Windsor Terrace Crew Flouting SWO?

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Some weird—and possibly illegal and highly dangerous—stuff is going down at a construction site in Windsor Terrace. According to a message sent out to the Windsor Terrace Alliance email list, illegal demolition activity was occurring yesterday at 1216 Prospect Avenue, the old Elks Club building on Vanderbilt Street. Last week, according to the message, demolition “was shut down on 5/9/08 for illegal mechanical demolition with a Stop Work Order and 2 ECB violations issued by DOB. The property, legally, should have been demolished by hand, only allowing mechanical work once they reached the first floor. As of [yesterday], there has been a partial lift of the SWO to allow for remediation for safety concerns ONLY. Unfortunately the demolition company, Greco, has continued with illegal demolition. 311 has been called, DOB has been alerted. Seems the contractors have also been aggressive with a few of the neighbors, which is just down right wrong.” Last night the DOB shut down the site again and ordered an evacuation of two adjacent buildings due to unsafe conditions. This morning, workers were on hand, but it wasn’t clear what they were doing. One of the construction workers told us they were “demolishing the building.” A DOB enforcement employee was present and said he had no comment about whether the crews had engaged in demolition despite the SWO or what exactly they were being allowed to proceed with now. UPDATE: Here’s the skinny from DOB. A Stop Work Order was indeed issued on Monday for illegal mechanical demolition. During the Monday inspection, DOB identified the hazardous conditions posed to the adjacent building by the partially-demolished wall. As a result, Buildings issued a vacate order for the adjacent building. The work being done today was in fact remedial work that the contractor was required to do so that residents could return next door. Tomorrow, the contractor must perform some remedial flashing to bring the site up to snuff in the safety department. GMAP

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By Gabby |