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The BEST Squad finally relented and lifted our stop work order! We are trying to think of it as a Christmas-Kwanzaa-Chanukah present instead of agonizing over the nearly twelve weeks we lost trying to meet their ever increasing list of requirements. To be fair, many of the things they asked us to do are perfectly reasonable site safety precautions (a lot of overkill but anything in the name of safety…). We just wish that the first inspector would have given us the full list immediately instead of piecemealing it out over months. For example, when the inspector gave our sidewalk shed company a violation for a gap between the shed and the fence in September, he could have also asked us to extend the shed 8′ up Third St. But the latter request came last week 11 weeks later, and delayed us again yet another week.

We have a couple of theories as to why the stop work order has been such a pain to get lifted:
1) Bloomberg made it clear early in his first term that he didn’t want the Department of Buildings giving out favors (remember this?) and released his latest in his special enforcement efforts in October 2007 inspectors are being more critical to avoid the perception of impropriety and to keep everyone on their toes;
2) The Deutsch Bank fire has resulted in the Department of Buildings wanting the Fire Department to sign off on items that they previously didn’t and new bureaucratic measures take time to work out;
3) The BEST Squad (remember, this is the division of the Department of Buildings that follows up on 311 calls and doles out stop work orders) has less than 20 inspectors to cover the entire city the same inspector doesn’t necessarily follow up on a given project. You get one inspector who interprets the situation one way and another inspector who sees it another way. For example, maybe the first guy was concerned only about issue A and when the second guy comes out to do the follow up inspection on issue A, he also identifies issues B and C. And maybe the second guy is having a bad day.

We don’t really have…

…a good theory on the whole test pit permit craziness. Why did they make us get a permit for something everyone does by right? Why did the inspector shut us down even after we showed him the permit and had him talk with his boss who had us submit the permit in a particular way? And why did that neighbor decide to call 311 when we were just digging a little hole on our property well after 7AM?

Doesn’t matter now, we’ll get our frustrations out knocking down the last bit of building that’s been precariously waiting for the administrative gods to get back on our side. Luckily, the stop work order hasn’t really delayed the overall project since we’re still a good two months away from serious foundation work.

122007-Mural-2.JPGMeanwhile, our mural artist will continue to work her magic on the construction fence. Pasqualina Azzarello has painted murals for us on two past projects: J Condo and the NYU dorm on 12th Street. She started painting flowers on the J Condo fence on her own accord. The construction workers liked them and left her a donation. Not too long after, we caught on and hired her in the official capacity of construction fence muralist. Read the history in this NYT article:

The pictures shown here are the beginning of Phase 1 of her mural work for Third & Bond. For Phase 2, we’re hoping she’ll find opportunities to involve school kids from the neighborhood. She’s already set up some meetings at nearby schools to see what she can make happen. Probably kids would do the actual painting at school where they could work inside in all kinds of weather and be safe, and Pasqualina would bring their work to the construction site.

One of the best things about having Pasqualina do our murals is that she loves to engage the construction workers and the neighbors, making friends with them all. It makes a difference to have her out there, creating something beautiful and interesting while the messy work of construction is going on behind the fence.

We’ll be away for the next two weeks but returning in 2008 with more of the development play-by-play for Third & Bond. We have underpinning, dewatering, excavation, constructing, 421-a, and the opening of our model residences to look forward to in the New Year!

Inside Third & Bond: Week 17 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 16 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 15 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 14 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 13 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 12 [Brownstoner]
Inside Third & Bond: Week 11 [Brownstoner]
From our lawyers: This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York.”


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