Crossing the i's and dotting the t's... catching up on the paper work.

Here's a recent photo of the rear facade of 406 15th Street, aka "The Armory Plaza". Not sooo bad. But clearly, one can see that it no longer resembles a big hole in the ground. That's why I am puzzled by the two recent ECB violations ( severity A- HIGH) issued on 4/20/08 and scheduled for a hearing later this month on the 23rd of June.

"Description of Violation:
STRUCTURAL FOUNDATION PLANS ARE INADEQUATE IN THAT PLANS ARE NOT COMPLETE AND OF SUFFICIENT CLARITY TO INDICATE THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF PROPOSED SHEET,SHORING,BRACING AND TANGENT PILE WALL FOR+/- 30'(SEC27-157)"

I understand that the original engineers for the Armory Plaza, Sanchez and Hertberg, PE's, have both been disciplined by the Department of Buildings in 2008 and have voluntarily surrendered their ability to make any new filings. I am sure the replacement engineering firm, Demerara Engineering, who was brought in to finish the job, has gone ahead and done all the necessary amended filings, we hope. The developer has until June 11th to comply with the ECB/ DOB violations. That still doesn't make a neighbor feel anymore safe and secure having this building in your back yard and, knowing that the whole thing rests on a three story deep foundation that may have been completed before all the plans were submitted and approved. Maybe this is how things are done. Make things up as one goes along, using the laws of physics whenever applicable. Lord knows terrible things can happen when we place public safety in the hands of unsupervised private contractors.















Meet Mr. Abraham Hertzberg.















Meet Mr. Sanchez.







































Gravity?

Who was supervising the installation of hundreds of these 60' deep hollow tube piles? Where are the geotechnical reports? The engineering log books detailing the day to day boring data? No one, and I mean NO ONE, seems to be able to produce them.
It has got to be important to know just how many hits with the shovel end of a back hoe it takes to set these piles. For Pete's sake, can you at least tell us whether the bucket was full or empty at the time.

Nice photos showing the extent of the over-boring. Notice the subsurface voids surrounding the tubes? How deep do they go? Deep enough.


















































Memorial Baptist Church yard sink hole.
























Standing on the brink: 1504 8th Avenue sans people.