Another Death on a Scarano-Certified Site
When does coincidence become a pattern? That’s the question Robert Scarano should be asking himself this morning. Manipulating building codes and giving the finger to entire communities is one thing; being consistently involved as a certifying architect in projects where workers are injured or killed is another. With news yesterday of Anthony Duncan being crushed…
When does coincidence become a pattern? That’s the question Robert Scarano should be asking himself this morning. Manipulating building codes and giving the finger to entire communities is one thing; being consistently involved as a certifying architect in projects where workers are injured or killed is another. With news yesterday of Anthony Duncan being crushed by a collapsing wall on a worksite at 733 Ocean Parkway, the Scarano-related death count reached three (207 South 1st and 187 20th Street). We know what he will say (in all capital letters, no doubt): It’s the fault of the developer (O.P. Equities) and the contractor (A-1 Construction Expo), not mine. Okay, we might be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in any one isolated incident. What about when it happens twice? Three times?
Even if he has no legal culpability (which we are not in the position to judge), we hope this latest catastrophe will at the very least make Mr. Scarano do a better job of picking his partners. At a certain point, it’s like being the grown up who leaves a loaded gun out on the table and then says it’s not his fault when a child shoots himself. Mr. Scarano, you must have made enough money that you can stop whoring hiring yourself out to bottom-of-the-barrel clients who cut every corner they can. Please, stop enabling their irresponsible and dangerous behavior. How can you sleep at night?
Worker in Brooklyn Dies as Wall Falls [NY Times]
Brooklyn Worker Killed [NY Post]
Construction Worker Killed in Collapse [NY1]
733 Ocean Parkway DOB Application [NYC DOB]
Comments on 207 South 1st Death [Brownstoner]
GottaLoveBob, that’s business. do you get thrown in a moral quandary every time you shop at the GAP? you probably should, because the people who make those clothes probably live in abject poverty that couldn’t be imagined by even the most dickensian mind. ultimately, where do you draw the line? and how is scarano to know what the client or contractor will do? there’s no way of knowing. let’s say the client is “green” to development with no previous track record. should scarano say no? ultimately, architect’s fees are so low that the industry rarely has the luxury to turn clients away. speaking of ethics, i hear brownstoner himself has a “wall street” job. brownstoner, do you research all your clients’ business practices to make sure they are all morally upright?
Just a comment re: death on union job–of course, guys get injured and even killed on union jobs. But there are safeguards in place–so many, and so detailed, that when the lawsuits start getting filed, you can be sure that some safety issue was overlooked–like operating a particular piece of equipment when the wind was over a certain mph. My point is, over a century of unionized–and non-unionized but regulated–building in this city has resulted in a vastly safer workplace, and those gains are being trampled by the disregard for law and common sense we see by developers all over Brooklyn. In the past year or two, men have been killed in Bay Ridge, Williamsburg, Midwood–all over, and all on small jobs. And devlopers have walked away with pockets full of money, because they saved so much with their shoddy construction. Plus, the guys who died have been poor, with little or no family here, and no union to fight and sue for the parents, widows, kids, dignity. The city and the DOB bears a lot of responsibility, but they’reobviously raking it in too, legally or not, along with the shady developer scum. What’s one poor, usually immigrant, life to these lowlifes?
“fed-up,” I agree, with one caveat. Why does Scarano continue to provide services that ultimately end up in the hands of those “who cut corners in the name of the almighty dollar?” Seems like you may be saying his hard-earned dollars are not as green as the developer’s? All parties benefited here, except one, the dead worker. That’s the real evil of our society…
i’m “fed-up” because everyone is blaming the architect, not the developer or the contractor (who are ultimately going to be the ones at fault). brownstoner blamed the architect. plain and simple. blame the contractor for negligence. blame the owner for hiring a negligent contractor. blame society for allowing developers to cut corners in the name of the almighty dollar. in fact, let’s all blame ourselves for living in a society with such gross class inequities that would have allowed this to happen. really, though, all i am saying is architects are not responsible for construction related incidents. it’s not scarano’s fault. it’s terrible that someone died and that his family is probably going to suffer terribly from now on. i’m not saying it isn’t. but let’s face it, scarano provided a service to a client, and that client ultimately proved to be negligent. is it scarano’s fault? NO.
“fed-up” don’t you find a “little bit” more “repugnant” that somebody died? with this said wouldn’t you agree that labeling all parties involved in this incident -including the architect- as negligent is an understatement?
“fed-up”
There is something called the 1st amendment.
I don’t remember reading anything on this string in reg’s to Scarano Architects design aesthetic from brownstoner. This is about accountability, I think. Picking one’s clients and bedfellows does say something, no? Seems bad for biz to me.
What would be great to see from the architect in question, which would show some conscience and compassion, is for his firm to help the DOB investigate what may or may not have gone wrong…hell, perhaps look at the other 2 sites with accidents (and the many with violations) and find a solution to this ongoing problem…not potentially just dodge well earned criticism. Though we haven’t heard from our man as of yet.
if anyone actually read the articles in any of the mainstream media, those papers did not even mention scarano as the architect, because it it widely known that architects are not responsible for construction related accidents. personally, i think this whole post is brownstoner’s personal vendetta against scarano because of the nature of scarano’s work. and since brownstoner has personal distaste for said design, he’s going to use his website as a soapbox and spread his anti-scarano message. as far as i’m concerned, brownstoner is way out of line for doing so, and by falsely claiming that scarano is at fault, i would tend to think there’s some slander in there somewhere. comment on his design, brownstoner, but don’t accuse him of negligence, because frankly, that’s more than just a little repugnant.
Here is another Scarano as architect current job where construction company was cited for not protecting neighboring structures when digging foundation. Fine $1000. Just a little extra expense – and look how much time/money it saved contractor.
335 Warren Street.(Smith/Hoyt).
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/ECBQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=2&ecbin=34481312K&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E
Very sensible post, NYC Developer.
I am an architect who has worked in NYC for 20 years. The architect’s involvement in site safety is typically an obligation to point out unsafe circumstances to the contractor/construction manager. And contrary to what you might think, QM, I know of a (fairly) large union job at which someone was killed, and it never even made the paper (sad but true). What typically happens in an instance like this, EVERYBODY gets sued (architect, owner, engineer, construction manager, subcontractor). All documents are subpeonaed, lawyers winnow through a mountain of drawings, shop drawings, specifications, correspondences, emails, etc., and, after many years, someone is held accountable (or not).
While I agree with those on the post who emphasize that no one should be getting killed on small, ‘residential’ scale job sites, it’s important to remember that most if not all jobsites are inherently dangerous places. Workers can and do get killed through their own negligence. I have seen some workers on site do incredibly bone-headed things – this is not to say that that is the case here, but it can be difficult on a jobsite to protect the negligent from themselves.