fine on our own. We're made for community.

Which means we need something more like a garden than a repair shop. Of course, plants get sick just as cars get broken. I'm not saying that you don't get broken people in community or even that some people aren't more broken than others. But I am saying that broken people need what sick plants need. The need someone to tend to the soil around them, give them some extra attention, pull the weeds that threaten to choke them, and wait. It turns out in the end, I think, that we all need that sometimes or another. But the repair show won't do, because we're made for life in a garden. And the only way to grow up into life in the garden is to get your roots in good and stay there."

Source: New Monasticism

Green Wood Heights: Resistance is Futile

2009-04-07T00:49:00.013-05:00

"This residential project is located in Park Slope, a traditional neighborhood of Brooklyn where due to zoning regulations the surrounding buildings remain low rise townhouses. In order for new architecture to coexist with traditional buildings, a relation of amicable contradiction must be established where one complements the other. Big alternate window openings with translucent glass channel surfaces counteract with the traditional small windows of the adjacent buildings. Light is thus introduced to the interior spaces with different qualities and textures, The black brick used in the facade also generates contrast with the adjacent buildings adding variety to the urban streetscape."

-G Ateliers Architecture: Orlando Garcia (Design Architect), Hernan Galvis (Design Architect), Juan David Botero (Project Architect), Luis Echeverri (Project Architect)

"amicable contradiction"

This infill building site, 668 6th Avenue, is positioned one building away from the corner of busy 20th Street just a block below the historic Green Wood Cemetery in the neighborhood known as Greenwood Heights. The lot has been vacant for years, but according to DoB records an eight family residential apartment building existed in this space. Most likely it looked something similar to the two that now stand to the right and the left, four story wood and brick framed. Locals will know that corner as the one time home of Kitchen Bar and Bar B Que.

The surrounding architecture is eclectic. Modest, one hundred year old wood frame houses of all shapes and sizes, some free standing, sit next to multifamily brick walk-ups, and more recently, newly constructed "luxury" condominiums of varying styles, sizes, and quality. This area is no stranger to quality of life violations that surround new construction. Many of the older homes sit on 25 foot wide lots that are perfect tear-down targets for speculative, pushing-the-zoning-envelope type of development. Bricolodged's 266 22nd Street comes to my mind right away.

This area is mostly zoned R6B.
On this part of 6th Avenue, zoning allows for a maximum street front height of forty feet. With the proper set-backs, the maximum buildable height is said to be fifty feet, but with various bulkheads and equipment rooms stuck on top the as-built height usually tops sixty or more feet.

Hernan Galvis and the team at G Ateliers Architecture stylistically like making solid black monolithic structures with lots of big glass windows that move alternately in and then back out, away from the front plane of the building. You can see examples of their other NYC work here on their web site.

This newly permitted building looks to be using all 50 feet up front with none of the usual visual set backs. Instead they are claiming that the top floor is accessory attic space for the fourth floor unit. Is this just another adaptation of the dreaded Scarano-branded mezzanine? Concerned citizens want to know.

Brooklyn's other Park Avenue now Shish-Kabobbing.

2009-04-05T21:03:00.011-05:00

326 Park Avenue.

Standing directly beside the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at the northern most border of the neighborhood known as Clinton Hill, between Grand Avenue and Steuben Street, you can find this address, 326 Park Avenue. This newly constructed two family has been wedged into a rather geometrically-challenged lot right where the Avenue makes a sudden dogleg left.

Spectraflame Broiled

Recently, one sparkling meatlog has been skewered to the side of the building.
I believe you can choose from one of the following fine mouth watering PPG metal flake marinades:

The architectural beauty of Greenwood Heights

2009-03-30T09:11:00.004-05:00

Below the Cemetery
Queen Anne preserved hermetically sealed in vinyl.
Shingle Style miraculously revealed by devastating fire.
Testaments to this neighborhood's past ornamental glory lying in wait.

Greenwood Heights, self-similarity, and the edge of chaos.

2009-03-27T01:27:00.021-05:00

"Let us now consider the fractured geometry of the Romanesco Broccoli..."

I got excited today. I stumbled upon an almost exact visual representation for my concept set design of this new Japanese reality TV game show I have been developing... "1, 2, 3, KOMAT'SU!

What are the mathematical odds!

The pitch: 1) Intoxicated strangers, (the contestants) are followed home after a night of heavy drinking, then after they pass out, they are carefully transported by us, still in their actual beds, from their bedrooms, without their knowledge, and relocated to a nearby construction site. 2) Soundly asleep, game show hosts blow obnoxiously loud and annoying air horn sirens awakening the dislocated contestants. 3) These stunned and disoriented game players are then reassuringly directed by close family members to run quickly through a door way, only to stumble down into a muddy excavation pit.

Komat'su!

Trapped and confused, contestants are terrorized, hilariously, in their pajamas, by a large piece of funny sounding construction equipment. Hence the name.

There are no prizes awarded. Remember this is actually more for viral Internet exhibition rather than a traditional-major-network-game-show-type-competition.

Self-similarity

668 6th Avenue Realty Corp. has plans on building a fifty foot tall four story four family residence on this 25 foot wide slice of Greenwood Heights heaven.

Know why I'm excited again? Because of the architectural firm contracted to do the work... Fractual Architecture, PLLC! Granted I am not yet familiar with the work of Mr. Hernan J. Galvis and his firm, but the name "Fractal Architecture" has certainly tweaked my curiosity.

Fractal geometry, my dear reader, is the formal study of mathematical shapes that display a progression of never-ending, self-similar, meandering detail from the infinitely gigantic to microscopically tiny scales. For example, take a long strip of paper, fold it in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, then fold that half in half, on and on and on and on and on and on forever and ever in infinite iteration, not unlike our crudites extraordinaire, the Romanesco Broccoli.

The edge of chaos.

Applying these geometric mathematical principles to south Brooklyn's architecturally disordered chaos will be a challenge to say the least. Please don't disappoint us Mr. Hernan.

UPDATE: April 1st, 2009

I seldom update my posts but in this case I ought. I misspelled the name of the Architectural firm designing this site. It's "Fractal Architecture", not "Fractual Architecture"... Which cracks me up, because fractually speaking, I am familiar with Mr. Hernan's work. He designed 558 5th Avenue, that dark Modern fortress of a condo next to Domino's Pizza. Ring a bell? Try this link.

http://www.gateliers.com/admin/showProject.php?id_project=1