So it seems that bizarre, incongruous, downright butt-ugly houses are the order of the day. Let's turn our attention from Queens to southern Brooklyn, where this Homecrest house has towered above its low-rise surrounds for the last seven years. Neighbors really thought they had scored a victory over the blight after a judge ordered the city to reevaluate the permits granted to the site on East 12th Street. Poor dears. Because the Board of Standard and Appeals just decided that, even though the permits shouldn't have been granted in the first place, they would allow the eyesore to remain and chalk it up to an "administrative error." "This is one of the biggest injustices I've ever seen," the local community board chair told Brooklyn Daily. "I mean, have you seen this thing?"
[Photo via Brooklyn Daily.]
In short, the architect responsible for the so-called alterations to the building, one Shlomo Wygoda, had something called "self-certification rights," which meant that papers he filed were basically rubber-stamped. But because the plans called for tearing down more than half of the existing structure, it should have been counted as a new building application, which gets vetted further, rather than just an addition. Naturally, residents are fuming about the lack of oversight on the part of the Department of Buildings, not to mention the BSA, and have even filed a lawsuit against building owner Joseph Druzie claiming that the permits were fraudulent and that the structure violates zoning laws. Good luck with that, folks.
· Board backs bizarre building [Brooklyn Daily]
· How is This Queens House a Real Thing That Exists? [Curbed]
· Ridiculous, Probably Illegal Homecrest House Faces Demo [Curbed]
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