Broken Angel to be Saved, in a Way, Turned into Condos

There is a deal to save Broken Angel, the endangered Clinton Hill landmark. The New York Times reports that an agreement was reached yesterday in a meeting in Brooklyn Supreme Court and that owner Arthur Wood will submit engineering plans by next Wednesday to remove the 40-foot structure on the building's roof. The Times also reports that Mr. Wood has a tentative deal "to share ownership" with Shahn Anderson, a local developer. Mr. Anderson would "turn most of the building into condominiums," according to the Times, which spoke with a spokesperson for City Council Member Letitia James, who has been representing Mr. Wood pro bono. The new Broken Angel would include community space, studio space for Mr. Wood and a place for Mr. Wood and his wife to life.

Mr. Wood told the Times that this was not his prefered solution. He said he wanted to raise money to bring the building up to code himself.

But he was running out of time and afraid the buildings department would tear down his home. “I have to do something,” Mr. Wood said. “Everything I own is there: paintings, thousands of dollars worth of equipment.”

The building could be Brooklyn’s answer to Antonio Gaudí’s whimsical, unfinished Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona. Mr. Wood, an artist, considers the building his primary canvas, as well as the home where he and his wife reared two children.

They bought the building, the former Brooklyn Trolley headquarters, in 1979, and it has been a work in progress ever since.

Architects and students from the nearby Pratt Institute have been donating services to help save the structure.

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