396 15th Street: A South Slope saga of destruction, resurrection, and finally, conversion.

Pre Birth Certificate 396 15th Street 

Posterchild      

IMBY is proud to announce the rebirth of one of our first adopted foster crack children, the little brick building that could, 396 15th Street.  We're excepting visitors, the scaffolding is down but the sidewalk shed is still in place. You can't be too safe. Do you mind washing your hands first? And please don't make any sudden moves or look it directly in the eyes.   Thanks.

Reincarnated 396 15th Street seen here sandwiched between it's nearly completed nemesis 400 15th St. on the left and a prewar walk up apartment building on the right. This will be the third full frontal facade transplant in less than a decade.  Current owners are seeking a change in the certificate of occupancy from light manufacturing/garage use into a more civilized R6B zoned residential two family with off street parking.

Textural brickwork and fenestration details.  Yes ladies, those are real 6 over 6 double hung sashes!  The two story addition constructed of light steel and stucco is setback and concealed from the sidewalk view* as required by R6B sky exposure plane codes.  (As seen from the entrance to the Park Slope Armory YMCA directly across the street)

You know it's been our our raison d'être documenting the architectural folly of Park Slope South for almost a heartbreaking decade now and we can think of no other job site that best represents the misfortune one must endure at the hammy hands of real property speculators, literally brain injured engineers, and their hack-job foundation excavation minions. But somehow this little garage has persisted, and in three different incarnations no less...
So let's celebrate this tenacious survivor by looking back at all its trials and tribulations captured over the last 10 years or so in one of IMBYBRANDS glorious archival photo albums.

 Hubris is not a soil type.   In the beginning 396 or "The GaRage" seen on the right of this stagnant pond cohabited for years next to a large one story warehouse, its address was 400 15th street.  The functioning warehouse was destroyed to make way for a new residential apartment building.  At this time back in 2004 the neighborhood had not been downzoned yet and was still naively zoned R6.  Foundation nubes almost immediately had trouble excavating the glacial till, sand and clay, deposited some 20,000 years ago by the Wisconsin Ice Flow.   Not being able to learn from past mistakes seems to be par for the course.    Both adjoining properties suffered drastic injuries to their 100 year old foundations.

Complaints, violations, stop work orders and remedial reparations.  A frequent sight here in the Slope, metal i-beams shoring the shifting foundation of  The GaRage... Department of Buildings steps into the mess.   This neighborhood's decade of construction debacles made rock stars out of some members of the Department's Forensic Engineering team and supplied construction lawyers with seemingly unending billing cycles.

The Blumpkin.   How does one even get into this mess?   Follow this link to a brief description of the case by lawyers involved in the civil suit.   You can see the entire 100' long foundation and 1st floor wall of adjoining property 402 15th St. (Rojas Mexican Bakery )  has already been replaced.

The GaRage on crack.   The entire building heads for the hole.  Note the enormous crack over the right second story window.  This facade along with the entire side and rear walls will have to be replaced.  Old tax photos show this to be most likely the original facade except for roll down gate wihch replaced a nice set of wooden ones.

Progress!!!???   The GaRage undergoes extensive restoration shown here without walls.  At the same time new constructions continues on basement cellar of 400 15th St.

The Posterchild's Poster.   This is our favorite photo of all time representing the legendary "double blumpkin" that is construction in the South Slope.  If we ever get around to publishing our IMBYBRANDS calendar this year this will be January. I'm not sure how this was even done and I witnessed it with my own eyes.

After years of reconstruction this is the finished GaRAGE.  Not as nice as the original but good enough to put up on the market where it will eventually sell for 1.5 million dollars.   The current owner filed for a change of use and certificate of occupancy in order to convert to residential.  The work will mean that fifteen feet will need to be removed from rear of newly fixed building with jack hammers in order to comply with rear yard setbacks.  Two additional floors ( +2300sqft) are added on top with even more additional outdoor patio space.  

Parting Shot: Wiping away tears from my eyes, a view from my rear window.  

Disaster Creation: 315 12th Street Plays Patty Cake

State Farm Insurance has this great toy that allows you to plug in any address and by using google maps, produces a very personal, animated, end of the world scenario featuring bipedal deathbots.

Back in the real world 315 12th Street   Like a pig in shit the excavator mixes the batter for what's churning out to be one hell of a dookie brownie.  One More Folded Sunset is chronicling the assbaking.

Wrong again

Stop Work Order Partially Rescinded to install 3x10 lagging to shore up the cave in.

Missing Paper

383 12th Street: Permits Granted for Stalled Money Pit

383 12th Street:  South Slope cellar accrues over $30,000 in unpaid ECB fines This recent photo pictured above pretty much shows what condition the lot was left  in some 10 years ago...A debris filled hole in the ground. You can still see the old foundation's brick footprint.

Signs of Life
 Looks like the developer/owner of this South Slope 25' wide 100' deep empty lot between 6th and 7th Avenues is going ahead with plans to construct a new 4 story building with 8 residential units. At least a new construction fence has been installed with active permit signs posted.

The original vacant 2 story 2 family building was demolished in 2002 after a failure to maintain/ open to the elements/ unsecured property violation sometime in 2000.  After demolition work was signed off in 2003 Department of Buildings then approved new building plans in 2004 for the 8 residential units but no further work was done at the site. Last year, August 2012, a post approval application was approved for the planned new building informing the DOB that there was to be a change of architects on the project.

B.E.S.T  Team Aggravated Escalating Monetary Penalties
Since demolition, this cellar hole has somehow managed to acquire 19 DOB and Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations, 15 of which are still open and not in compliance, including 7 violations for work without a permit.   Incredibly this stalled site has racked up more than $30,000 in unpaid fines over the last decade, most related to the protective construction fence not being properly maintained and permitted.  

Certifying Correction:
In order to close a violation on your property, you must certify correction at the Administrative Enforcement Unit (AEU) at 280 Broadway, 5th Floor in Manhattan, in addition to paying the penalty. The Certificate of Correction form is available online (see link below) or at the AEU window. Evidence of the payment of imposed civil penalties associated with the violation must also be submitted.
AEU will not clear any Work Without a Permit violation without proof of civil penalty payment in the form of a receipt from cashier for payment and/or a written determination that the penalty is not required for the violation and the reason for that determination. The determination will be indicated on the “LL58/88 Affidavit of Registered Architect or Professional Engineer” Form with all necessary documentation and proof of payment.

Links: 

PDF  "Falling Apart at the Seams.  A Critical Analysis of New York City's Failure to Enforce its Building Code and a Road Map to the Future."   By Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer

  Form AEU2: Certificate of Corrections

PDF   Certification Requirements for the Top 25 ECB Violations

Prospect Hardware Cocooned.

Major interior and exterior metamorphoses for the old aluminum sided Prospect Hardware on the corner of 17th Street and 7th Avenue across from PS 10.   Peeking through the black mesh veil reveals a new coat of stucco, and big glass. A lot of glass, floor to ceiling.

In the old school Prospect Hardware everything was hung everywhere from hooks or held in wooden bins or had to be found by the guy at the counter, sometimes in back where the customers never can go.  You had to personally  ask for what you needed for a specific job and, based on your ability to explain, you would or would not receive said item.   As for windows I do not recall any.   It certainly met the definition of a "man cave".

They Orthodoxically closed early on Fridays, but you already knew that if you were a patron.

 In the last decade or so South Slope old time bodega owners have been busy updating their store fronts.    Lotto posters, stacked saint candles, and toppled faded fabric softener bottles are out.   They are being replaced by big glass windows sustainably shaded by hemp awnings, colored that certain tint of green signifying  Organic.   Displayed in baskets, locally woven by adderal addicted stay at home dads, are seasonal dragon fruits and virginal-thigh rolled buttery croissants.
(Please check out my Etsy page if you have time.)

Prospect Hardware doesn't even have its own blog, which is why I'm being urged to tell you about it here.  I will post an updated photo of the new exterior the minute she emerges.

Vintage

Vintage Seventh Avenue Streetscape

289 13th Street: Stalled Six Years Site Shows Signs of Life.

 Architect Benjamin Ellis of the Ellis + Donnelly Studio has recently filed new building applications  for the long stalled site 289 13th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.  Original building plans were filed way back in 2006 but soon sank after complaints of unsafe foundation excavation attracted Brooklyn Department of Buildings inspectors who issued an immediate Stop Work Order violation  shutting the entire site down in 2007.

289 13th Street:  Plans call for a 4 story 50 foot tall residential building with 8 dwelling units.  Looks like 2 basement units with cellar accessory space, 2 units on the 1st floor, 2 units on 2nd floor, and 2 more units on the 3rd floor.

From the IMBY Archives:
Progress Report  287 289 13th Street


Unlucky 13th Street

WTF Monday: 315 12th Street Undermines Nice Neighbor

Well that ain't right!?   Unsupported mechanical excavation for new foundation at 315 12th Street caves in creating a  sinkhole that swallows adjoining property owners back yard brick patio and vegetable garden. We haven't covered one of these ham-handed clusterfucks in a while but apparently they still exist.  This eagerly awaited 4 family w/penthouse and cellar is the masterwork of INFOCUS DESIGN and PLANNING P.C.  Building permits for foundation earthworks applications were rewarded to a Nadav Hamo of the  ILE Construction Group IN.                           This job site caught our eye back in March when it was discovered that Demolition Queen and Environmental Control Board fines super scofflaw Marie Grasso was listed as superintendent/site safety manager for Best Buy Demo Inc, the company hired to tear down the existing wood frame at this site.   ALL PHOTOS COURTESY of the ONE MORE FOLDED SUNSET blog.

The South Slope's soil is essentially nothing more than a big pile of deposited sand, gravel, and till left over from the Wisconsin Glacier some 25,000 years ago.       Just for the record Mr. Insurance Agent, these are irreplaceable heirloom tomatoes.

July 22nd next door neighbor worried about the ongoing excavation calls 311.  Brooklyn DOB inspect two days later on the 24th of July and issue a Full Stop Work Order Violation for nonconforming work and for no TR-1's for excavation.  That same day a Partial Stop Work Order is issued in order to allow the workers to properly brace the hole.  Partial Stop Work Orders are often allowed in order to stop any further damage.  Surprisingly, no DOB or ECB violations are listed on the profile page.

DOB  BIS page property profile for 315 12th Street currently showing Partial Stop Work Order

Adjoining property owners might want to forward this information on to their own insurance companies and or lawyers.

Nadav Hamo permit holder

Dumpster Full of Dirt: What's Up at 413 17th Street?

UPDATE: Neighbor's 311 complaint concerning unpermitted excavation and demolition results in Full Stop Work Order Violation for... unpermitted excavation and demolition.

413 17th Street appears to have had its cellar dug out... Anyone know what's happened to the older gentleman who resides there?   I have not seen him in some time.   DOB records show no applications filed or permits drawn.  Does not appear to have been sold either, at least no new deeds filed on ACRIS.
I love this old house for the way he maintains the front stoop in a metalic shiny polished paint color that he must have mixed himself.

Caliper Architect Begins Gut Renovation on Prospect Avenue.

   Funny, just put a big "one" in front of the address...410 Prospect Avenue  sells for $1,410,000.  Eva M. Daniels Realty listed this two family located mid block between 7th and 8th Avenues back in December 2012 for  $1.499 million.  Looks like it sold sometime in March of 2013 with ACRIS showing the deed filed the 16th of April.  Records indicate the property was bought by principal architect Stephen Lynch, (AIA, LEED AP) of Brooklyn based Caliper Architecture PC.  Caliper Architecture and their fabrication/design partners Caliper Studio are responsible for the newly constructed Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg.

DOB filings indicate the building will remain a two family.  

She's back!

Big shout out to fellow Brooklyn Blogger One More Folded Sunset who 
on more than one occasion, enlightened me.

Betty Rubble is back. 
She's been called a house wrecker of ill repute, the royal mother of illegal mechanical demolition-her drag queen names might as well be Miss Blanche DeBris or Miss Eva Destruction- but most South Slopers know her simply as Marie Grasso, MMG Demolition Inc. the  ECB unpaid fine scofflaw-ess.

This time she's the documented Superintendent/Site Safety Manager for Best Buy Demo, Inc.  The 2010 start up company NYC permitted to complete the hand demolition of 315 12th Street in the South Slope.  Not sure how someone with a herstory of blatantly disregarding the well being of the public and its property can be licensed as a site safety manager.... One of the many  requirements is to "Have good moral character so as to not adversely impact upon your fitness to perform the duties and responsibilities" of a safety manager.
  

Ms. Grasso's MMG Demolition Company is famous for what DOB leadership refer to as having a "disruptive business model".   According to ECB violation 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 before falling over and breaking pedestrian's collarbones.
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 uses contaminated fill.  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.

Laid Over

Site Deconstruction Supervisor Grasso actually had the honor of having a Bad Actors bill named after her-"The Grasso Bill"- introduced by Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx).  Int. 0379-2010 is a Local Law proposed to amend the administrative code of the city of New York. It sought to bar the city from granting permits to contractors and developers who have outstanding fines, civil penalties or judgments greater than $25,000.  These ECB charges or fines can be from a variety of sources not just Buildings violations.  Currently the DOB can't with hold permits for unpaid fines, but they could if they were given the power to. 

 Unfortunately, after testimony from just about everybody from ConEd to Big Real Estate and the Construction Industry the bill was "tabled" in 2011 as being too complicated to enforce and to disruptive to the forward economic progress of our great City.  That leaves hundreds of millions of dollars of ECB debt uncollected.  Here's a proposal for ECB fines generated during new construction...Deny issuing Certificates of Occupancy to any new building with any unpaid judgements against them.   

click to engorge, Marie Grasso on the job

 Up on the roof of 315 12th Street, a worker dismantles.

IMBY Archives:  Wrecking Havoc-A partial list of unpaid fines can be found here.

Link to testimony Committee on Housing and Buildings  INT. 0379-2010

4th Avenue Concrete Giant Shadows Last Remaining Wood Frames.

548 Fourth Avenue. Architect Felix Tambasco designed this R8A zoned 9 story 93 foot tall apartment building going up quickly now on the corner of 15th Street in Gowanus.  We're looking at a sum total of 26,159 square feet divided into 15 dwelling units as well as a 691sq ft community facility space, and a required commercial/retail space of 1,697 sq ft at the street level. 

As seen from directly across Specially Enhanced Fourth Avenue standing in the parking lot of the now bankrupt for almost a year, now shuttered  Strauss Auto Center.  No plans have been filed by XYZ Property for this mega block long development site as of yet.   

548's zoning diagram

Star Spangled Banner Yet Waves
Still occupied, the well maintained 137 15th St. pictured on the left clad in patriotic red siding and its sister the already doomed to destruction 139 15th St. slam up against the new 9 story development.  ACRIS shows 139 15th, the 22 by 100 foot deep property, traded hands in 2010 for $330,000... A speculators bargain I would think considering same size lots farther up the Slope go for at least two to three times that price. 

Still standing, BEST Squad approved a mechanical demo permit of all things way back in December of 2010.  A prerequisite to extermination, rat bait stations and posted yellow warning signs.  Original? floor to ceiling double hung windows and what remains of a wooden porch and concrete stoop.  Some kind of cellar exists below the house with additional windows and door, now boarded up and filled with mud. 

A front facade covered with asphalt shingles, two brackets left exposed while the entire cornice has been hermetically sealed in a layer of tin flashing.

Second story window details. Nice bracket...

139 15th Street.  Plans have been approved for a 50' tall, four story with penthouse, 8 family apartment building to contain some 10,720 square feet of floor area. No off-street car or bike parking is required.

Schedule A for 139 15th St.

137 15th Street is highlighted in red.  
 In this 1924 aerial photograph showing the blocks just below 4th Avenue you can see the row of attached frame houses.  Fourth Avenue is considered the border between the neighborhoods of Gowanus and Park Slope South. 
For a historic look back at this corner's glory days go to this IMBY link to see the wonderfully simple Norwegian  Evangelical Free Church.  
As always Click to enlarge photos.

The same aerial shot taken in 2010 which shows the corner apartment building, 548 4th Avenue, demolished and leveled.  139 and 137 15th St. are the two remaining wood frames left from the original row of nine. Click to enlarge.

EC-1  link to zoning junk