Seething over their many, ignored complaints about new construction at 808 Columbus Avenue, residents of Park West Village held a rally to demand an investigation. All 280 apartments at one Park West building, 784 Columbus, were evacuated when a retaining wall collapsed at the 808 site on Wednesday night. However, there were a number of calls to the Department of Buildings from 784 residents, complaining that the building was shaking as workers blasted in......

Residents of 784 Columbus Avenue are saying "I told you so" as the Department of Buildings continues its investigation into the retaining wall collapse at 808 Columbus Avenue. Residents at 784 have been complaining about the new constructions for some time and detailed how they've been wearing earplugs and noise-canceling headphones. A wooden retaining wall at the new construction site had been shoring up the land next to 784 Columbus; when the wall collapsed......

City Councilman Bill de Blasio, whose Brooklyn district covers Borough Park, Carroll Gardens, is asking the Department of Buildings to stop all of architect Robert Scarano's current projects. According to the Sun, DeBlasio says Scarano, who has hundreds of projects in various stages of progress, "should not be allowed to build while under investigation by the State Education Department for professional misconduct." It seems that one part of misconduct claim might due to the fact......

Almost exactly two years after a 150-foot part of a 600-foot retaining wall next to the Castle Village apartment buildings collapsed into the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Department of Buildings is ready to release its report. The Post have the exclusive and says DOB investigators "determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling." The DOB......

Finally, the Department of Buildings realizes that it needs to take more serious action against illegal advertising on city construction sites. Many buildings and advertisers ignore the $2,500 fines since they are pittances in the scheme of things, so now the DOB will start covering up the ads with vinyl sheets! The NY Times reports that the DOB's crackdown is "already showing results," with only 3 of 62 illegal signs found in October remaining. News......

The overwhelming amount of development in Williamsburg and Greenpoint development gets a NY Times write-up today. Not only are residents are getting evicted or priced out of their apartments, construction has been damaging adjoining buildings. Which makes area residents wonder if the Department of Buildings can handle overseeing all the new construction.Last year, the department issued 24,610 permits in Brooklyn, including 1,924 for demolition and 1,740 permits for new buildings. That was roughly double the......

The Department of Buildings is launching a safety outreach campaign after a number of construction accidents in the past month. Some of the incidents: A few workers fell from scaffolding in separate incidents (one died), a worker was killed when a building he was working in collapsed, and part of a crane fell onto a street and hit a cab. The DOB will be reminding constractors to make sure their equipment complies with regulations as......

Wow, time really flies, as it has been one year since the retaining wall at 183rd and the Henry Hudson Parkway collapsed, sending thousands of cubic feet of dirt onto the highway. AM New York checks up on the scene, which has not been repaired (though dirt has been cleared away and the rest of the wall secured) since, and finds that the Department of Buildings is still investigating the incident. The DOB's Board......

While billboards generally attract complaints from area residents just don't want billboards period, many advertisers and building owners just ignore them, interested in getting their message out and keeping the coin respectively. But, sometimes the advertiser is willing to fold and take their signs down, even without intervention from the Department of Buildings: The strip club Flashdancers has a big sign up across from a public school in Brooklyn. The NY Times is particularly funny......

The freight train derailment in the Bronx that blocked Amtrak service yesterday and is causing problems even today was bad (Boston-bound passengers had to take shuttle buses from Penn Station to Grand Central, then take the Metro-North to New Haven to pick up an Amtrak there - totally sucks), but Gothamist is a little more freaked out about why PATH service was held up during last night's commute: A building with a sagging wall. The......