Condo of the Day: 231 16th Street
What do you do when the process of building your Scarano-designed condo development so ruffles the feathers of the neighbors that they start a website whose sole mission is to document the poor quality and of your building and your own disgraceful conduct? Offer to pay buyers’ transfer taxes, that’s what. Well, first you send…
What do you do when the process of building your Scarano-designed condo development so ruffles the feathers of the neighbors that they start a website whose sole mission is to document the poor quality and of your building and your own disgraceful conduct? Offer to pay buyers’ transfer taxes, that’s what. Well, first you send the neighbors a profanity-laced email, then you offer to pay the transfer taxes. So imagine for a minute that you didn’t mind lining the pockets of developers like this? What would you think of paying, say, $599,000 for 1,142 square feet of mezzanine-heavy space?
231 16th Street [Corcoran] GMAP
Timeline of Offenses [229vs231]
South Slope Condo Feud Getting Pretty Ugly [Curbed]
These are 2 seperate issues, any space with HR of 5′-0″ or less is not considered floor area. Mezzanine is just the term the Architect is using to define this space so as not to consider it a story.
12:45 as an “Architect” you have the def of a “mezzanine” incorrect. The def straight from the code is……
“An intermediate floor between the floor and ceiling of any space. When the total gross floor area of all mezzanines occurring in any story exceeds thirty-three and one-third percent of the gross floor area
of that story such mezzanine shall be considered as a separate story.
Im not sure of the workmanship, but I think the design is good, and a lot of you liberals complain about the height, but you all love the “Loft” look. I also think the neighbors complaints from the website look petty.
“Rooms” that are less than 8 feet tall are not considered rooms, i.e. they are not legal for sleeping or living rooms. Same thing if they had no windows. A habitable “Room” must have the required light, air, min. of 8 feet in length or width and 8 foot ceiling height. Otherwise they are just spaces. In reality any ceiling below 7 feet is shouldn’t exist in any form other than a “mezzanine” because only doorways and piping are allowed to drop below 7′-0″ over short areas.
Let us not forget the shit box that is going up across the street from your floor to ceiling windows that, despite the promised city views, will greet your sweet face each and every morning.
It looks like they have the same mezzanine issue here that has been going on, except I don’t see any remedies in the pics. The ceiling heights don’t look to be 5′ but rather full height rooms. Why has the DOB overlooked this? I bet they are going to have problems down the road with getting a C of O. I think someone should alert the commish…
“Any architects or engineers want to educate us on the rules regarding mezzanines and FAR, ceiling height etc.”
Anon 12:03 PM,
Just do a search on “Scarano” on this blog and you’ll learn more about FAR and illegal mezzanines than you can shake a stick at!
12:45 — Thanks for the info. I know tht mezzanines don’t count against FAR. What about “rooms” that are less than 8 feet high (but more than 5 feet high?)
I think the Owners of the adjacent building are over reacting some. For one – don’t complain that debris is falling in your backyard if you didn’t allow them to put up any scaffolding or protection. Construction is never easy but in a case like this all adjacent properties have to give up something and be inconvenienced. Why didn’t they ask for money from the developer for encroaching on the yard for a while. Why didn’t they ask for roof protection during construction? Why didn’t they ask for a new roof for that matter.
It is too late for all of this now – too much bad blood in the air. Adjacent property owners sometimes don’t get it. It’s hard to stop these things from happening, the most you can get are concessions from the developer. These folks missed out.
Why is it every project that seems to be in trouble has something to do with mezzzanines? I am an architect who does multi family housing and it is very clear in the Code as to what counts and what does not. 5 foot or less is considered a mezzanine but anything under 8 foot is not considered a “habitable” room and therefore is not considered a bedroom or a living room. There are exceptions, i.e. bathrooms can be 7′-6″. If you are a buyer, don’t beleive a broker that says that a mezzanine is a bedroom, by Code it is considered storage. It won’t stop them from selling it to you. What they are doing is selling it to you and then using the floor area again to put their additions on the roof. Call it a developers trick – it is legal to do but the target audience of people being less than 5 feet tall is no greater in Brooklyn than elsewhere.
I am sure the construction next door sucks. but I am amazed that the damage was not worse. It looks almost minor. Am I missing something here? The picture of the piece of siding torn is baffling. Is this type of damage really warrant a website. And by the way armchair- lawyers can help alot especially the little guy going after a developer. What we need are more friendly construction workers who give a crap about the quality of work they do. On a recent visit to the Swedish Embassy in DC the Swedes were appalled at the Quality of work that took place. Of course they are Swedes and they care about stuff like that.