We could honor 1059 Manhattan Avenue as a Construction Site Du Jour because of its vile condition. We could also note that it appears to have caused a crack problem in a neighboring building. We will do both of those thing, but we will also focus on the fact that it has erected an obstacle […]

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The crew taking down 5 Roebling Street in Williamsburg, aka the Giant Fart Cloud Building, is back on the job and neighbors are again suffering through severed cable TV lines and a general fear of being made homeless. Blogger Bad Advice is those telling us what it’s like to live in an old building next […]

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It helps to have a sense of humor when considering the long list of issues related to the Department of Buildings. For instance, there’s a new DOB inspector on the job. Her name is Hard Hat Hannah, and she might check things out faster and with more vigor than the agency itself.–New York Shitty

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We doubt that 103 104 complaints to the Department of Buildings generated by a small renovation project is a record. (Between the time we posted this on Curbed yesterday afternoon and the time we wrote this in the evening, another complaint was added.) Likewise, three years of work probably isn’t a record either. However, the […]

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Earlier this week, the obscure yet powerful Board of Standards and Appeals okayed the continued construction of the Finger Building on N. 7th Street in Williamsburg to ten stories. (The growth of the building to 16 stories is in the hands of a judge and a legal appeal. A decision in February denied the 16-story […]

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We got an email from the press office at the Department of Buildings responding to the controversy about the “stipulations” signed by Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster concerning architect Robert Scarano. A Daily News article on Sunday detailed agreements the Building Commissioner signed as part of the arrangement that led to Mr. Scarano’s giving up of […]

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We weren’t able to get to this yesterday, because we already had a Construction Site du Jour post with the Red Hook Ikea’s early invite to the general public to walk through their fence and check things out, not to mention the recurring issues at the Whole Foods site in Gowanus. However, this post about […]

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After yesterday’s story about a deal between architect Robert Scarano and the Department of Buildings, might a borough-wide development moratorium be in order until the system is reformed? “Why not ask for a moratorium on all building here in Brooklyn until the Department of Buildings is re-organized, made functional and more importantly made less corrupt?”–Pardon […]

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Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster signed off on some interesting stipulations as part of Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano’s agreement to surrender self-certification privileges last year, according to a story in today’s Daily News. Architects in New York City are able to “self-certify” that their work meets city zoning and building regulations. Controversies arose over Mr. Scarano’s […]

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We didn’t expect to have this particular item about the former Giant Fart Cloud Building, aka 5 Roebling, this morning. We figured there would be another report of debris removal that might exceed the accepted parameters of debris removal. Instead, we got the following email at 10:19 PM: One of my neighbors saw people dumping […]

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What is going on at 340 Court Street? Well, the photo, which was shot yesterday afternoon by a special GL Correpondent shows that a big dig is underway in the back of the former medical building that is going to be demolished. We also know that complaints have been filed with the Department of Buildings […]

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The site of the former Giant Fart Cloud Building (aka 5 Roebling Street, which has partially been reduced to a flatulent pile of rubble) in Williamsburg become a very active place this week (complete with blowtorches cutting up steel in the night). So much so that blogger Bad Advice, whose building was threatened with damage […]

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We don’t know if there were any more late night blow torches lighting up the night sky in Williamsburg last night at the site of the mostly demolished Giant Fart Cloud Building (aka our old friend, 5 Roebling). We do know that the site was wide open around 12:30ish and that most of the workers […]

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We’re very unclear what workers were doing using blow torches at 5 Roebling Street last night from 7:00PM-10:00PM, except that blogger Bad Advice describes it this way: I can only imagine the thinking that was behind this latest 7pm – 10pm late-night weld-fest . . . “hmmm, if we wait until after dark, nobody can […]

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We have posted and posted and posted and posted and posted and posted about the wide open demolition site that takes up about 2/3 of the block between N. 9th and N. 10th Streets and Driggs and Roebling Avenues in Williamsburg. We are posting it again as we found it open again yesterday, although the […]

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Never mind that the building on Grand Street that is being demolished and almost self-demolished is now very braced. You still get an unsettling feeling looking up at the wall that started to crack away recently and appears to have come very close to making some building collapse headlines. Brooklyn 11211 first noted the Crack […]

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Our Greenpoint correspondent filed this photo of 1000 Manhattan Avenue, which is engaged in a brave fight with the forces of gravity, by night. The bracing that is helping to hold the building facade up has a certain something after dark. We do wonder how many people have discovered its presence the hard way, however.

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Here’s a Stop Work Order music video from Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. It concerns 614 7th Avenue, aka the Minerva Building site. Their narrative: Lots of shiny new DOB and DOT permits up …and what do we have here? TWO SWOs! Deplorable conditions on the site that includes TONS of garbage, tires, hazardous waste […]

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“Say that you and your neighbors have been living a quiet, peaceful life on your tree-lined city block for years and years. Suddenly, you see construction workers digging in that vacant lot next to your condo or co-op building. So you go down to the city offices—or these days, go online—and find out that someone […]

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The subject of this thread on the Williamsboard caught our attention: “It’s Official! Williamsburg is now the worst place to live in N.Y.C.!!” Here’s the post that started the thread: Woken up at 6:00 am because there’s bulldozers on 3 sides of my fucking apartment. Can’t find a god-damn parking space ‘cuz they’re takin up […]

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These signs have been pasted up outside the former site of the Manhattan Chocolate building at 580 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, which is in the process of becoming a condo. The firm that tore down the old building is the same one involved in the tear down of 5 Roebling, aka the Giant Fart Cloud […]

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The Smoke Shack at Urban Green–which we named as such because of the 24-7 exhausts wafting from the engine running within the shack-is gone. This should be a relief to the neighbors (and better for the small children living next door in whose direction the fumes drifted depending on the wind) of the big development […]

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There’s good news and bad news to report regarding 143 Huron Street, a development that has been fairly blatant in doing a lot of noisy and disruptive after-hours and weekend work. Yesterday, New York Shitty reported that workers were on the job until 9:30PM on the night before Thanksgiving and back at work at 9AM […]

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Assemblyman Joe Lentol has jumped into the Giant Fart Cloud Building fray. You might recall that the Department of Buildings halted the demolition of 5 Roebling (aka the Giant Fart Cloud Building) last week for being unsafe. The demolition had threatened to destabilize at least one neighboring building. Today, New York Shitty posts a copy […]

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Is Greenpoint’s 143 Huron Street the construction site that most blatantly thumbs its nose at neighbors, almost daring a Department of Buildings visit to find noisy, illegal construction work? (A DOB visit, we might add, that never seems to come.) There are many development sites in Brooklyn that ignore the law and shine a spotlight […]

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