Readers might recall what we called “The Great Wall of Fifth Avenue,” the odd facade that had appeared at 533 Fifth Avenue over the summer. The wall has been finished and, over the weekend, we heard from the building’s owner, who had this to say:
I am the owner of this building. My husband and I are longtime Slope residents. We’ve lived in Park Slope for over 25 years. We have kids who go to local Park Slope public schools. I’m a public school teacher. We bought the building 7 years ago and legally converted it to a one family house. When we moved in (in 2001) the storefront was vacant, and had been for many years. We replaced the glass storefront at that time with a brownstone wall.
This past Spring, we had our facade worked on and the person we hired ruined the facade, building this wall (which we didn’t want.) We were just trying to figure out how to deal with that situation when someone complained to the buildings department and caused us no end of trouble. If they had stayed out of it, that wall would have been torn down and replaced with the same original brownstone front the following week.
Instead, we got a stop work order, and it took us months and months and thousands of dollars to rectify. So instead of it ending for the neighborhood and for us, it went on and on. Thank you very much, whoever called! The work is finally done now. I invite you to look at it. It’s not a big ugly wall sticking out anymore, but a regular Park Slope facade. Which is what would have happened months ago, if people would just have spoken to us instead of the buildings department.
In a subsequent email she wrote that “I’m not a public person, and this is not a commercial building. I had no reason to expect my home, where my children live, to be put on the internet in the interest of idle curiosity, complete with misinformed comments.”
8 responses so far ↓
1 ff // Sep 9, 2008 at 9:32 am
Really poor idea to kill the commercial space on a commercial street. Much better to keep the building mixed-use, commercial at street level and residential upstairs.
2 Brenda from Flatbush // Sep 9, 2008 at 12:00 pm
You have to feel a little bad for these folks; sounds like they were collateral damage in the ongoing guerilla war against crappy building.
3 5th and 2nd // Sep 9, 2008 at 12:13 pm
@ff: in 2001 when they moved in, there wasn’t much viable commercial on this stretch of 5th. There are several buildings with first-floor residences that have existed on this street for many years, when many of the commercial storefronts were shuttered.
4 Dan // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Nice to see a personal take on all the bloggers who get personally offended and call the DOB every time they see something that isn’t aesthetically pleasing. Whoever that idiot was cost thousands of extra dollars for a person who was just trying to fix up their new house.
5 Ben K. // Sep 9, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Wait. You mean personally interacting with someone about something you feel is offensive instead of complaining to the nearest authority and then blogging about it gets something done? Wow. Who woulda thunk it?
We’re way too quick to go to the extremes these days. Mostly, neighbors are eager to work out problems without the intervention of government officials.
6 D tuh duh C // Sep 9, 2008 at 9:41 pm
So THIS is the finished product?
If a 60s ranch and a brownsone had a baby,
it might look something like this sorry excuse for architecture.
7 Josh // Sep 10, 2008 at 9:59 am
You just can’t win in the world of public opinion, can you? Met the couple recently at a wine tasting at the new shop next door. They were very nice and I was saddened to hear about the frustrating ordeal they had to endure including an incompetent contractor and nosy neighbors. Our homes are our castles. Let them be.
8 pee quu // Sep 10, 2008 at 10:01 am
where is their entrance? Look, they every right to seal off a window and not answer to anyone. the block isn’t landmarked. leave them alone,now.