Major New Developments in the Battle of 360 Smith Street
Significant news on the 360 Smith Street front after some residents met with the developer, William Stein. If you've been following the story, the neighborhood has been in a mini-revolt for nearly two weeks about a building designed by Robert Scarano that would go at Second Place and Smith Street. GL first reported the story before Memorial Day weekend.Primary objections have revolved around the building's original design as well as its height and the elimination of the plaza in front of the Carroll Street subway stop. There is a rally today at 12:30 organized by Council Member Bill de Blasio, who is protesting "illegal construction" and calling for the state to take Mr. Scarano's architecture license. Some residents have taken to calling it "The Anti-Scarano Rally."
In any case, the developer told residents, in the words of an email we saw, that "the building will not look at all like the drawing on the website" although a new rendering is not available yet. The writer continues:
The Second Place portion is set back to line up with the neighboring houses and most of the subway plaza is open--the bldg does not come out as far as the parking lot "line" as the original drawing suggests. It is still quite tall (the highest point is at 70') but the height is graduated, rising as the structure goes toward and around smith st. The finish on the 2 place side will look more like a brownstone--the tallest portion's finish, which will be where the 2 pl and smith st sides meet (around the area of the present newsstand), is still undetermined.Residents appear to be pushing for a further reduction in the building's height. Still developing.
Labels: Architecture, Carroll Gardens
posted by rsguskind at 7:55 AM
5 Comments:
How is it that the City of New York has allowed Robert Scarano to keep practicing and why has he not been finanically penalized for his abuses? My understanding is that he was the architect on several building in Williamsburg. I know of more intimate info on two of them. For example one of them he designed the loft style condo to have a loft that height etc did not conform to code...theis amoung other things he did ( we surmise) with the coordination and direction of the developer. In the case of the building exampl I gave it was a Hasidic developer who was massively trying to cut corners, eventually after the excessively long time it took to build the building, (the buildings dept code inspectors where no where) but finally apparently the problems with other Scarano buidlings began popping after the new buyers had problems and or tried to resell the homes...The building I refer to looked at by the bldg code inspector and the code violations were structural to a degree (architect) that they could not have clean title transfer hence can't sell them and thus they were rented out, but still the building is partially empty. No dowbt the developer who tried to pull a fast one and cut corners is bleeding cash and his greed has come back to bite him in the ass.
As Williamsburg is going to have lots of new condo supply hiting the market in the next 6 months, (buyers coming from?) no doubt there will be some building that go condo to rental and those develpers getting whacked on their carry are going to bleed more as the rental rates plunge...oversupply going into a recession, now the shark develpers turn on themselves....what a pretty sight.
"Many are paid, few are apprehended."
--Jimmy Breslin
***
i might be slightly misquoting but THIS is assuredly the answer.
have you read "The Short Sweet Dream Of Eduardo Gutierrez"? do it yesterday.
This is potentially great news that the monstrosity will be more in scale with the surrounding area but, I'll still be sure to be at Monday night's community meeting at Scotto's with bells on.
while politicians are talking, scaranostein are working. look at the dob data ... filed today and showing that the building information indicates 6 stories and 8 stories in the same document. As far as we can remember, the building still sits on the 2nd place courtyard ... certainely mistakes that will be corrected.
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/
JobsQueryByNumberServlet?passdocnumber=1
&passjobnumber=302290777&requestid=10
Must keep an eye on this!
Did Mr Bill realize that he was in the shadow of another illegally built Scarrano project. I hope some one pointed it out to him. It's funny that Mr. Bill would show up now. Portraying himself as the champion of communities being over run by illegal over development. Where the "F" has he been for the last 5 years. I guess the thought of being off the public dole in the near future is beginning to get to him. Now he wants us to believe that he cares. He and Marty should remember what they said when they ousted the CB6 members. What was it - "it's time for some new blood" - Same holds true for the 2 of them. They should both kiss the ground that they walk on and be happy that they aren't in jail for some of the bull crap that they've pulled over the years.
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