Wednesday Links
Kensington, Caton Avenue. Photo by Precision Accuracy. Fed Leaves Rate Steady; No Sign of Future Cut [NY Times] City Has Short List of Properties for Cutoff of Water [NY Times] Scarano Slows, But Doesn’t Blame Controversy [Brooklyn Eagle] Pol rips big buildings as big problem [NY Daily News] Builder Toll Brothers Revenue Drops [The Street]…
Kensington, Caton Avenue. Photo by Precision Accuracy.
Fed Leaves Rate Steady; No Sign of Future Cut [NY Times]
City Has Short List of Properties for Cutoff of Water [NY Times]
Scarano Slows, But Doesn’t Blame Controversy [Brooklyn Eagle]
Pol rips big buildings as big problem [NY Daily News]
Builder Toll Brothers Revenue Drops [The Street]
Hotel Le Bleu Not Opening ‘Til September [NewYorkology]
PriceSpotter: Clinton Hill Mansion Slice [Curbed]
Kitchen: High Speed Dishwasher [Remodelista]
Insulation or New Windows? [AT Green]
Stairway to Heaven [CH Reno]
Further below is my message sent on August 8, 2007 to Mr. Ife, where I clearlly demonstrated that he has a distorted vision of my words to Brooklyn Eagle reporter.
Dear John Ife;
Thank you for the letter and true interest in architecture.
I practice architecture 25 years and believe I do it HONESTLY all the time.
During my practice I never heard so much indiscriminate and unfounded accusation brought against the whole profession.
We can’t be passive, since misinformation and generalization reached too far, and now directly works against the public interest.
As a blatant sample of misinformation, you could read statements made by Councilman De Blasio on July 17, 2007, and read AIA/Brooklyn response.
As to the Brooklyn Eagle, I CLEAR stated to their reporter that:
1) I can’t comment on Scarano cases, since I have no information about them EXCEPT rumors, which I don’t want to comment on, thus I didn’t “defend Robert Scarano’s flagrant disregard for zoning regulations” as you put it;
2) I never characterized PARTICULAR PORTION of zoning law “that Scarano violated” as you said, however my opinion is, that NYC zoning resolution IN WHOLE is UNACCEPTABLY interpretable document and is an obstacle to the healthy architectural practice;
3) While concentrating on Scarano cases, society is missing number of bigger problems, which should be taken care of immediately.
Below I pasted text from the mentioned article in Brooklyn Eagle, and then underlined and marked – (*)-(*****) – the essence of my statement:
“The city concentrated on Scarano because he found loopholes in zoning, and they are trying to put all the problems on his head,†Shenker told the Eagle. (*)“Zoning has loopholes, zoning has lots of loopholes, and zoning needs interpretation of every paragraph. The city has given interpretation, then they’ve sometimes taken back that interpretation.
“Zoning is so uncertain that you can get (**)dozens of interpretations from dozens of architects,†he continued, adding that the complex rules are (***)“anti-architectural†and can (****)“suffocate the life out of a project.â€
Shenker (*****)suggests looking into “real problems†like unlicensed contractors and illegal practitioners.
I believe I made a clear call to turn attention to the REAL PROBLEMS, instead of endlessly tossing Scarano’ case.
I can’t be silent, since the public is lost in that discussion and misguided from the danger of:
1) illegal practices – they do scams, not interpretations;
2) unlicensed contractors – site safety depends on their COMPETENCE;
3) poor zoning and bureaucracy – they are suffocating architects;
Dear Mr. Ife, I hope now I clarified my position, and I want to again thank you for the genuine interest. I would appreciate meeting with you in person to discuss further mutual concerns, which are MUCH larger than floor area interpretation by one particular architect.
Dmitriy Shenker, AIA
A picturesque row of townhouses on a street with the most unholy truck traffic in New York City.
I can’t believe a firm structured like Scarano’s firm could take on “ten projects a day” responsibly. There is an ethical imperative for an architect to be able to do the work they sign up for, and I for one am not convinced Scarano even knew what was going on in the jobs he was already doing while signing up new ones.
Such lapses do seem part of a pattern of ignoring the public trust placed in architects by the State.
I read the Brooklyn Eagle article wherein Dmitriy Shenker, speaking as president of the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), defended Robert Scarano’s flagrant disregard for zoning regulations and his exploitation, prior to its revocation, of his self certification status. I find it extremely disturbing that a person
representing a chapter of the AIA would characterize the portion of the zoning laws that Scarano violated as having “lots of loopholes” and being subject to “dozens of interpretations”. The characterization is patently wrong. The zoning regulations are perfectly clear on when floor area passes from storage space not counting to zoning square footage calculations to habitable space that does count towards zoning square
footage. Scarano’s mezzanine floors always fall into the defined habitable category and his claims that this was not the case in self certified submissions were blatant lies.
I have worked in the construction industry in New York City for 25
years, dealing with architectural firms large and small every one of which has demonstrated professionalism and ethical behaviour. Shenker’s misleading statements as an AIA representative with respect to Scarano’s shady practices despoil not only the vast majority of
architects but also the organization representing them.
Whee they are fixed. Carry on.
Geek comment du jour:
The last 4 links above have an extra ” at the end, b0rking the click-thrus.
Anyone getting errors on the resulting pages, just delete the extra %22 off the end of the web address and hit that, should work fine.
/me fixes pocket protector