June 12, 2008
Charges Filed Against Brooklyn Architect Robert Scarano
Brooklyn architect and developer Robert Scarano, whose many projects have come under Department of Buildings' scrutiny in the past for safety and zoning violations, was charged with allegedly making "false or misleading statements on applications submitted" to the DOB for two buildings. From the press release:
The administrative charges are in connection with documents for two Brooklyn apartment houses that Scarano filed with the Buildings Department in 2000 and 2002. Scarano is alleged to have improperly divided a zoning lot into two smaller lots for the two new buildings, 158 Freeman Street and 1037 Manhattan Avenue, resulting in the construction of two noncompliant buildings. With the two independent zoning lots, 158 Freeman Street could not have been legally built at all as a residential building and 1037 Manhattan Avenue as designed would have been smaller by approximately 2,000 square feet.The charges and investigation are a result of a "special partnership" between the Department of Investigation’s Buildings Special Investigation Unit and the Buildings Department’s Special Enforcement Team.
Last year, the Daily News suggested that former DOB commissioner Patricia Lancaster had hid some of Scarano's mistakes, including one involving a construction fatality. Many engineers and architects, like Scarano, self-certify their plans, which are then accepted by the DOB because it takes so long to approve them. No doubt that will have to change.
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I'm surprised the cut and paste guy hasn't shown up on this thread yet to defend Robert. Guess Google hasn't picked this up yet.
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Take everything from him and send him off with a one-way bus ticket to Las Vegas.
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there's a scarano defender? maybe he's on curbed.
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Well, there's only one thing to do if the construction was illegal. Demolish those buildings. Architects and builders would stop their shady antics pretty quickly after a couple of city-ordered demolitions.
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No need to demolish- just have the US Marshals seize the property and buildings.
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People have to stop buying buildings and apartments in buildings that are built the way guys like this build them. I have several of his buildings in different stages of being built in my neighborhood and they are built like garbage. They never should have been put up and they should probably be taken down.
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^ You're welcome to try...do you speak russian?
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It's not just Scarano's buildings. There are many buildings in the city that have been built not up to code.
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Tear them down. Take away the architect and engineers licenses. Someone had to sign off on these projects. Get rid of D-14's. It does not work as long as you have people with no integrity or morals. DOB should hire more people and charge more money to build in NYC. The money is here. Too many making too much dirty graft as well. DOB is corrupt so why should every one else abide by some convoluted set of rules designed to pacify and confuse the general public. And then people die. So very wrong Mr. Mayor.