Permit Pulled at Scarano Site in Greenwood Hts
We’ve just received word that the DOB has revoked the building permit for 614 7th Avenue. Located at 23rd Street in Greenwood Heights, the 70-foot tall Scarano project received attention earlier this year for blocking Lady Minerva’s views of the Statue of Liberty. We also received an email telling us that another worker was killed…
We’ve just received word that the DOB has revoked the building permit for 614 7th Avenue. Located at 23rd Street in Greenwood Heights, the 70-foot tall Scarano project received attention earlier this year for blocking Lady Minerva’s views of the Statue of Liberty. We also received an email telling us that another worker was killed on a Scarano site yesterday–this one at 207 South 1st Street in Williamsburg–but have been unable to confirm. Anyone know anything?
Update: NYT reported yesterday that Heng Zheng, 50, fell to his death while placing cinderblocks on the third floor of the residential development.
Minerva versus Scarano, Revisited [Brownstoner]
A View To Be Killed [Brownstoner]
Worker Falls to Death [NY Times – 4th Item]
ONE LOOK AT SCARANO’s SITE AND YOU CAN SEE HOW HIS PHOTO HAS HIM LOOKING LIKE A BiT PLAYA FROM THE FILM “GOOD FELLAS.” JUST A THUG IN A SHARK SKIN SUIT. ALSO, HIS BUILDINGS ARE FUGLY.
“IT IS A WONDER THOUGH HOW CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO SLEEP AT NIGHT WITH THEIR UNDERHANDED BACK DOOR POLITICS THEY PLAY.”
If ain’t the kettle himself.
The scandal Mr Andersen, is that private citizens are now reviewing/auditing plans because the DoB has been unable or unwilling to serve and protect the people. Now that design professional can Self Certify, the Dob does not review plans before issuing permits. Like our tax codes, the building and zoning rules and regulations have many legal loopholes that can be taken advantage of to maximize one’s profits. When the DoB is “forced” by public outcry or protest to audit a building’s plans they are more than likely to find something not to code. Self Certification depends on the honor system to function, and we are beginning to see the failure of this program. Poorly organized communities, ignorant of their ability to have a say in the planning of their local neighborhoods, are powerless against real estate speculators. What you are seeing in Greenwood Heights is the exact opposite. Native citizens are using every legal means to save their lands from speculators who mine the gold and leave the trailings and misery behind in big arsenic laced slag heaps. Greenwood=Deadwood, so to speak. Scar-ano is just unlucky to have set up his saloon on the wrong side of the street.
I find it quite humorous when people who have never gone through the laborious process of getting a building permit act like a DOB action is some sort of scandal. On almost every construction project, the DOB requires changes, often even AFTER they have approved the original plans and work has begun. I’m not sure what the story is on the 23rd Street project, but I’m sure it would be interesting to hear.
The developers group are synonomous with shoddy construction, unethical behavior and yes incompetance. I don’t care what role they play in a project, they are horrible brokers and consultants!
unfortunately, nit, architects are much more than mere clients of developers (much more so than brokers). Oftentimes the architect recommends the contractor to the developer and actively oversees the contractor’s work to make sure that it conforms to the blueprints (they don’t simply design the building – they are supposed to provide continuing oversigt of the construction).
let us all get it striat.
Scorano – Architect
Developers Group – Marketing Consultant/Broker
These parties are not responsible for the ills of society they simply design and sell buildings. They are not substantially responsible for the construction, financing, acquisition, demo or zoning. They are merely a client of the developer.
Posted by: bburg sniper at November 4, 2005 01:03 PM
and parts of Manhattan as well.
One more sketchy development memory – 171 North 7th Street was a Scarano and Developer’s Group project… that one, as some of you will recall, had such faulty construction that the framing actually collapsed onto the street in the middle of the night. That there were no deaths on that one was dumb luck; that it happened at all indicates shoddy construction.
Here’s a thought: Scarano/Developers Group is so much worse than Ratner (Nets) b/c the two are so prolific that they are not ruining one blighted section of one neighborhood, they are destroying every neighborhood in Brooklyn, one building at a time.