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District Lines Autumn 2007 D I S T R I C T LINES news and views of the historic districts council autumn 2007 vol. XXI no. 2 You Can Ignore the Landmarks Law but not the Law of gravItY Chumley’s Collapsed in april. The bar turned out that a former employee of the drawings. ... All structural work, includ- and restaurant was a former speakeasy in Department of Buildings had expedited ing excavation, on a landmarked property an 1831 building at 86 Bedford Street in the the permits for an uninsured contractor must meet the Building Code and be ap- Greenwich Village Historic District, and by using the name of a bona fide contrac- proved by DOB.” it was legendary. It had attracted famous tor who was not associated with the work Mechanisms to ensure stability are in literary patrons ever since it opened in in any way. Two years later the former place among DOB regulations, but they 1926; that was part of its cachet. But so DOB employee was arrested and accused are often ignored, it seems, with impunity. was the fact that it didn’t have a sign on of forging documents. Work is done without permits, and unless the door—you had to be in the know to Within historic districts, it would DOB is notified, it cannot follow up. Even find it. seem the Landmarks Preservation Com- legal work is rarely inspected, so there can Last spring the owner undertook al- mission would have some sway, and that be no assurance that it conforms with the terations without a building permit, work when an application for alteration to an permit. that included removing a fireplace and its historic building is made to LPC, it is the In one recent case follow-up was chimney wall. The wall developed a swift. Demolition was underway at major crack. A year earlier the same 215 Plymouth Street in the proposed, owner undertook similar work on calendared DUMBO Historic Dis- the other side of the party wall with trict in Brooklyn. A New York Times the same results. A hearing at the reporter saw it, photographed it and Environmental Control Board was sent an e-mail with the photos to the scheduled for 13 months later, during LPC press office, asking whether which time the whole wall collapsed. LPC was aware of the work. Ms. de There is now a partial stop-work or- Bourbon forwarded the pictures and der on Chumley’s. concerns about the work, which was Many other buildings in the city being done without permits, to the have partly or completely collapsed enforcement unit of LPC, which because owners dug down around contacted DOB, which sent out an them and failed to underpin the foun- inspector who shut down the work. dation or failed to do so adequately or The whole thing happened in a mat- because they removed interior struc- ter of hours. The next morning LPC tural elements such as chimneys on inspectors went to the site to docu- party walls. Such actions are a result LEO J. BLACKMAN ment the changes and investigate of carelessness, vandalism, ignorance three other complaints about de- or all three, and they have been going Excavation without underpinning molition in the proposed district. on a long time. 1—Masonry party wall 5—Soil fails, spills out Without that initial call, however, Four years ago the rear wall of 3—Unexcavated soil 6—Stones shift and fall nothing would have happened. a four-story apartment building on 4—Bottom of excavation 7—Cracks appear DOB’s Web site projects a vigor- Prospect Place in Crown Heights, 8—Floor slab collapses ous response to illegal excavations. Brooklyn, sheered off and collapsed Two separate bulletins flash, “Do you when construction workers dug too optimum time to examine whether the know excavation and trenching is deep preparing for two new houses on work is structurally sound. But LPC does twice as dangerous than [sic] average con- an adjacent lot. Dirt from the apartment not rule on structural matters—that’s struction activities?” and “Building Safety: building’s foundation drained into their DOB’s bailiwick—and LPC does not even reminder to all contractors and engineers of excavation pit, and the wall gave way. The have a structural engineer on staff. the importance of underpinning.” There work permit listed a general contractor According to Elisabeth de Bourbon, are links to DOB “Excavation and Trench who said his signature had been forged. It spokeswoman for LPC, “The commission Safety Guidelines” and a DOB “Earth- determines whether the work is appro- work/Excavation Fact Sheet” regarding Funding for this issue of District Lines was priate to the architecture of the building notification and inspection regulations. provided in part by New York State Senator and the characteristics of the historic There is even a link to a PowerPoint on Liz Krueger, of Manhattan. district through a review of architectural underpinning that was prepared for a Historic Districts Council District Lines ~ Autumn 2007 ~ page 2 Structural Engineers Association of New Leibovitz bought their house, lived in the minimizes the threat of collapse when ex- York (SEAoNY) symposium in 2005. So complex of houses a couple of years and cavation is necessary. Small sections of the an effort is clearly being made to alert recently, according to The Villager news- existing foundation are exposed and tem- builders to potential dangers. An effort paper, put all three properties up for sale. porarily supported while a new concrete also needs to be made about the im- wall is installed below the old, down pact on adjacent historic structures. to the level of the new foundation Most of all, some way has to be found adjacent. This process is repeated se- to reach builders who do not look up quentially the length of the common the Web site. wall until the entire existing struc- In 2002 the celebrity photog- ture has been reinforced. Even when rapher Annie Leibovitz proposed done properly, however, it is danger- buying her neighbors’ house at ous work. In the case of houses with the corner of West 11th Street and party walls, the work jeopardizes the Greenwich Street in the Greenwich neighbor’s structure as much as the Village Historic District to enlarge one under construction, since the her own property at 755 and 753 same wall is holding up the beams of Greenwich. The neighbors would both buildings. not sell. Ms. Leibovitz began renova- Pre-Civil War structures have tion work and had LPC permits for foundations typically made of rubble— the design but no DOB permit for roughly mortared fieldstone—rather excavation, which included digging than the cast reinforced concrete with LEO J. BLACKMAN out the cellar. That work got un- spread footings common today. The derway without proper shoring and Sequence of underpinning work 19th century buildings are especially without supervision by an architect vulnerable to digging next door. The or structural engineer. The party wall 1—Masonry party wall 9—Dry pack below old wall vibration pulverizes old mortar, collapsed, bringing ceilings with it. 2—Existing cellar floor 10—New concrete foundation leaving loose stones free to shift and The facade wall pushed out toward 3—Unexcavated soil 11—Wood planks shore hole fall. SEAoNY counts one or two the street, and the neighbors’ house 4—Bottom of excavation 12—Next section to underpin underpinning failures each month, dropped down a foot or more. Its gas mostly in Brooklyn on small one- to line ruptured. The neighbors had to move The Leibovitz experience indicates six-story projects. out. After a year, they agreed to sell. Ms. how LPC, without an architect or engineer A lot of these buildings are also in on staff and with very limited inspec- Greenwich Village. Last spring the new tion capabilities, is dependent on DOB owners of an early 19th century row to review drawings and dependent on an house on Greenwich Street in the Green- owner’s consultants to observe and report wich Village Historic District decided to DISTRICT on structural problems in the field. Com- enlarge the building they had bought for munication is critical. Usually this process renovation and resale. They proposed LINES works, but not always. adding a floor, removing the rear wall and news and views of the New York City Code requires that part of the parlor-floor structure, digging historic districts council underpinning plans be prepared by an ar- out the cellar to raise its ceiling height chitect or engineer and that inspections and removing fireplaces and flue walls in editor ~ Penelope Bareau during the work be performed by a second the upper stories to modernize the house. art and production ~ Moom Luu engineer. All sides of an excavation more Before they started work they stopped in editorial consultant ~ Jack Taylor than five feet deep must be protected to see the owners next door, Linda Yow- contributors ~ Penelope Bareau, by shoring, bracing or sheeting—wood ell and her husband. Ms. Yowell is an Lauren Belfer, Leo J. Blackman, Paul Graziano, Eve M. Kahn, Frampton Tolbert, Nadezhda Williams planks or corrugated metal to hold the architect, preservationist and vice presi- staff ~ Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director dirt back so it does not spill into the dent of the Greenwich Village Society Frampton Tolbert, Assistant Director excavation and leave the party wall unsup- for Historic Preservation, and she was Lauren Belfer, Nadezhda Williams, Preservation Associates ported. According to a brochure prepared alarmed. None of the work indicated any by SEAoNY, “Lack of proper underpin- underpinning; and the fireplaces, appar- no part of this periodical may be ning is the leading cause of construction ently unknown to the new owners, were reproduced without the consent of the historic districts council.
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